Asian Confusionism?

Buck writes:

I am suffering from growing Asian Confusionism. These Asian pedophiles—Kabeer Hassan, Abdul Aziz, Abdul Rauf, Mohammed Sajid, Adil Khan, Abdul Qayyum, Mohammed Amin, and Hamid Safi—were found guilty of sexually exploiting white female children. They repeatedly gang-raped them.

Is “Asian” any longer useful? Is it sometimes used as a political ploy like “youth” gangs? It seems that we make distinctions, then un-make them almost in the same breath. We discuss the West in the same way; broad terms that have historical significance, but don’t seem to be holding up well in the modern world. Is it the Middle East, or, is it “Asia”?

Maybe, like the majority of Mexicans, Colombians, Nicaraguans, Spaniards, etc., who don’t self-identify as Hispanic or Latino and don’t like being referred to as Hispanic or Latino, except when group politics work for them, but prefer to be referred to by the country of their birth; Asians may soon not like, if they don’t already dislike, being referred to as Asians. Was Mohammad an Asian? Are Arabs and Persians Asians? Are the Greeks still counted in the West? Hell, is Great Britian still a Western nation?

LA replies:

It’s only in Britain where Muslims, particularly Muslim criminals, are always primarily called “Asians” and only rarely “Muslims.” In America we do not use “Asians” in such a broad and indefinite way. By “Asians,” Americans generally mean East Asians and Southeast Asians (previously known as “Orientals”). We don’t call Indians Asians, we call them Indians. We don’t call Afghans and Pakistanis Asians, we call them Afghans or Pakistanis. We don’t call Mideast Muslims Asians (though they come from the area technically known as Southwestern Asia), we call them Muslims or Mideast Muslims.

Though we don’t use “Asians” in the dishonest manner of the Brits, we have our own set of euphemisms to avoid associating Muslims with anything bad. Muslim terrorists are never called Muslim terrorists but only terrorists. The Pentagon’s official report on the Fort Hood massacre spoke of Nidal Hasan’s jihad mass murder as an instance of workplace violence, and didn’t even mention that he is a Muslim. And its solutions included being more on the lookout for possible workplace violence, not being more on the lookout for Islamic jihadists.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at May 09, 2012 12:32 PM | Send