spazeboy

Veil of Bias

Freelance writer Jennifer Warner Cooper became my friend after interviewing me for a Q&A in the very last edition of the Hartford Courant’s now-defunct NE magazine. Of course I think that’s probably the greatest thing she’s ever had published in the Courant, but it’s not the only thing! Today the Courant has published her eye-opening op-ed on the subject our irrational fear of the unknown titled “A Chance to See Beyond the Veil of Bias.” Check it out:

It was fear that drove me to attend the Muslim convention in Hartford on July 7.

In the days and weeks that followed 9/11, we were gripped with incomparable fear. Mothers on soccer sidelines whispered about gas masks on e-Bay. We questioned the efficacy of duct-taped plastic wrap as a household barrier against chemical warfare.

The hysteria has since been quelled, but the fear remains, simmering, and reminders of our vulnerability – a car bomb in Glasgow, Michael Chertoff’s “gut feeling”- are too frequent.

But I fear more than potential acts of terrorism: I fear the angry swell of our own anti-Muslim backlash. I fear the ugly vitriol spewed forth on the Internet, where anonymous commentators unleash torrents of raw hatred. When The Courant reported on the Muslim convention, the reader responses on the paper’s website were so hateful and profane that the editors shut the comment thread down.

One commenter at the Topix forum for this Op-Ed must’ve skipped that last line above (captured below in a quote and screen shot for posterity):

American
Dunnegan, MO
Satanic muslim Propaganda, keep trying to convince yourself while our children and others are murdered on the streets and elsewhere by this damnable moon cult. Wake Up! If they were not in support it would have ended long ago by them dealing with their terrorists!

What Jennifer wrote was an account of her sincere quest to understand a religion and its related beliefs and culture — one with which she was unfamiliar. Then along comes a hater, and if the geographical identifying information is to be believed, this person went out of his or her way to be hateful. (I don’t read Missouri newspapers, even though I could do so online, so I am guessing that the Hartford Courant isn’t on the daily reading list of someone from MO.)

Here’s one way to fight the haters: rate up Jennifer Warner Cooper’s op-ed. Just click here to read it, and at the bottom, click on the fifth star from the left to give it a high rating.

We can all do ourselves a favor by seeking to better understand the people we share the world with. I’m impressed by the willingness of the Muslims I’ve met to discuss the details of their faith — even if as an atheist I question the rationality of any supernatural beliefs.