Juan Williams

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January 21, 2012 | 12:13 PM | By

Question for the weekend: What part of ‘Mexico’ was the South Carolina debate crowd booing?

It’s been a few days now, so those of you who saw Monday’s Fox News GOP presidential debate in South Carolina have had time to mull this one over. What do you think the crowd was booing when moderator Juan Williams addressed candidate Mitt Romney’s Mexican roots?

Romney’s family history has been the subject of much media coverage lately, including this week on KPCC. In a nutshell, he’s the descendant of Mormons who moved from the U.S. to Mexico in the late 1800s, fleeing American anti-polygamy laws. His father and grandfather were born there.

The Blaze had an analysis a few days ago with a few different possible interpretations, but it’s still a head-scratcher. While Romney didn’t mention his connection to Mexico much until recently, he has made a point of doing so lately without incident, including during Thursday’s CNN debate in South Carolina. During Monday’s debate it was Williams who brought it up, and the fact that Romney still has family in Mexico, before launching into questions about his position on immigration.

Was the Fox debate crowd booing Mexico in general? Were they booing Romney for having roots and relatives in Mexico? Were they booing Juan Williams for bringing it up?

Post your take in the comments below.

FILED UNDER: Fox News debate, Juan Williams, Mitt Romney, South Carolina debate
October 25, 2010 | 5:25 PM | By

What we talk about when we talk about profiling people in airports

Photo by amrufm/Flickr (Creative Commons)

A cheery group of travelers, the women in Muslim head scarves, or hijab, walks through an airport. April, 2009

Most of the reader comments that have flooded news sites since NPR’s dismissal of news analyst Juan Williams last week, following a remark he made about Muslims during an appearance on Fox’s “The O’Reilly Factor,” have been either about his comment or the network’s decision to fire him.

But some people have taken Williams’ remark – about becoming nervous when he got on a plane and saw people in “Muslim garb” – and provided their own opinions about the profiling of Muslims and others in airports. Some have posted comments about being profiled, others about doing the profiling. Here are a few excerpts from the past few days.

On the KPCC website under an audio clip from Friday’s AirTalk program with Larry Mantle, which aired a segment Friday on the Williams incident, ”Hargobind” posted:

I am so glad this topic is being discussed. I am a Sikh American, wear a turban and have a long beard. For all practical purposes I look like a Muslim, and I understand that knee jerk response. I am one of most randomly screened people in the airport, and I kind of understand it why.

I am not just hoping that people will one day understand that 99% of people wearing a turban in U.S. are not Muslims but Sikhs, but also that people who are wearing a so called Muslim garb are not choosing to define themselves as Muslims first over being American. So far I have not yet found an American garb, if there is one please do tell.

Under NPR’s initial story about the dismissal (which has received more than 8,000 comments), a reader identified as Millini Skuba wrote:

I, too, am nervous around Muslims on planes, but I’m nervous around teens of any color when I’m alone in a parking lot at night. That doesn’t mean I’m racist or prejudiced.

Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Culture/Identity, Politics/Justice, Hijab, Islam, Juan Williams, KPCC, Racial profiling, TSA
October 23, 2010 | 5:51 PM | By

Quotes of the moment: Muslims on NPR’s Williams incident as a teachable moment

Photo by HORIZON/Flickr (Creative Commons)

The interior of a mosque in Ishafan, Iran, May 2006

“We need to use this moment as a catalyst to open a national debate about the grievous misconceptions, fear and suspicion about Islam and Muslims. This discussion needs to be elevated to ethical discourse beyond biases and prejudices.”

- Salam Al-Marayati, president of the Muslim Public Affairs Council in Los Angeles, on NPR’s dismissal of Juan Williams

The reaction from Muslim civil rights groups to the network’s firing of veteran journalist and news analyst Williams last week – and his comment about Muslims that led up to it – has been varied, with some taking a more forgiving attitude than others.

Williams remarked last week during an appearance on Fox’s “The O’Reilly Factor” that getting on a plane and seeing people in “Muslim garb” made him nervous. In reaction, the national Council on American-Islamic Relations issued a statement calling on called on Muslim Americans and the general public to contact NPR and “take appropriate action.”

Following Williams’ termination, the Muslim Public Affairs Council issued a statement taking a different tack, calling his dismissal “a mistake” and seeking to turn the incident into a teachable moment, with Al-Marayati sending a letter to Williams calling for a meeting “order to advance the public discourse on Islamophobia in America.”

In a post today on the MuslimMatters.org blog, Paul “Iesa” Galloway analyzed both groups’ reactions to Williams’ comment and its consequences, and what the best approach from the Muslim community might be. He wrote:

The sooner that the Muslim community understands that peoples’ fear of us needs to be dealt constructively and with something beyond just calling it bigotry the better. As a community we need to promote ways to help people overcome these false fears about us.

Was Juan Williams’ admission of fear a teachable moment that was missed?

FILED UNDER: Culture/Identity, Council on American-Islamic Relations, Islam, Juan Williams, Muslim Public Affairs Council, NPR