In case you missed it, a guest on Fox News show Cashin’ In hosted by Eric Bolling called for the profiling of Muslims, and used the incarceration of Japanese Americans during WWII as an example of what worked to win a war. The dropping of bombs in Japan was also mentioned. Here’s what commentator Jonathan Hoenig said during the segment:
“We should have been profiling on September 12, 2001. Let’s take a trip down memory lane here: the last war this country won, we put Japanese-Americans in internment camps. We dropped nuclear bombs on residential city centers. Yes, profiling would be at least a good start. It’s not on skin color, however. It’s on ideology. Muslim, Islamists, jihadist-that’s a good start but only a start. We need to stop giving Korans to Gitmo prisoners. We need to stop having Ramadan celebrations in the White House. We have to stop saying the enemy is not Islamic; they are. That’s how you get started.”
Hoenig has since apologized. “I do not believe nor did I ever suggest internment was moral or even effective, only that, historically, profiling potential threats based on ideology during a time of war would have never been questioned, let alone objected to,” Hoenig wrote on his blog. However, while he apologized about the WWII comparison, he still called for the profiling of “Muslims” and “Islamists” and didn’t refute that part. He also did not acknowledge that profiling is already happening.
Members of Congress, including Mike Honda and Judy Chu, criticized the Fox News segment. The National Council of Asian Pacific Americans (of which CAAM is an affiliate member) wrote a letter denouncing the dangerous statement of calling for profiling, and using Japanese internment as an example.
“Mr. Bolling did not remind viewers that the United States government has apologized for its internment of Japanese Americans during World War II and provided redress to many of the families of those interned. He also did not provide balanced information or context to his viewers about how profiling of American Muslims (which happens already in different contexts) has not assisted with identifying terror suspects but has instead contributed to a climate of distrust and fear of law enforcement. Mr. Bolling seems unaware of a recent court decision that finds the No Fly list process (which profiles and discriminates against Muslim travelers) unconstitutional or of the recent disbanding of a unit within the New York Police Department that has profiled and spied upon Muslim communities.”
Read more at NBC News.
Main image: Japanese American Exclusion Order. From the National Archives and Records Administration.
