Muslim images often end up being one-sided

All throughout the American media, the war on Islam is raging. Any news that can degrade, dehumanize or vilify Muslims is dished out to form public opinion. Although the term "extremist" usually precedes villain Islam, one might as well omit it. Islam and Muslims are now fair game, and as the saying goes in Arabic "when the bull falls, everyone comes out with a dagger." This is not to indicate all is well with Muslims, it is just an observation about how one-sided are most of the images transmitted about them.

The majority of the pictures The Day chooses to print from Muslim countries show only desolation and hopelessness. The equivalent would be to show run-down, drug-infested, poor communities and tell someone who has never been here: This is the United States.

Muslims and Islam are a favorite punching bag for the author of the letter "Mosque on fast track, but Greek church waits," published Aug. 6, who claimed there was mistreatment of Orthodox Christians at the hand of Muslims for 1,400 years. This must be the reason the Orthodox Church is a major property owner in the Holy Land, under Muslim rule for most of those years. Local Christians did not lose presence or property despite the Crusades that could have instigated major "ethnic cleansing" similar to what happened in former Yugoslavia 15 years ago.

The Muslim presence in Western countries today started only after two Western world wars that depleted the male population and made the case for importing labor for reconstruction. The last Muslim major presence in Europe was in Spain, and they were forced to leave or convert around the time this continent was discovered with their help.

America, with its history of religious tolerance, should wake up to the attempts to drag it into old grudges. And who says hatred is exclusive to "extremist" Islamic clergy?

Editor's note: The writer resides in Old Lyme.