Tea Party pride and anti-Muslim sentiment soar in tandem.
Ramadan services at a mosque in upstate New York were repeatedly disrupted last week by five local teenagers driving around in a car brandishing a twelve gauge shotgun and an utter lack of creativity.
The disruptions ranged from the annoying horn honking to the yelling of blatantly offensive obscenities. Last Friday, it came to a violent climax when one of the five teenagers fired a single shotgun round into the ground outside of the mosque.
The five were arrested on Monday, charged with possession of a weapon and disrupting religious services. Earlier that day, their car hit a member of the mosque as they left the scene.
This is one of many similar anti-Islamic incidences of the last month, and it sets itself apart from others by just how unremarkable it is: a carload of people attacking a mosque with a series of loud and occasionally offensive noises.
I’ve never participated in Ramadan services, and I imagine that those who frequent them are concerned with serious spiritual matters.The month of Ramadan focuses on spiritual reflection and physical restraint, and followers fast from sunrise to sundown. Fasting leads to hunger and irritability. Not only were the five teenagers from Carlton, New York wildly offensive but completely tactless.
Fortunately, no one was stabbed in the face.
