The New Niggers.

They came first for the Communists,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist.

Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew.

Then they came for me
and by that time no one was left to speak up.

-Pastor Martin Niemöller

     Well, I'm going to speak up. Muslims are the new niggers. They have become the "feared" the "scary", the "other". You know you have made it into the ranks of the oppressed when they start burning religious items and placing them on your doorstep as happened in East Lansing, Michigan. In a despicable case of the cowardly imitating the idiotic. Someone decided to commit a copycat hate crime. They burned a Quran, and laid pieces of the desecrated holy book at the doors of a local Islamic Center. 

     The perpetrator turned himself in, after a $10,000 reward was offered for information regardign the hate crime.  Today Ingham County Prosecutor Stuart Dunnings III announced that he will not issue charges in connection with the burning of a Quran outside the Islamic Center, and I quote the good prosecutor. 

"After reviewing the police report, I have decided there is no criminal offense that I can charge under Michigan law," Dunnings said in the statement.

     I disagree; it is clear to me that Michigan's hate laws are meant to prosecute intimidation, and harassment, while leaving for the 1st amendment to operate. This was not a 1st amendment issue, the perpetrator left the burnt Quran on the property of the Islamic center, this is a clear message of intimidation. It should be vigorously prosecuted. Dunning told the Detroit Free Press

"We don't have a hate crime. There was no threat of physical intimidation because he (the perpetrator)was the only one there (at the mosque) at the time,"

     So, if a group Klansman burn a cross on my front yard, and I'm not home, according to Stuart Dunning there was no intimidation going on. If a group of neo-Nazis burn a swastika and put it in front of a Jewish temple, no problem? Not prosecuting these hate crimes is going to have two effects. Number one, it will encourage copycats, because it says: we won’t prosecute you; we won’t even slap you on the wrist.  Number two, it tells the Muslim community “protect yourselves”, because we won’t do it for you. Is that the type of America we live in now?

     Now for the million dollar question. Where is the show of solidarity from the black community? If anyone should be attuned to the implications of burning holy objects and placing them on property it should be African-Americans. Where is the outcry from the local NAACP, the Black Student Union, and the black church? Do we not have a stake in this outcome? Do we not see the road ahead, and where this can and will lead? It was not so long ago when our grandparents, aunt and uncles faced this type of discrimination. Have we fallen so far into the American dream, that we no longer remember the nightmares? Or are we so ecstatic, that they have found new niggers, that we have become afraid to speak up, happy that the spotlight no longer shines exclusively on us. Well, I stand in solidarity, because it is the right thing to do, this is the right time to do it, and when someone does decide to come for me….I hope someone, anyone has the fortitude to speak up.