In his book America Alone, Mark Steyn talks about the concessions made to Muslim prisoners as mirrors of the concessions made to ordinary Muslim citizens in the West. In British prisons, toilets are being remodeled because they face toward Mecca. Even here in the States, a recent court ruling stated that Muslim prisoners could be allowed to eat camel. Mr. Steyn made the excellent point that men in the Army have to make do with MREs, but Muslim prisoners can eat camel on the taxpayer’s expense.
Here in my current home, the only such instance that I’ve seen is that pork is no longer served as part of the generalmenu. And to be fair, Jewish prisoners get a special kosher diet, and even Wiccan prisoners can get a meatless diet.
However, I remember seeing on the news once that Muslim prisoners in Guantanamo Bay were being allowed to cover the windows of their cells because they’d complained about privacy. I must have missed something – are we supposed to have privacy in prison? Maybe it’s the strip searches, the public showers, and the nude urinalysis tests that cause me to think otherwise. Regardless of your religious views, if you cover your window in this prison and refuse to clear it, a dozen guys in riot gear holding shields and pepper spray will do it for you.
Still it seems like the bending-over-backwards mania out there on the streets hasn’t yet reached American prisons. On the news I see Muslim taxi drivers whining about passengers who carry alcohol, and universities using taxpayer money to install foot baths, and an “Islamic Cultural Appreciation Week” in a public school. Most sickening is the fact that if you oppose such things, you’re labeled anti-Muslim or a racist. And just try to be a “European American” who’s proud of his or her heritage – you’ll be called a colonial imperialist at best. (Muslims always seem to view the rather profuse Islamic imperialism with pride, of course.)
Personally, I don’t really care about my own supposed Christian European heritage – whatever that even means. People who bring cultural relativism and ethnicity into this matter often seem to forget that terms like that are meaningless on a long enough timeline. Go back far enough, and even the staunchest racists find themselves sharing a grandpa with the ethnic group they despise, and every single one of us comes from a “caveman culture” or an “African plains culture.”
But since Americans aren’t going to enjoy unity by sharing cave paintings or axe markings, perhaps we could opt for something more modern: How about American Cultural Appreciation? We could celebrate the things that are great about America, such as unmatched freedom and opportunity. We could point out that, contrary to the ravings of clowns like “Reverend” Jeremiah Wright, America spends more money on defeating AIDS than all other countries on Earth combined. We could point out that America’s greedy capitalists give more money for foreign aid and charity than anyone else. We could discuss American values like hard work, tolerance, and self-reliance. We could even reminisce about how America defeated a few minor blips in the road of freedom like Nazism and communism and freed millions of people from tyranny.
Try to imagine Americans in any Islamic country asking for an “American Cultural Appreciation Week.” Forget that – try to imagine Americans asking for such a thing as a public school in any country of Europe.
