Tuesday, December 01, 2009

Quote of the Day

I saw this quote in the news about Switzerland’s recent referendum to ban the building of any more minarets (the tall spire above a Mosque):

“...the Organisation of the Islamic Conference called the vote a “recent example of growing anti-Islamic incitements in Europe by extremist, anti-immigrant, xenophobic, racist, scare-mongering ultraright politicians who reign over common sense, wisdom and universal values.” ’

If you replace the word “Europe” with “the United States” you could replace “Islamic” with any number of things. I'm taking small comfort that we’re not the only ones with ultraright politicians reigning terror over common sense, wisdom, and universal values. I wish we could figure out why so many have turned away from logic and submitted to their basest fears. There's no reasoning with them; it's an emotional response, but I can't figure out what it’s in response to.

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