Meet Derek Reeve, an elected representative of Orange County city council in California. That state is known for doing some wacky things, so Reeve’s claim to fame is consistent with his state’s reputation.
Reeve has decided to test the waters of free speech in America by naming his dog after the Prophet of Islam, Muhammad, even going so far as to say his dog is a ‘”bitch” for his other two dogs. Reeve is perfectly within his rights to do so, but that he should hoist himself on his petard when there are far more pressing things which need to be publicly addressed shows the immaturity and sophistry of this elected official not to mention the people who elected him. His city’s Muslim population is ranked 5th among the 10 religious affiliations found here, which means Reeve should probably be out of a job when he’s next up for re-election in 2014. However, that potentiality won’t stop him from seeking the notoriety he wants with such racist behavior. He has already twitted about his name appearing on that equally incendiary Bill O’Reilly of dirty talk and lootfah fame, and you can be sure he’s going to make the circuit of right wing talk radio and television who will want to make a martyr out of him. CAIR, the Islamic advocacy group has already called on him to “apologize” for his remarks……..a really inappropriate response to Reeve in this writer’s opinion, and that will only further to inflame him and his supporters to greater heights of idiocy and racism.
The point is however that Reeve wants to inflame public opinion, and especially that of Muslims worldwide in order to point to them as the wrong kind of element for America which needs somehow to be censored or worse. Would that CAIR had gone on record by saying they regret Reeve’s inflammatory application of “free speech”, but supported his right to it, this would have been a non issue and Reeve would have returned to the obscurity which probably drove him to the heights of such idiocy. In a multi-cultural society like America purposely inflaming passions by abusing the religious symbols of any member is not only stupid but counter productive to good citizenship, while yes still being legal. Generally for such people who are so inclined we isolate them mentally and socially from having any real impact on the public discourse, while keeping an “eye” on them. Today’s America, however, revels in the ‘in your face’ arrogance which is so typical of politicians today and so such due diligence will probably not be seen, especially when it comes to people who are different than the likes of Reeve and O’Reilly. Look to Reeve to get a lot of play from the haters and race baiters, and even from Muslims. It’s too bad people keep falling into these traps.
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