{"id":224,"date":"2013-05-14T21:11:00","date_gmt":"2013-05-14T21:11:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/highplainsblogger.wordpress.com\/2013\/05\/14\/near-hate-as-bad-as-actual-hate"},"modified":"2013-05-14T21:11:00","modified_gmt":"2013-05-14T21:11:00","slug":"near-hate-as-bad-as-actual-hate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=224","title":{"rendered":"Near-hate as bad as actual hate"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Sometimes people say things that get so close to the line that you can\u2019t tell if they\u2019ve crossed it.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s true with the written word. Letters to newspaper editors at times get so close to that line that you have to wonder that very thing. One such letter appeared recently in the Amarillo Globe-News. It came from someone with whom I am acquainted. I\u2019m still scratching my head over it.<\/p>\n

This woman wrote that Muslims need special scrutiny if they seek to enter the country. The trigger for that comment was the Boston Marathon bombing allegedly committed by two brothers, both practicing Muslims. One of them is dead, the other is being held in a federal holding facility.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll immigrants, Muslims in particular, allowed in America must be thoroughly vetted prior to entry, regardless of cause. They also must accept American laws \u2013 sharia law has no place here \u2013 and they must be monitored periodically for attitude changes. No citizenship can be allowed until assimilation is complete,\u201d she wrote.<\/p>\n

Setting aside the idiocy of trying to determine \u201cattitude changes,\u201d or determining whether someone\u2019s \u201cassimilation is complete,\u201d the letter drips \u2013 in my eyes, at least \u2013 with hatred.<\/p>\n

The letter writer asserts that although \u201cnot all Muslims are terrorists\u201d she said \u201cmost terrorists are Muslims.\u201d Oh really? <\/p>\n

I guess she knows something none of the rest of us knows about every act of terror committed in this country. Assassination of abortion providers or the bombing of abortion clinics? Mass shootings at, say, an Arizona political event, a Colorado movie theater, a Connecticut elementary school? Were those acts of terror done by Muslims? <\/p>\n

How about the myriad threats made against, oh, the president of the United States that the Secret Service must investigate? Done by Muslims? <\/p>\n

I am not condoning any singular dastardly act done by Muslims or by any other cowardly individual or group. But these kinds of missives from individuals who seek to single out people based on their faith \u2013 even if their faith has been hijacked by religious perverts \u2013 sicken me to the max.<\/p>\n

Then she concludes her note with this: \u201cI believe President Obama \u2013 a supposed Christian \u2013 does not think it would be difficult to turn America into a Muslim country. In this regard, I believe all doubt is gone.\u201d<\/p>\n

Did this letter cross the line into outright hate speech? If it didn\u2019t, it\u2019s too close to call.<\/p>\n\n

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Sometimes people say things that get so close to the line that you can\u2019t tell if they\u2019ve crossed it. That\u2019s true with the written word. Letters to newspaper editors at times get so close to that line that you have to wonder that very thing. One such letter appeared recently in the Amarillo Globe-News. It … Continue reading Near-hate as bad as actual hate<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-224","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=224"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=224"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=224"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=224"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}