"citizenship"
So, the author Elizabeth Moon wrote this blog post which has garnered a predictable and wholly justified resp onse.
I really don't have anything to say that can compare to the reactions in those links, nor do I have nearly the historical acumen of some of the other people commenting on her post. (But since she's deleted all the comments, you'll have to take my word for it!) Anyway, I decided to instead attempt the chancy art of Changing Someone's Mind on the Internet. So I commented too, and since some people have requested I repost my comment, well, here it is, for posterity:
I've read your post carefully, and your follow-up comments, and I believe I understand what you're trying to say. I also understand your frustration at people reacting as if you had written some conventional racist rant; there's certainly a distinction between "those people shouldn't have done this because their actions harm the fabric of the community we share" and "those people shouldn't have done this because they're a bunch of nasty little brown people who know only hate", and I generally agree with what you said about the importance of community and civic duty.
But I wanted to let you know that all that given, I still found your post repugnant. Partly for the reason that pnkrokhockeymom articulated better -- that sometimes upsetting people *is* a civic duty, depending on the principles at stake. I too deplore the ammunition that this has given some of the nastiest groups in our politics, and the possibility that they'll use it to help gain power and push through regressive policies. But as holzman notes, the prayer room at this center is needed to *make it possible for community members to practice their faith*. I believe the Founding Fathers would approve of upsetting people in order to achieve this goal.
The other reason this post makes me cringe is that parts of what you say give me the impression that you've taken on more toxic anti-Islam/racist ideas than you realize. It's the uncritical assumptions that this is a mosque, that the people building it are immigrants; it's the annoyance at someone giving a talk about Islam for not going into its fundamentalist and violent sects, and talking about the "forebearance" that we (collectively?) have given Muslims (which ones?); it's the impression I get that you're replying to comments that arguably misread your argument and are easy to 'shoot down', but not the ones that point out your factual errors and missing context. Of course, I don't know you; I could be wrong. But please consider the possibility that you don't know you as well as you thought, either; I know from experience that these kinds of ideas are insidious, can sneak in invisibly from the culture around us, and are horrifically harmful to those on the receiving end (often, in aggregate, more harmful than the rare acts of actual racist or other-ist violence).
You might also consider whether some of the people responding angrily did in fact understand the point you were trying to make, but are responding to these implications -- which are present in your text, whether you intended it or not -- rather just the explicit point you had in mind.
(I so, so hope that posterity doesn't care about this.)
ETA: Some of the deleted comment threads are also preserved here: http://maevele.dreamwidth.org/357675.html
I really don't have anything to say that can compare to the reactions in those links, nor do I have nearly the historical acumen of some of the other people commenting on her post. (But since she's deleted all the comments, you'll have to take my word for it!) Anyway, I decided to instead attempt the chancy art of Changing Someone's Mind on the Internet. So I commented too, and since some people have requested I repost my comment, well, here it is, for posterity:
I've read your post carefully, and your follow-up comments, and I believe I understand what you're trying to say. I also understand your frustration at people reacting as if you had written some conventional racist rant; there's certainly a distinction between "those people shouldn't have done this because their actions harm the fabric of the community we share" and "those people shouldn't have done this because they're a bunch of nasty little brown people who know only hate", and I generally agree with what you said about the importance of community and civic duty.
But I wanted to let you know that all that given, I still found your post repugnant. Partly for the reason that pnkrokhockeymom articulated better -- that sometimes upsetting people *is* a civic duty, depending on the principles at stake. I too deplore the ammunition that this has given some of the nastiest groups in our politics, and the possibility that they'll use it to help gain power and push through regressive policies. But as holzman notes, the prayer room at this center is needed to *make it possible for community members to practice their faith*. I believe the Founding Fathers would approve of upsetting people in order to achieve this goal.
The other reason this post makes me cringe is that parts of what you say give me the impression that you've taken on more toxic anti-Islam/racist ideas than you realize. It's the uncritical assumptions that this is a mosque, that the people building it are immigrants; it's the annoyance at someone giving a talk about Islam for not going into its fundamentalist and violent sects, and talking about the "forebearance" that we (collectively?) have given Muslims (which ones?); it's the impression I get that you're replying to comments that arguably misread your argument and are easy to 'shoot down', but not the ones that point out your factual errors and missing context. Of course, I don't know you; I could be wrong. But please consider the possibility that you don't know you as well as you thought, either; I know from experience that these kinds of ideas are insidious, can sneak in invisibly from the culture around us, and are horrifically harmful to those on the receiving end (often, in aggregate, more harmful than the rare acts of actual racist or other-ist violence).
You might also consider whether some of the people responding angrily did in fact understand the point you were trying to make, but are responding to these implications -- which are present in your text, whether you intended it or not -- rather just the explicit point you had in mind.
(I so, so hope that posterity doesn't care about this.)
ETA: Some of the deleted comment threads are also preserved here: http://maevele.dreamwidth.org/357675.html