Deadly bigotry

It's bad enough that so many innocent Iraqi and Afghan civilians have been killed in our military activities in their countries. I've been told that the soldiers condition themselves to dehumanize the "other". They're not seen as human beings, they're "towelheads" or "hajis", like the "gooks" in Vietnam. I guess that makes them easier to kill.

But it seems that a similar kind of desensitization has been happening here at home. It's become an "us" vs. "them" kind of thing. The right-wing talking heads and the tea party leaders have been working overtime to brainwash the sheep into equating "Muslim", and even brown-skinned people in general, with "terrorist" (or at least "bad" or "scary").

And now it's gone beyond name-calling and suspicious looks. It's gotten violent.

Earlier this week, Media Matters exposed an incident at a Ground Zero "mosque" rally in which a dark-skinned man in a cap was mistaken for a Muslim and harassed.

Then it got worse.

NY1 reported that a New York City cab driver was stabbed on Monday night after confirming that he was a Muslim:

A city cab driver is in the hospital after being stabbed by a passenger who allegedly asked if he was Muslim, police tell NY1.

Investigators with the New York City Police Department say it all began Monday night when a 21-year-old man hailed a cab at 24th Street and Second Avenue in Manhattan.

Police say the passenger asked the driver, "Are you Muslim?" When the driver said yes the passenger pulled a knife and slashed him in the throat, arm and lip.

Despite his injuries, the driver reacted brilliantly. He locked the passenger in the back of the cab and called 911. Then both were taken to Bellevue Hospital.

Think Progress called the incident "the first casualty of the 'Ground Zero mosque.'"

According to the New York Times, the attacker, a student, has been charged with second-degree attempted murder as a hate crime, first-degree assault as a hate crime, and fourth-degree criminal possession of a weapon. Good. Throw the book at him.

Also according to the Times, the driver's injuries were not life threatening, fortunately, although he might well have died "had the cut been any deeper or longer." I wish him a quick and easy recovery. The emotional wounds, however, will probably never heal.

I fear that this sort of thing will continue to happen, perhaps with growing frequency and increasing brutality, as long as the tea party hysteria continues to rouse and embolden the ignorant.

Al-Qaeda isn't the problem here.

And this great white threat must be taken seriously. Deadly seriously.