A US senator is under fire from the Muslim community for saying that Muslims drive taxis by day and commit murder by night. Republican Senator Conrad Burns said that America confronted a "faceless enemy" of terrorists who "drove taxi cabs in the daytime and killed at night". He made the remarks on Wednesday at a fundraiser headlined by First Lady Laura Bush.
The US lawmaker, who is known for such gaffes, was taken to task by Ibrahim Hooper of the Council on American-Islamic Relations. Hooper said, "It just adds to the overall atmosphere of anti-Muslim hysteria and xenophobia." He said Burns's comments could spread beyond his own small base. He argued that such comments from high-ranking American politicians could tarnish America's image in the Muslim world. "It doesn't help our nation either domestically or internationally," Hooper said. "These types of comments are picked up by news sources around the world, they're spread on the Internet, and people hear about them. It's no longer that some local politician can say something to pander to a local audience, because their views will be published internationally." |