McVeigh vs. Muslims

Yes, I know I promised to avoid writing about politics, but I can’t resist after what I read in TIME Magazine this week while sitting in my recliner during dialysis. Here’s a quote of a quote:

Stanley Fish, writing on the New York Times Opinion blog about how someone like Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh is viewed differently from a Muslim terrorist:

“If the bad act is committed by a member of a group you wish to demonize, attribute it to a community or a religion and not to the individual. But if the bad act is committed by someone whose profile, interests and agendas are uncomfortably close to your own, detach the malefactor from everything that is going on . . . and characterize him as a one-off, nongeneralizable, sui generis phenomemenon.”

The key phrase is “a group you wish to demonize.” Ten years after 9/11, Blogs attacking all Muslims continue to circulate on the internet. People seem to forget what happened in Oklahoma City.

The New York Times blog was published on August 30. It was quoted in the TIME issue dated September 13. Am I the only one copying it? Did anyone forward it to you in an e.mail?