My reaction to the defacing of a Mosque in my town gets me into trouble. I’m usually in trouble but trouble can be magnified in the south. Fears can be too. The crime was presented as a “Hate Crime” to wash the White Anglo Saxon Protestant Guilty from our lips, so we can speak of “lone wolf” mystery people writing “F%$k Allah” on a wall. We can say how bad that is and feel good in our caring.
We didn’t do it.
If a Muslim had done the same crime, it would be a “Muslim Defaces God’s House”. Let’s face it. If a White Angle Saxon Protestant robs a bank, he’s a “bank robber”. If a Muslim robs the same bank, he’s a “Muslim Bank Robber”. The Christian doesn’t get his religion pasted on to his crime. It’s been sanitized. It’s a “hate crime” and we are all against that.
We didn’t do it.
The Muslim is forever having to say, “We have bad stuff in our book, but most of us don’t go by archaic laws”. We Christians never have to tell our children, “Don’t do that.” because we “didn’t do that.” Our answer is, “A lone wolf did that deed and our archaic laws could never be used to justify violence. We teach love. That other religion, they teach hate.”
Be careful if you bring up the Inquisition at this point, or the Salem Trials, or any event where we loving White Anglo Protestants folks could have ever done anything wrong. Please don’t point out that we waved the Book in the air to justify slavery too loudly if you live in the south.
When we put people in groups, we put ourselves in them too. Have I lost my flag? Some group claims it, patriotism, the word patriot, and God as theirs. When we put “The Muslims” into their box, we put “The Christians” into theirs.
I was raised a Christian, checked that box when drafted. Is that something that I can be voted out of, like “patriot”? Both of these religions have archaic laws. Both can generate hate.
We shouldn’t expect “Christian defaces Mosque”, but we should be able to translate “hate crime”.
