Jonah Goldberg on the anti-Muslim myth

Jonah Goldberg discusses that oh-so-scary anti-Muslim backlash for which the media doth greatly jones, but which is as elusive as Sasquatch in an Albertan blizzard. Excerpt:

In 2001, there were twice as many anti-Jewish incidents as there were anti-Muslim, again according to the FBI. In 2002 and pretty much every year since, anti-Jewish incidents have outstripped anti-Muslim ones by at least 6 to 1. Why aren't we talking about the anti-Jewish climate in America?

Because there isn't one. And there isn't an anti-Muslim climate either. Yes, there's a lot of heated rhetoric on the Internet. Absolutely, some Americans don't like Muslims. But if you watch TV or movies or read, say, the op-ed page of the New York Times - never mind left-wing blogs - you'll hear much more open bigotry toward evangelical Christians (in blogspeak, the "Taliban wing of the Republican Party") than you will toward Muslims.

Italics mine. Does anyone not realize how much our society marginalizes people who really are racists or who are bigoted against people based on their religion? Well, yes, it does seem like you're allowed to be bigoted against conservative Catholics and Evangelicals as Jonah points out. But I'll axe you this question if you doubt my assertion about bigotry being frowned upon generally: do you know anyone who is anti-Semitic, racist against blacks and Hispanics or regularly uses words like "towel-head" or "rag-head"? Are they unemployed? If they are employed, how much money do they make? See.

The canard of gathering anti-Muslim mobs is the stuff of media fantasy.