Stop the Spread of Fear, Hate

Forces are hard at work trying to spread fear of the other.

These forces, whether they be from elected officials in high places — the president, congressmen, governors — or lurking in online forums in the “Bluest” cities and towns in Massachusetts can have real consequences for people just trying to live their lives.

People can face unnecessary investigation, be detained and face threat of deportation, or miss opportunities they are entitled to, like access to good housing or jobs. Kids might be bullied. Some might feel compelled to change their routines just to fit into an increasingly intolerant society.

We have the case earlier this month of a person who was met with militarized agents on a Florida-bound flight that made an unplanned landing in Georgia — ostensibly only because the man's phone alarm alerted him to begin a Ramadan-time prayer. A fellow passenger told Fox 17 in Nashville that the man was “praying in a foreign language.”

While we don't have all the details of that case, what is clear is after authorities investigated, they found no evidence of anything wrong. But how traumatizing and humiliating for a passenger just trying to pray! How worrying for an entire population of American Muslims!

And that’s not the first time religion and misunderstanding caused trouble on a flight. A few years ago the U.S. Department of Transportation, under the previous administration, leveled a penalty against an international airline for allegedly discriminating against Jewish passengers going from New York City through Frankfurt to Budapest in 2022. “Based on the alleged misconduct of some passengers” wrote the federal government at the time, the airline “prohibited 128 Jewish passengers — most of whom wore distinctive garb typically worn by Orthodox Jewish men — from boarding their connecting flight in Germany."

Despite many of the passengers not knowing each other nor traveling together, they were allegedly treated "all as if they were a single group and denied them boarding for the alleged misbehavior of a few.”

In other words, an entire group of people allegedly faced discrimination because of what a few people were doing. These days we have more and more voices trying to cast suspicions over entire groups, whether they be Chinese, Haitian, Somali, Mexican, Muslim, Jewish, Palestinian, disabled, homeless, Black, gay or transgender. Of course we have the doxing of Palestinian activists during the past few years, but we also have calls, such as those last year from people like Congressman Riley M. Moore of West Virginia to limit students from China in the U.S. Moore announced last year, “It’s time we turn off the spigot and immediately ban all student visas going to Chinese nationals,” implying they were likely to engage in espionage.

And we have more recent Islamophic statements from people like U.S. Rep. Randy Fine from Florida, Andy Ogles of Tennessee and many others. It was Fine who posted on social media, after noting past terror attacks such as 9/11, that “Diversity is not our strength. Diversity has become suicidal.”

Fine continued, "It is time for a Muslim travel ban, radical deportations of all mainstream Muslim legal and illegal immigrants, and citizenship revocations wherever possible. Mainstream Muslims have declared war on us. The least we can do is kick them the hell out of America.” Texas and Florida, meanwhile, are trying to prevent Islamic schools in their states from benefiting from school voucher programs, according to reporting from The Hill. Leadership in those states are also trying to label groups like the Council on American-Islamic Relations as a foreign terrorist organization.

This is just a short list of what’s been happening. And don't think we're immune to this disease of hate and fear in Massachusetts. Insidious examples have been spreading locally as well in schools, in local school elections, in online forums. These whispers of hate and suspicion are capable of infecting like a virus, slowly sickening an entire society. It’s time to stop the spread.