The National Review uses the decision of D.C. Muslims to tone down Eid al-Fitr celebrations — which fall this year on September 11th — to further upbraid New York Muslims for daring to treat New York City like their home. The operative line:
“We have to be sensitive” — look, I don’t get all touchy-feely about sensitivity, but this is just common courtesy.
We may be coming perilously close to treating September 11th as some Christian-Americans-only day of mourning, which would be flawed for two reasons. First, because Muslims have suffered just as much, if not more, for al Qaeda’s attack, and second, because we don’t really have a tradition of national days of mourning in this country, especially ones with built-in religious or ethnicity tests, and that’s for the best. Pearl Harbor Day, D-Day, Memorial Day, and all attendant military-related holidays have, in the fullness of time, become days to celebrate our military’s sacrifices and the victories they’ve won for them. We should hope that September 11th in time becomes a way to memorialize our fallen first-responders, not a chance for the Christian right to take suffering that all citizens endured in common, substitute their own perennial sense of victimization, and celebrate the same.
Wait, what? “Sensitivity” and “courtesy”? Looks like political correctness is back from the grave, baby!
I didn’t exactly expect the Right to be the ones to resurrect it, though, seeing how they told us over and over again back in the 90′s how awful it is…
Posted by lanfranc | September 7, 2010, 4:46 pmI think they were right then and they’re wrong now.
Posted by Steve | September 7, 2010, 7:47 pmI think they were wrong both then and now. Using “political correctness” to compensate for differences in societal power is fine. But the majority trying to subvert it to further reinforce their own power is not.
You sort of have to admire the sheer audacious hypocrisy of it, though.
Posted by lanfranc | September 8, 2010, 6:49 amI expect common courtesy.
You expect sensitivity to your feelings.
He expects us to kowtow to him.
Posted by Mike from Ottawa | September 9, 2010, 3:31 pm