Although it is in and out of the mainstream media, the problem faced by Muslims in Murfreesboro Tennessee goes on and on. Their effort to build an Islamic center faces continued protests as citizens try to \u201cprotect\u201d their city from the deleterious influences of a \u201cforeign\u201d religion. Various anti-Shari\u2019a law bills wending their way through state legislatures are intended to have the same effect.<\/p>\n
But let\u2019s not forget that this isn\u2019t just an American issue. In the United States we live in a society where there is effective law enforcement and real protections of human rights and legal status. Our free press can expose the roots of Islamophobia, as in the report at:\u00a0 http:\/\/www.americanprogress.org\/issues\/2011\/08\/islamophobia.html.<\/p>\n
Elsewhere in the world there are also movements to keep communities \u201cfree\u201d of what are believed to be degrading foreign religious influences. But in those cases there is often no effective law enforcement and public officials are corrupt or powerless. The last two years have seen numerous attacks against Christians and Ahmadiyya Muslims in Indonesia \u2013 a country whose constitution guarantees religious freedom but whose officials, from the president on down, refuse to use the power of the state to protect that freedom. The change in government in Egypt has effectively lessened attacks by Muslims on Coptic Christians. In India attacks by Hindu nationalists against Christians and Muslims continue, again with the complicity of at least local governments. And in Israel we have seen public assaults by ultra-orthodox Jews on other Jews that don\u2019t share their religious convictions. Nor are Jews necessarily safe in Europe, although again relatively effect government lessens (but does not eliminate) the threat of physical violence.<\/p>\n