The reason I think it is important to learn more and more about Native American history, religion and culture is ’cause there are just so many parallels to present day attempted colonization of Muslims.
While there is a lot to be gained from learning about the history of civil rights struggles in the United States - what Muslims are facing today is not just a question of civil rights, but neo-imperialism, and re-colonization.
Imperialism does not only attempt to conquer land and resources - the culture and religious values are also targeted for colonization. As such, there is indeed a war on Islam - to create a “new” “progressive” “moderate” “American” and empire friendly Islam. In this war on Islam, there are folks who are outright hostile towards Muslim, and then there are those liberals, who are supposedly friends of Muslims but only if Muslims behave in accordance with liberal expectations… or else…
This quote by Sherman Alexie, in his book Ten Little Indians is worth a ponder or two:
I’m not scared of the Jerry Falwells and the Pat Robertsons of the world. Jerry and Pat aren’t the ones crawling in and out of sweathouses and pontificating about how much they admire Indian culture. I’m scared of the white liberals who love Indians. I believe that 75 percent of white liberals who hang around Indians will eventually start believing they’re Indians, then they will start telling us Indians how to be Indian.
And there is this old song “love love me I’m a liberal” now updated:
And you know that I’m not a racist,
I’ve been on the side of the blacks all along.
And I always give a few extra dollars
To the young man who mows my lawn!
