Poisoning the Atmosphere
By Steven J. Grisafi, PhD.
It is a wise dictum that one ought choose one’s battles carefully. But I have had enough. Discretion would argue that the distinction I seek to make is inconsequential when confronting blatant, unjustified hatred. Yet a pattern of deliberate distortion extending the entire half century of my own life provokes me to defend my ancestors and my identity. At a hearing today of the Oversight Committee of the United States House of Representatives entitled “Confronting White Supremacy: Adequacy of the Federal Response” Representative Rashida Tlaib tearfully read to the Committee death threats that had been made against her. While no one would argue the blatant criminality of the hatred apparent in such threats, I take umbrage at the classification of this criminality as an expression of “White Supremacy.” The comments directed toward Representative Tlaib were directed toward her religion, not her race. Representative Tlaib is no less Caucasian than I am and the same is true of all Arabs and their descendants. This distinction is not to suggest mitigation of the criminality of the hatred inherent within the comments that she has received. Rather, the distinction is to indicate a pattern of deceit that has been a deliberate propaganda campaign of Black Americans to seek aid and support from people of other origins not of European descent.
There is no denying that there exists much animosity of the various Christian peoples toward Islam and its peoples. This animosity is not based upon an assertion of superior human qualities but upon centuries of armed conflict. Allow me to suggest that we all listen to one of the finest masterpieces ever composed by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, his Serbo-Russian March. This composition was meant to honor the courage and determination of the Serbs as they fought against overwhelming odds to repel the invasion of the Ottomans into Europe. The Serbo-Turkish War (1876-1878) is more recent in our past than the American Civil War. At approximately six minutes into the composition, when you hear the tubas, they signify the arrival of the Russian Army coming to the rescue of the Serbs. From this the cognoscenti understand the affinity the Southern Slavs have for their Northern brothers, the Russians. Without Russian help the Southern Slavs faced extermination and not for the first time. King John Sobieski, the King of Poland, arrived too late to rescue the Southern Slavs in the seventeenth century when the Ottomans razed a path through the Balkans of Europe. But he, and the Polish army, arrived just in time to rescue Vienna. Any who would call themselves Spanish would know the story of the union of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella, uniting in triumph to repel the Moors from Spain. Edward Gibbon, in his masterpiece, “The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire” asserts that, if not for the triumph of Charles the Hammer, several centuries before the triumph of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella, the people of Britain would be bowing to Mecca. Repelling repeated invasions, extending over a period of one and a half millennia, from Spain, to Italy, to Greece and the Balkans, our ancestors, my ancestors fought and died to repel the Conversion with the Sword of their families. They fought to keep Europe free.
In the interest of peace and harmony amongst all peoples of the world we seek to forgive and forget ancient animosities. One ought recognize that despite the characterization of other Caucasian peoples by the British as “non-white”, the British do not comprise all of Europe, nor all of us who consider ourselves to be white regardless of what the British think. I understand that the Anglo-Saxon mentality dominates much of America even today. But I cannot accept the implication that lingering animosity of European peoples toward Islam and its adherents is an expression of “White Supremacy.” Any such assertion I recognize as a thinly veiled attempt to unite in resentment peoples of origins other than that of Europe and to label us all as “racist.” Rashida Tlaib is Caucasian. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is Caucasian. That they may choose to identify as something else is their prerogative. But they cannot ignore, they will not diminish, the sacrifices my ancestors made to protect the Church and the lives of all Christians. That they may choose to turn away from their own heritage, and pretend to be something other than who they are, is not anyone else’s concern but their own. But they will not label as “White Supremacy” simple hatred. Nor will they characterize us, we who allow the descendants of our invaders to live amongst us, as “racist.”