Phoenix mosque protest exposes America's

disintegrating society

As
America continues its journey to becoming a militarised third world nation, rightwing militias and
extremist groups will continue to expand

CJ Werleman-Tuesday 2 June 2015

On Friday, 250 mostly armed protestors

against Islam encircled a mosque in Phoenix, Arizona. Jon Ritzheimer, the
organiser and avowed atheist, called the event a patriotic sign of
resistance against what he deemed the tyranny of Islam in America.
My aim is to expose the true colours of Islam, Ritzheimer told CNNs Anderson
Cooper.
Unwittingly what he has exposed is something else. Theres a tendency by the

media to confine mosque protests, draw the Prophet Muhammad cartoon

contests, and escalating anti-Muslim bigotry to the quarters of overt
Islamophobia. But anti-Muslim bigotry is a symptom rather than a cause.
What Ritzheimer and his fellow rightwing militants have exposed is Americas
disintegrating society and crumbling empire. When states cease to function,
rightwing extremist groups do the dirty work of the state, Chris Hedges told me
on Foreign Object.
As Americas middle class continues to get hollowed out by economic policies that
favour the rich, and as more and more Americans fall out of the middle class into
poverty, the appeal of rightwing groups and militias grow, as do the incidences of
violence and intimidation against Muslims or anyone who perceivably looks to be
Muslim.
White suburbanites, like Ritzheimer, are angry for the right reasons. Theyre angry
they cant find a well paying job - and if they have a job, theyre angry that their
stagnant level wage cannot keep up with the pace of the cost of living. The costs of
an everyday Americans most basic needs, from education to healthcare to food,
are being pushed upwards by corporations that are already experiencing record
profits.
A recent poll found a whopping 47 percent of Americans could not afford to pay
an unexpected bill of $400 or more, which means more than 100 million
households are faced with an existential crisis each and everyday.
When white suburbanites, like Ritzheimer, look beyond their household, they see
decaying and crumbling infrastructure. A report found that more than 61,000 of
the nations bridges are in urgent need of repair. When bridges arent falling into
the valley below, Americas trains are running off their tracks and schools and
factories are closing. This is all happening while manufacturing jobs have either
been automated or outsourced to Mexico and China.
To reiterate, Americans like Ritzheimer are angry for the right reasons, theyre just
blaming the wrong causes for their plight. Instead of blaming the surrender of our
political class to corporate overlords - whose only purpose is to enrich themselves
and their shareholders - white Americans are being fed a narrative that
immigrants have taken their jobs and that Islam is inherently violent, instead of
blaming US meddling in the Middle East and its support of tyrannical dictatorships
for the rise of ISIS.
Many trapped in mass culture are gripped by personal troubles, but they are not

aware of their true meaning and source, writes C. Wright Mills in The Power Elite.
In works such as On Power and Ideology and Manufacturing Consent, Noam
Chomsky, who is arguably one of Americas greatest intellectuals, has narrated the
death spiral of Americas political and economic system. I listen to talk radio,
Chomksy said in an interview. I dont want to hear Rush Limbaugh. I want to hear
the people calling in. They are like Joe Stack. What is happening to me? I have
done all the right things. I am a God fearing Christian. I work hard for my family. I
have a gun. I believe in the values of this country, and my life is collapsing.
Chomsky has perfectly described many of the protestors who surrounded the
mosque in Phoenix. It is very similar to late Weimar Germany, Chomsky told
Hedges. The parallels are strikingThe United States is extremely lucky that no
honest, charismatic figure has arisenIf somebody comes along who is
charismatic and honest, this country is in real trouble because of the frustration,
disillusionment, the justified anger, and the absence of any coherent response.
What are people supposed to think if someone says, I have got an answer, we
have an enemy? There it was the Jews, Here it will be the illegal immigrants and
the blacks. We will be told white males are a persecuted minority. We will be told
we have to defend ourselves and the honour of the nation. Military force will be
exalted. People will be beaten up.
I have never seen anything like this in my lifetime, Chomsky added.
Neither has prominent civil rights activist Linda Sarsour, herself a Muslim. There
was never mosque opposition in America, but now we have mosque opposition all
across the country, she told me.
These anti-Muslim movements led by the likes of Ritzheimer, Pamela Gellar, and
an array of New Atheist, neoconservative, Zionist, and Christian fundamentalist
preachers are not yet full-blown fascist movements, but the hatred of
fundamentalist Islam is evolving into a hate for Muslims. While these movements
and figures are yet to openly call for the annihilation of Muslims, Fritz Stern, a
scholar of fascism and a refugee of the Nazis, says: In Germany there was a
yearning for fascism before fascism was invented.
How Americans view Arabs and Muslims has gotten dramatically worse over the
course of the past decade, with negative feelings strongest among conservatives.
Only 27 percent of Americans have a favourable opinion of Muslims, down from
35 percent in 2010, and down from 46 percent in 2002, according to Zogby Polling.
Favourable attitudes toward Arabs dropped to 32 percent from 43 percent in

2010.
"For me, the biggest concern in the poll is not just that people don't like us, but
what not liking us translates to," said Arab-American Institute president Jim Zogby.
For example, 59 percent of Republicans agree with profiling Arab Americans or
Arab Muslims.
It is no coincidence the mosque protestors were dressed in camouflage, armed
with semi-automatic weapons, and carrying patriotic placards. Imraan Siddiqi,
president of the Arizona chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations,
calls it the intersection of Islamophobia and the gun culture. Protests against
Islam are usually carried out under the guise of the patriotic citizen.
The mechanisms of control, which usually work to maintain a high level of fear
among the populace, have produced the patriotic citizen, plagued by job losses,
bankrupted by medical bills, foreclosed on his or her house, and worried about
possible terrorist attacks, writes Hedges. In this historical vacuum, the patriotic
citizen clings to the privilege of being a patriot - or, perhaps, the double privilege
of being white and a patriot. The retreat into a tribal identity is a desperate
attempt to maintain self-worth and self-importance in a time of deep personal
and ideological confusion.
Tsarist Russia, Weimar Germany and the former Yugoslavia are nightmarish
illustrations of what happens when nationalistic, rightwing groups emerge in
times of national distress, but theres little reason to believe similar horrors wont
and cant happen in the US.
The Southern Poverty Law Center calculates there are 939 far-rightwing hate
groups across the country today, including neo-Nazis, Klansmen, white
nationalists, neo-Confederates, racist skinheads, border vigilantes and others.
Since 2000, the number of hate groups has increased by 56 percent. This surge
has been fuelled by anger and fear over the nations ailing economy, an influx of
non-white immigrants, and the diminishing white majority, as symbolised by the
election of the nations first African-American president. The number of Patriot
groups, including armed militias, skyrocketed following the election of President
Obama in 2008 - rising 813 percent, from 149 groups in 2008 to an all-time high of
1,360 in 2012. The number fell to 1,096 in 2013, the SPLC calculates.
The rise in the number of far-rightwing groups corresponds with an increase in
anti-Muslim hate crimes. Before 9/11, there were only 40 to 50 anti-Muslim hate
crimes per year. In the year 2001, there were nearly 500 hate crimes against

Muslims, and since then there has been anywhere from 100 to 150 anti-Muslim
hate crimes annually.
Fridays mosque protest had nothing to do with free speech and everything to do
with a rightwing fuelled urge to intimidate Muslims - Muslim Americans who have
nothing to do with ISIS or violent extremism. In other words, it was effectively a
mass hate crime waiting to happen.
As America continues its journey to becoming a militarised third world nation,
rightwing militias and extremist groups will continue to expand and flourish much
in the same way they have in the Middle East.
If we dont treat the cause - economic distress inflicted upon middle class
Americans - we can expect a continuation of symptoms such as mosque protests
alongside intimidation and violence against Muslims.
- CJ Werleman is the author of Crucifying America, God Hates You. Hate Him Back, Koran
Curious, and is the host of Foreign Object. Follow him on twitter: @cjwerleman
The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily
reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Eye.
Photo: Protesters gesture at anti-Islam protesters during a demonstration near an
Islamic Community Centre in Phoenix, Arizona on 29 May (AFP)
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