Sooner or later, the anti-Islam/anti-Mus…
Sooner or later, the anti-Islam/anti-Muslim crowd in the US was going to become aware of the large number of Muslims entering America in refugee resettlement programs and join forces with the anti-immigration activists to advocate against them. This was an easy connection to make between two major ideological pillars of right-wing American politics.
There is a blog now called “Refugee Resettlement Watch” – you know, like “jihad Watch” and “Islam Watch, and sure enough, it juxtaposes right-wing anti-immigrant sentiment with anti-Muslim sentiment – though it is an equal-opportunity disparager of all refugees.
Of course you do find other strains of right-wing behavior there, such as blatant racism. In a story published today on the president of Somalia’s impending visit to the US, blogger “acorcoran” writes:
I can’t see what this will accomplish except maybe bring in some bucks for the beleaguered Islamic government in Somalia…
The word “buck” as racist slang for a black man has a long history going back to slavery in the American South. As political speech, it was used most successfully by Ronald Reagan in the phrase “strapping young buck” as a racist dogwhistle when he reinitiated Nixon’s “Southern Strategy” which led to his eventual victory in the presidential election of 1980.
“Refugee Resettlement Watch” is published in an old South slave state (Maryland), where it seems “Old times dar am not forgotten.”
johnpi, 
eliza, 
razib, murtad fitri 8:01 pm on September 9, 2009 Permalink
the somailis in the upper midwest have been the center of several kerfuffles which involve a conflict between their interpretation of muslim orthopraxy and local majority norms. the refusal of grocery store clerks to touch pork-containing products which are sealed in plastic, and so resulting in people having to shift lines to clerks who would, as well as the case of cabbies refusing to pick up people who had had alcohol. refugees would assimilate better in countries where this isn’t such a chasm in norms (e.g., other sunni muslim countries, especially gulf arab countries where they are already accustomed to, and prefer, dark-skinned people who are also muslims to do low skill labor).
OTOH, i know somalis are being brought into iowa slaughterhouses with the flight of illegal mexicans. though even they are shocked at the working conditions, and as people with legal status aren’t as easy to cow as the illegals.
Tec15 9:57 pm on September 9, 2009 Permalink
several kerfuffles>> By “several”, you mean one or two ?
refugees would assimilate better in countries where this isn’t such a chasm in norms >>
In other words Refugee Resettlement Watch is right but you want to avoid saying that directly.
razib, murtad fitri 10:15 pm on September 9, 2009 Permalink
yes, i think western countries would do better to reduce the number of conservative muslim immigrants. and conservative religious immigrants with orthopraxic demands period (this would include some sikhs). i really don’t know what refugees resettlement watch wants because i don’t follow the group or the blog.
eliza 10:33 pm on September 9, 2009 Permalink
“Bucks” could also mean money. When I first read the sentence I took it to mean that money would be sent back there.
razib, murtad fitri 10:37 pm on September 9, 2009 Permalink
if you read the AP article linked within the article PI quotes it does seem that the president is looking to encourage remittances. but it’s not explicit.
eliza 11:29 pm on September 9, 2009 Permalink
I think he means money. Doesn’t look like the pres. is recruiting young men. Bad word choice.
Islamophobia – you deserve it.
johnpi 5:32 am on September 10, 2009 Permalink
I can see how the language is ambiguous, and allow that there could be another meaning. But given that when I went to the site I found articles that had been borrowed from VDARE, an identified hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, I’ve accrued nothing to that site’s reputation that doesn’t belong there.
In fact, a Google site search turned up over a thousand hits on RRW for the word “VDARE.’ Even making allowances for duplicates, that a lot of material from one source. See this SPLC report on VDARE: “Keeping America white.”
Refugee Resettlement Watch has the stink of racist garbage all over it.