Million Muslim March

The "Million Muslim March", to paraphrase Voltaire's description of the Holy Roman Empire, was neither Muslim, a march and was quite short of a million. While the central organizing group was indeed the American Muslim Political Action Committee (AMPAC), the planned march was a "Truther" event. A "Truther", for those who don't know, is one of a variety of people who believe that we have not been given "The Truth" about the events of September 11, 2001. The so-called Truth includes claims that the United States government or perhaps one of the intelligence agencies set the whole thing up, or maybe it was Israel. There are assertions that the planes crashing into the World Trade Center could not have caused them to collapse and that explosives must have been planted from within. Truthers generally believe that the government, or elements thereof, caused the events of 9-11 in order to justify the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan and to provide a pretext for curtailing civil liberties. Non-Muslim truther groups such as the DC Area 9/11 Truth Movement and Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth Movement were listed as partners in the event. Interestingly enough, AMPAC encourages it's followers to support Congressman Ron Paul and his son Senator Rand Paul. In addition to the Truther aspects of the Million Americans Against Fear (the new name for The Million Muslim March) - the event was to highlight the discrimination and targeting of Muslims by law enforcement that took place post 9-11 as well as the general discrimination by the public. 

So what was the big deal? A fringe group decides to stage their event on a significant day, yes a tragic day, in order to get attention. And get attention they did, despite their march turning into, as The Huffington Post called it, "A Few Hundred People Walking Down the Street". Without the outrage, and yes, the bigotry, that their event engendered, no one would have noticed them save the few tourists who happened to cross their path as they waited for the light to change. What was the big deal? If this had been a "Million Christian March", or if Glenn Beck had staged his event on 9/11/2010 instead of in late August, would there have been the anger, the anti-Muslim signs, the "patriotic" holding up traffic? 

And how about them bikers? How is riding around DC honoring the victims of 9-11, or the military or whoever they're supposed to be honoring? Sounds more like a visceral response to a group that they hate exercising their rights to free speech. Of course the somewhat-less-than-two-million bikers have the right as Americans to oppose a tiny-percentage-of-one-million Americans' exercise of their rights.

But just what are they protesting, these noble bikers? The message? I doubt they even know what it is. The fact that they're Muslims?

I guess in all of this I should be thankful that both groups got the opportunity to express their views.