Embarrassing Ignorance

I read Eboo Patel's blog entry on the Newsweek/Washington Post On Faith Forum, a beautiful piece in which he both shows the power of poetry to capture even the most "jaded" adolescent desire to watch Spider Man 3 again. He also shows the power of poetry to remind adults of what is important - there is nothing nostalgic about the desire to shine more and bleed less; it is more an indication of our fondest desire to be open to the world and all its possibilities, rather than settle for the bland reality of skinned knees. After all, there is something . . . luminescent . . . about them, as well.

The comment thread, however, is a sink of anti-Islamic bigotry, ignorance, and almost total irrelevance. Here is the first one:

is boo boy just so upset that no one but die hard islamic terrorists beleives his garbage that he has to shut down the comments?
anything to shut off comment is ok in islam, if the comment is not what is desired.
SAVAGES.

Here's another, sounding less vitriolic, yet no less ignorant and bigoted for all that:

Mr Patel, your parents are Indian; you were born and raised in the US. Your practise of Islam is greatly influenced by the culture and political freedoms of the country you were raised in and live in. Countries in which Shariah Law prevails tells a different story about the social impact of Islam. Islam would seem to support the restriction of the freedom of expression of all non-Muslims no matter where they live. It takes only a few fanatic Muslims, who are reading their Quran faithfully and following in the steps of Mohammad, to keep the rest of the world in terror.

Your comments?

The gutter, replaced by the sewer, soon becomes an underground cesspool, filled with the most vile offal imaginable.

mohommad was a child rapist not a prophet. only a child rapist marries a 6 year old - has intercourse with her at 9, and only god know what that little girl went through between 6 and 9.
he was into profit not a prophet.
only moho talked about god talking to him, while jews christians and others had many people telling them the word of their god. no third parties were involved. what ever gave moho an edge is what he alleged his fake god said to him.
moho knew about israel but only after his death did islamics pretend he rode a white horse to heaven from there, he never said it.
there is no proof that this thief and murderer was a decendent from abraham except his saying it, 3,000 years after abrahams death. and he only said it when he tried to get the jews to say he was the missiah. when they refused he killed them,
according to islam, which is no religion at all, the god of islam, who is supposed to be the god of christians and jews told this child rapist to go out and murder the only two groups in the world that believed in him. yea right.
islam is the same asw being a nazi, a low life murdering form of quasi human that needs to be put out of its pain.

My question, first to the monitors of this particular blog, is this - what in the world are you doing? I respect freedom of speech, but what possible relevance does any of this have to do with Mr. Patel's entry? Other than reveal the hatred that eats away at the souls of the fearful, these comments only make one feel dirty reading them.

Second, to Mr. Patel, I have to ask if this kind of thing happens to all his posts. If so, I do so admire his perseverance. And I want to apologize to him for the kinds of things put in the comments.

Of course, such things are routine out here in blog land; it is a sad commentary that this is the level to which some, at least, descend when given an opportunity to listen to someone different from them.

I'm glad I'm going to shower now. I just feel icky.