The last few days have not been good ones for those who believe in equality and justice.
At an event held by one Presidential candidate a member of the audience stated, "We have a problem in this country. It's called Muslims."
And just a few days later another candidate, answering a question about whether a Muslim could be President of the United States, said "I would not advocate that we put a Muslim in charge of this nation. I absolutely would not agree with that."
These are just a small sampling of the kinds of comments people have made in recent years.
Stereotyping people, clumping them into a single category that we have selected for them, and then labeling them all in negative ways, has plagued this nation from before its founding (we had slavery of African people and our Declaration of Independence refers to, "the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages").
Lately Muslims have become a primary target for bigotry. The level of misunderstanding of Islam, the level of vitriolic speech about Islam and Muslims, and the willingness to limit the human rights of people based upon their faith, is a shameful fact about our nation.
Ironically, some of the statements about Muslims as "a problem" come from people who claim there is a "War on Christianity" and who desire to carve out religious exemptions to certain laws-apparently just for Christians.
I am truly disappointed that these kinds of attitudes are being expressed in our nation and in the Presidential campaign. I think it is incumbent upon all of us in this country to speak out whenever such thoughts are expressed. It may even be more important for we Unitarian Universalist, with our history of social justice work and our theology of inclusion, to speak up for love and justice.
