BROWN KLANSMEN

Buencamino does political affairs analysis for Action for EconomicReforms. This piece was published in the newspaper Today, 15October  2004, page 11.

In recent weeks, the proposal to build a place for Muslims to worshipin Greenhills has developed into an issue of property and communityrights. It has taken on dangerous and reprehensible overtones ofreligious intolerance and cultural insensitivity.-MANUEL QUEZON III

Bigotry is what someone who doesn’t have Mr. Quezon’s tact would callit. But a tactless person would compare those bigots to the Ku KluxKlan, except that these natives are neither Protestant nor white.Still, the temptation to compare them is powerful, because they doshare certain attitudes.

Cliff Carter of the Night Hawks of the Klan declared, “Our country wasfounded by a white Protestant nation, and we intend to maintain it assuch! Any attempt toinfluence its affairs by inferior racial minorities or persons owingallegiance to foreign prelates or potentates will not be tolerated!”

Similarly, the knight klavaliers of Greenhills asked, “Why take therisk of attracting Moro jihadis, gangsters, or violent types into ourmidst when the Muslims doing business in Greenhills are mostlynon-residents and transients? This is not an anti-Muslim attitude.We’re simply defending our homes from probable threat.”

And their Grand Wizard wrote, “Soon the Basilan Gang from Maluso—thehomeland of the Abu Sayyaf (near my sister’s former plantation)—will bethere, too, to… well, pray of course. Weren’t those Abu Sayyafthe same deeply religious fellows who blew up the Super Ferry, it’s nowbeen revealed?” The Grand Wizard and his Klavaliers know Muslims, ormoros as he calls them.

Their fears mirror the learned comments of eminent Christianevangelicals like Rev. Jerry Falwell who said, “I think Mohammed was aterrorist. I read enough of the history of his life, written by bothMuslims and non-Muslims, that he was a violent man, a man of war,” andRev Pat Robertson, “This man (Muhammad) was an absolute wild-eyedfanatic. He was a robber and a brigand… this man [Muhammad] was akiller. And to think that this is a peaceful religion is fraudulent,”and Rev. Franklin Graham, the son of Rev. Billy Graham, “The God ofIslam is not the same God. He’s not the Son of God of the Christian orJudeo-Christian faith. It’s a different God, and I believe it [Islam]is a very evil and wicked religion.” Rev. Jerry Vine called Mohammed “ademon possessed pedophile who had twelve wives.”

Not only from evangelicals can the brown Klansmen draw sustenance.There’s also US Attorney General John Ashcroft who said, “Islam is areligion in which God requires you to send your son to die for him.Christianity is a faith in which God sent his Son to die for you.”

In 1921, W.A. White, a respectable newspaper publisher wrote, “To makea case against a birthplace, a religion, or a race is wickedlyun-American and cowardly. The whole trouble with the Ku Klux Klan isthat it is based upon such deep foolishness that it is bound to be amenace to good government in any community.” He described themas,  “a self-constituted body of moral idiots.”

Manuel Quezon III is a man of tact and diplomacy. He left it to hisreaders to figure out exactly what he thought of the Grand Wizard andhis Klavaliers. I agree with  Mr.Quezon’s views but not sotactfully—naturally.

Muslims pray facing Mecca, their Holy City. When they touch theirforeheads to the ground, their butts face in the direction of the GrandWizard’s school.

Too bad they only pray five times a day.