Georgia Newspaper Column Calls On U.S. To Send Muslims ‘Back To Their Native Land’

[88m3]

By Hayes Brown on Jul 1, 2013 at 11:39 am

The June 19th edition of The Advance
A local newspaper in Georgia recently published a column ostensibly about U.S. Middle East policy but took a hard right turn into birtherism and racism, highlighting the Islamophobia problem at the local-level.

In its June 19 edition, the Advance — local newspaper for Vidalia, GA — published a “Plain Talk” column from author Gerry Allen on the current atmosphere of turbulence in the Middle East. The full article, titled “An Arab Spring or an Arab Fall,” can be read in full here.

Allen opens the piece claiming that Rudyard Kipling — author of the poem “The White Man’s Burden” essentially justifying Western imperialism — is one of his favorite authors, quoting the British writer as once saying, “East is East and West is West and never the twain will meet.” Allen then immediately calls up some of the most repugnant stereotypes of Islam, saying that while denying women and girls educations, Muslims “really don’t favor educating anybody in anything but mayhem.”

From there, the column becomes a tour de force of racism and Islamophobia masquerading as a critique of U.S. foreign policy. On Iraq, Allen notes the folly of attempting to impose democracy on a “truly backward people who had been ruled by tyrants and the Koran for thousands of years.” He criticizes President Obama — whom he frequently refers to as “Obumer” — for wavering on Syria, claiming that the President lacks the “backbone” to impose a no-fly zone. The reason for this lack of decisiveness? “He is a Muslim himself or at least a Muslim sympathizer,” Allen claims of Obama, repeating claims that birthers have made for years.

Allen also advances the notion that Christianity and Islam are locked in a mortal conflict, and have been for thousands of years. “[Muslims] have been mostly unsuccessful because they can’t build anything much more complicated than a donkey cart,” Allen claims, once against disparaging the intellect of practitioners of Islam. Ironically enough, Allen uses Arabic numerals within his post, one of the many contributions of the Muslim world to math and science over the centuries.

However, Allen has a solution to the U.S.’ conundrum in the Middle East. “I think we should send all Muslims back to their native land and be extremely careful about which of them we allow to come back,” he writes. “We should sell or give them small arms and explosive material. They would probably be content to blow each other up for at least a thousand or so more years and achieve martyrdom.”

When reached for comment, the Advance told ThinkProgress that Allen is not an employee of the newspaper, but instead for more than fifteen years has submitted articles for publication. Kathy Bradford, an editor at the Advance, noted that the pieces Allen submits are not edited because they’re printed on the editorial page. Senior Editor Bill Ledford, who clears Allen articles for publication, was unavailable for comment due to a recent hospitalization. When asked whether the Advance stands behind Allen’s comments, Bradford insisted that they do not. “It doesn’t reflect on what we believe,” Bradford said.

The localized nature of Islamophobia in the United States lends itself to problems both on the policy front and in terms of hindering efforts to end discrimination. CAP expert Matt Duss recently co-authored a report in which the effect of laws seeking to ban “Sharia law” within states often have unintended legal consequences. “Although packaged as an effort to protect American values and democracy, the bans spring from a movement whose goal is the demonization of the Islamic faith,” Duss wrote, along with the Brennan Center’s Fazia Patel and Amos Toh. “Beyond that, however, many foreign law bans are so broadly phrased as to cast doubt on the validity of a whole host of personal and business arrangements.”

Attempts to correct the many misperceptions of Muslims at the state and local-level often finds itself in conflict with those who would prefer to continue to spread hatred. Just last month, protesters shouted down calls for tolerance at a Tennessee meeting, instead cheering references to an area mosque being set on fire during its construction.

Georgia Newspaper Column Calls On U.S. To Send Muslims 'Back To Their Native Land' | ThinkProgress


the south



tolerance




education



Kipling




@VictorVonDoom






#higherlearning

 

[Dusty Bake Activate]

lol...This has nothing to do with any claim I made in that thread, so please stop @ me with this bullshyt. Your reading comprehension skills are atrocious.

 

[YoungMasterGold]

In Anglo-American idiot speak Islam/Muslim has apparently become a race in its own right. Well done.

 

[Blackking]

the south



tolerance




education



Kipling




@VictorVonDoom






#higherlearning

you posted this to troll a poster from racist as hell Florida?

 

[88m3]

you posted this to troll a poster from racist as hell Florida?

He's been on a spree defending the south,saying it isn't racist, and is some new utopia for blacks, twilight zone status shyt.





@the next guy

 

[the next guy]

He's been on a spree defending the south,saying it isn't racist, and is some new utopia for blacks, twilight zone status shyt.





@the next guy

Obviously Muslims take it too far but this is not the first time them southern newspapers putting targets on peoples back man.

 

[NvrCMyNut]

In Anglo-American idiot speak Islam/Muslim has apparently become a race in its own right. Well done.

I don't see the problem. Muslims like to defend their religion with accusations of 'racism' regularly.

 

[Dusty Bake Activate]

He's been on a spree defending the south,saying it isn't racist, and is some new utopia for blacks, twilight zone status shyt.





@the next guy

I never said any of that, you Aryan idiot. Go back and read what I said. Why are you so stupid? I don't know how you could've gotten past 8th grade with your reading comprehension skills being this poor, even with your white privilege.

 

[Chris.B]

i don't see a problem here

 

[the next guy]

i don't see a problem here

then you should be sent back next, but there's too many black women in africa for you.


c00n!

 

[Dusty Bake Activate]

you posted this to troll a poster from racist as hell Florida?

lol...don't you live in fukking Detroit? GTFOH. Black people are doing a lot better in Florida than they are Michigan. Michigan has like 24% unemployment for black people. And your state has the #1 AND #2 ranked cities for black-on-crime. I think you should sit this one out.

Anyway, 88m3 is just being a trolling idiot as usual. There was a thread where he said every black person who lives in the south, which is 55% of black people in the country, is a c00n with no self-respect. Which is something no black man would ever say.

He then asked why 55% of blacks who live in the south don't just all move in en masse from the south, which is not only logistically impossible, but our pale friend seems to not realize that everyone isn't a trust fund baby born into inherited wealth like him, and can't just up and move to anywhere they like, be it familial obligations, financial reasons or what have you...nor should they want to.

He claimed that all black people living in the south are subjected to some kind of racist treatment.

I tried to educate him that the metropolitan areas in the south are no different than anywhere else, and this blatant racist treatment black people are subjected occurs mostly in rural and backwoods type areas, not cities with a million or so people or more, which are the places I've lived in whole life. For example, Charlotte, NC and Ropea******, MS are entirely different places.

And I linked him to data showing that black people are moving back to southern cities in large numbers, which deads this notion that somehow there is ubiquitous racist treatment of black everywhere below the Mason-Dixon line. If racist treatment from whites in southern cities was that bad, black people wouldn't be flooding into them.

I never denied that attitudes of white people tend to be more racist in the south.

And I also pointed out that racism treatment and racial injustice can be present anywhere, including the north and the coasts citing Amadou Diallo, Abner Louima, the Central Park 5, stop and frisk in NYC, the Howard Beach incident, the modern day KKK that is the LAPD, Sean Bell, etc.

And since then he's been posting articles to supposed show the racism present in the south and @ me, which makes no sense because I never denied that there is racism in the south, or that overall the south has more racist attitudes.

And 88m3 is a non-melanin-having rich white dude who grew up wealthy around all white people and is like 1/8th black and talks like some surfer but calls himself Jamaican, so I don't know why I'm talking to him.

 

[88m3]

lol at your continued attacks on my background, I'm black deal with it.

Of course I'm not going to post a picture of myself the way you guys store pictures of each other for decades. I don't think I've kept any of my files that I've even wanted to for that long.


lol at trying to backtrack on your statements after only a week of me shedding light on the south.

 

[Dusty Bake Activate]

lol at your continued attacks on my background, I'm black deal with it.

Of course I'm not going to post a picture of myself the way you guys store pictures of each other for decades. I don't think I've kept any of my files that I've even wanted to for that long.


lol at trying to backtrack on your statements after only a week of me shedding light on the south.

So what did I backtrack on? Just admit you lack reading comprehension ability.

Nobody will ever believe you're black after hearing your voice on the podcast btw. No black man on the planet would produce that voice out of his body, and no black man would ever call 55% of black Americans c00ns unless they were a Pastor Manning type.

 

[the cac mamba]

hopefully someone sent slaimon back to his native land, i havent seen his fakkitry pervading the board lately

 

[714562]

Your trolling doesn't contradict anything about the 4(b) repeal.

Fact:

There are no more VRA complaints filed from pre-clearance states than non-preclearance states.

Fact:

The Department of Justice upholds less than 0.1% of VRA complaints. Which is to say that even with 4(b) unchanged, the South has passed whatever it wanted to pass for years and years now, and somehow we've managed to stave off Jim Crow.

Fact:

Section 4(b) was based on 40+ year old data.



So now it's repealed, and will be replaced by something that actually makes sense.


Cry about it.