Scary News Saturday: 44% of Americans favor curbing Muslim-Americans' rights

In a page right out of the Japanese internment of World War Two comes this story in the USA Today titled Nearly Half of Americans Favor Limiting Muslim-Americans' Rights:

ITHACA, N.Y. (AP) — Nearly half of all Americans believe the U.S. government should restrict the civil liberties of Muslim-Americans, according to a nationwide poll.

The survey conducted by Cornell University also found that Republicans and people who described themselves as highly religious were more apt to support curtailing Muslims' civil liberties than Democrats or people who are less religious.

The survey found 44% favored at least some restrictions on the civil liberties of Muslim Americans. Forty-eight percent said liberties should not be restricted in any way.

The survey showed that 27% of respondents supported requiring all Muslim-Americans to register where they lived with the federal government. Twenty-two percent favored racial profiling to identify potential terrorist threats. And 29% thought undercover agents should infiltrate Muslim civic and volunteer organizations to keep tabs on their activities and fund-raising.

This is scary information, friends. Our "Christian Right" betheren believe that active discrimination is warranted because of a person's religion (read: not "Christian"). What's next? Will the Immoral Majority call for suppression of atheists' rights if an atheist questions the enforcement of the separation of church and state? Will they start listening in on Jews' telephone calls because they vote primarily Democratic? Will they want to round up the Buddhists because their "Eastern mumbo-jumbo doesn't acknowledge the true Cheez Whiz"? Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty couldn't be more true during these times. It should remind us all about the words of Pastor Martin Niemoeller, who was jailed several times by Hitler during the 1930s and spent eight years in concentration camps during World War Two:

In Germany, the Nazis first came for the communists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew. 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 Catholics, but I didn't speak up because I was a protestant. Then they came for me, and by that time there was no one left to speak for me.

And in an associated piece, Stephen Rohde wrote They came for the Muslims, and I didn't speak up. We have to speak up, friends. Because I don't want to be the last one and realize "by that time there was no one left to speak for me."