Islamophobia - Putting Virgil Goode (R-VA) In His Place

Virgil Goode's (R-VA) paranoid ravings, warning of "In Muhammad We Trust" on US Currency and "The Islamic Flag" flying over Washington are the most recent examples of a rising tide of Islamophobia in the United States. A 2004 Cornell University poll showed that Mr. Goode is not alone in his views. Nearly half of Americans favored some restriction on the Civil Liberties of Muslim Americans because of their religion with nearly 1 in 3 favoring a mandatory registration program for Muslims.1

Goode and others like him have constructed a view of Islam based upon the hysterical fear-mongering of a sensationalist television media. The adage "if it bleeds it leads" has lead to a portrayal of Islam in American media as a bloodthirsty religion of extremist suicide bombers and mass murders. Stereotyped into 30 second news-bites, Muslims are defined through the lens of the 24-hour cable news channel as the most radicalized elements within their own society. The result is a media meme, the United States standing like a New Rome, strong and alone against a savage horde from the East.

But it is all fiction.