PrintMuslim woman comparing plight of American Muslims to Holocaust ejected from Trump rally
A Muslim woman wearing a shirt saying "Salam, I come in peace" and a yellow star saying "Muslim" on it was ejected from a Trump rally in Rockhill South Carolina. While this woman's intentions may have been good, the way she expressed them was terrible.
The yellow star is most contemporaneously identified with the Holocaust of the Jews. Jews were forced to wear the yellow badge by the Nazis before they were killed, something that most Muslim countries denied even happened. Six million Jews were slaughtered in the Holocaust, and this Muslim woman compares her plight in America to their deaths. I think the number of Muslims killed in America for being Muslim is close to or equal to zero. For this woman to claim that whatever discomfort Americans have with Islam because of radical Islam is equivalent to the mass murder of the Jews is ridiculous and offensive.
But the yellow badge didn't start with the Nazis. It started with the Muslims.
The practice of wearing special markings in order to distinguish Jews and other non-Muslims (Dhimmis) in Muslim-dominated countries seems to have been introduced by Umayyad Caliph Umar II in early 8th century. The practice was reissued and reinforced by Caliph Al-Mutawakkil (847–61), subsequently remaining in force for centuries. A genizah document from 1121 gives the following description of decrees issued in Baghdad:
Two yellow badges [are to be displayed], one on the headgear and one on the neck. Furthermore, each Jew must hang round his neck a piece of lead with the word Dhimmi on it. He also has to wear a belt round his waist. The women have to wear one red and one black shoe and have a small bell on their necks or shoes.
It is doubly ironic, then, for a Muslim woman to wear a yellow badge, claiming oppression, when her ancestral coreligionists started the practice while oppressing the Jews.
Muslims in America are probably unhappy with all the emphasis on Islam and terrorism. I get it. But there is a problem in a large subculture of Islam, and Americans' fears are quite justified. No one is calling for Muslims to be harmed, but people are calling for protection from a Muslim influx into America for justifiable reasons.
If this woman really wanted to make friends, she would not have worn a yellow star. Instead her shirt would have said, "Muslims against radical Islam." I 'll bet if she had come with such a shirt, she would have been quite welcome at the rally, hijab and all.
But instead of admitting there is a problem with a large subgroup of her culture, she played the victim card in an offensive way. I don't have sympathy for that.
This article was written by Ed Straker, senior writer of NewsMachete.com, the conservative news site.
