It's baaaaack. The anti-Muslim rhetoric is boiling over again, and this time they've brought out the anti-immigrant group to join the (tea) party. In a disgusting video compiled by the Council on American-Islamic Relations that's sparked a host of planned rallies for this week (pro and anti), protesters at a fundraising event were spotted waving flags and shouting, "Go back home."
Apparently, these protesters are confused. So let me clear this one up. Really quickly. Here in America we have a lot of people (310,928,741 according to the U.S. Population Clock). And of that population, anywhere from a little over 1 million adults to 7 million adults and children are Muslim. Legal citizens. Americans.
Keep that in mind as you watch this video of the fundraiser by a Muslim group to create a women's shelter and feed the homeless:
See this video on The Stir by CafeMom.
They can't "go home." They are home. And you probably don't even know they're there.
I didn't know I had a Muslim girl working for me, caring for my daughter day in and day out for about a month. I never thought to ask when I hired her. She was responsible, sweet, smart, took a class with the American Red Cross before taking the babysitting gig. And she actually gets down on the floor and plays with my kid.
Yup, she plays with my kid. Present tense. Because months after finding out I had a Muslim girl working for me, she is now more than my employee. She and her elder sister -- uh huh, also a Muslim -- are more like my own children than my babysitters. They treat my daughter like a little sister. They go see movies like Gnomeo and Juliet with her. She stays at their home, sometimes overnight, with their mom and their Muslim immigrant father who is now a naturalized, legal citizen of the United States. This is his home.
Last weekend, a Muslim girl shaved my head into a mohawk to help me fight children's cancer. This weekend, two Muslim girls will sit down at my dining room table to help my daughter make "magical horses." When it's time to "go home," they will drive a short distance from my house, get out of the car, and walk into their home.
So before you choose which rally you want to attend this week -- pro or anti -- tell me, where else would you like those Muslim girls to go?
Image via Viktor Nagornyy/Flickr