Whoa! James Poniewozik of Time Magazine has picked up the Portland Press Herald apology story (and gives it a great title, too!): “Paper to Readers: Sorry for Portraying Muslims as Human.”
Key quote:
Here’s where we are in America, 2010: There is now one group of Americans whose peaceful religious observance cannot be noted by decent people, unless it is “balanced” by the mention of a vile crime committed in 2001 by people, with a perverted idea of the same religion, from the other side of the world.
This is a depressing statement about the state of dialogue in America. Nine years after 9/11, there is now a widespread belief that, for one religious group of law-abiding Americans, the boundaries of acceptable behavior are narrower than for everyone else. Yes, you have the right to worship. But it would be decent of you to do it somewhere else. Or on another day. Or in such a way that the rest of us don’t have to know about it. So now we have a newspaper kowtowing to a national freakout, apologizing for the most innocuous kind of soft feature, because acknowledging that there are decent Muslims in America is offensive. (From the comments on the article: “I don’t want to here [sic] how caring the Muslim religion is on 9/11.” But hey: it’s only for a few days a year!)
Please also note, he used “kowtowing” – the same verb I used!
Last night I started my first of four classes at USM’s Muskie School of Public Service towards a Graduate Certificate in Community Planning and Development. Tomorrow night is my second class.
