Michele Bachmann: Hotlines are a Civilization Jihad

Michele Bachmann is still at it saying stupid things on the radio. (For last week's stupidity, see this post.)

This time she is upset about a hotline to report hate crimes in her home state. I'm going to repeat that: it's a hotline to report hate crimes. She is sure that this means you can't "tell the truth" about Islam.

Now, keep in mind, the hotline she is referencing is not limited to crimes against Muslims. You could report "any crime against a person or property motivated by prejudice against someone's race, religion, disability, sexual orientation, ethnicity, gender or gender identity." If Bachmann would let those two brain cells rub together and have a real thought that does not involve trying to make herself relevant by stirring up anti-Muslim sentiment, she would realize that if someone defaced a church, they could call the hotline to report it. But where's the fun in that?

Really, though, I'm surprised she was only concerned with Muslims, why not with trans individuals too? She could hook into that ban on service in the military and suck up to the president some more. Why not beat up on some disabled people and talk about how they're sucking up all the deserving people's tax dollars with their bad habits? I mean, why stop at one scapegoat?

She seems to think that these hotlines are a means to implement anti-blasphemy laws. Speech is not part of the description of the purpose. Speech is not a crime. She also raises the bogey man of Sharia law, says "they" want "civilization jihad" and claims that hotlines violate separation of church and state. So, let me get this straight, the president openly praying is fine? Having a hotline where you can report some bigoted graffiti or property damage is a way to prefer one religion over another? Got it.

Se also says "the left" prefers Islam over other religions and "the left" is fascist. Yes, truly up is down and we have always been at war with Oceania.

For the record, I think Islam is just as full of shit as all the other religions. I abhor the violence that is a result of the desire of some fundamentalists to impose their notions of their regressive religion. However, and this is important, people in this country can choose their own idiocy. That's freedom of speech. And I think it is important to be careful when we criticize minorities. Islam deserves criticism because it is irrational, but Muslims actually are on the receiving end of a lot of discrimination. Indiscriminate criticism that associates Muslims with terrorism can lead tribal individuals to attack innocent people whose only "crime" is to indulge an insanity that differs from their own.

And, by the way, there always have been and there will continue to be violent elements associated with Christianity that we can't just shrug off like Bachmann appears to do.

So let's just all take a collective breath and remember this is a hotline for reporting hate crimes.

(Via: RightWingWatch)