Islamophobia - a modest proposal

On the news now: 50% of Americans have an unfavorable view of Islam. But this year there were only 123 "hate crimes" against Mahomedans whereas there were over a thousand against Jews.

This is because most Americans are kind, polite, easy-going, live and let live people.

(We all take it for granted but recently my son and his lady friend visited me from England and were amazed at how kind and polite Americans are.)

Any Americans who have Mahomedan neighbors know that most Mahomedans are pretty ordinary human beings. Most come to America for the same reasons that most immigrants come: to give their children more opportunity.

I've known quite a Mahomedans. There are plenty of Mahomedans in South Africa. Some came from India to Natal in the 1800s when both India and Natal were British colonies. Earlier Mahomedans were brought from Sumatra by the Dutch East India Company to the Cape in the 1700s as slaves - they are known as Cape Malays.

BTW - I call them Mahomedans because that's what I grew up calling them. Of course I knew that their religion was called Islam and that they were sometimes known as Muslims but, in South Africa, they called themselves Mahomedans just as some of us call ourselves Christians.

It seems that the words Muslim and Islam slowly replaced the words Mahomedan and Mahomedanism in the past few decades with the rise of jihadism. In my mind Mahomedans are regular folk. Muslims are angry, envious, hate-filled fanatics with huge chips on their shoulders.

The Muslims with whom I grew up did not force their women to wear burhkas, hijabs and all those those other hideous disfiguring garbs. Some of the more old-fashioned women partially covered their heads with beautiful scarves. Many of the Mahomedan women I knew in South Africa were lawyers and physicians.

But, with the rise of fanatical fundamentalist sharia and jihadism, many educated, liberated women have been forced to hide under scary black robes again.

I don't think most Americans are Islamophobic. I do think that most of us feel that sharia is as bad as apartheid and totally un-American. It's ugly, scary, primitive and the complete antithesis of individual freedom and - the most awful un-American sin - it's anti-fun and boring.

I propose that those followers of Mahomed who wish to be accepted as Americans should start by calling themselves Mahomedans. That way they distance themselves from fanatical Islamists in the same way as those of us who call ourselves "cultural Christians" distance ourselves from organized Christianity.