The Nevada State Assembly’s Committee on Government Affairs recently met to deliberate on one of the burning questions of our age: whether to establish a Muslim Heritage Month in the state, with July being the lucky month to get the honor. Now, if you didn’t realize that Nevada had any Muslim heritage to celebrate, you’re not alone. Anyone inside Nevada or outside of it would be hard-pressed to name a single prominent Muslim who hails from Nevada, or point to any significant Muslim heritage in the state. So what’s going on here?
As it turns out, Muslim Heritage Month in Nevada and the states that have already adopted it, which include Connecticut, Michigan, New Jersey, and Utah already have Muslim Heritage Month, established the month not because they really have any Muslim heritage to recognize, but in order to further the left’s DEI agenda. In a recent article about a hearing on the state assembly bill AB278, which would establish the month, Citizen Portal made that clear, saying that Nevada lawmakers who support the measure “highlighted the bill’s potential to foster inclusivity and celebrate the contributions of Muslim Americans to the state and the nation.”
You might be wondering exactly what contributions Muslim Americans have made to Nevada and the nation, and yet no one seems interested in filling in that part of the story. Citizen Portal noted that one “Austin Daly, representing the University of Nevada, Reno,” spoke in support of the bill, “stressing the need to honor the historical contributions of Muslim Americans to the local community.” Unfortunately, Citizen Portal didn’t deem it necessary to tell us whether or not the learned Daly actually enumerated some of those historical contributions. Was there a hero of World War I or World War II or Korea or Vietnam or any other war who hailed from Nevada and proclaimed his Islamic faith? Was there a prominent Muslim businessman or accomplished Muslim athlete who called Nevada home? Was there a notable Muslim governor of Nevada? A congressman? A senator?
In reality, there are only 7,400 Muslims in Nevada, and that is less than half of one percent of the state’s population. The real purpose of Muslim Heritage Month is that it “represents a low-cost opportunity to showcase the progressive values of Nevadans, illustrating how the state embraces various nationalities, ethnicities, and religions.” So it’s not really about Muslims at all. It’s an opportunity for the left to show its commitment to “diversity,” and to force everyone else to accept it as well.
Citizen Portal makes this unmistakable, saying that as the Assembly Committee on Government Affairs “considers the bill, the discussions reflect a broader commitment to diversity and inclusion in Nevada, with advocates eager to see the legislation advance. The recognition of Muslim Heritage Month could serve as a significant step toward fostering a more cohesive and accepting society in the state.” And so Muslim Heritage Month is also about hoping to pacify Muslims to the extent that jihadis won’t blow anything up in Nevada.
In a state that contains Las Vegas, a city that for years has been high on the jihadi wish list, it’s understandable, if not justifiable, that Nevada lawmakers would be trying to do this. Likely for the same unstated reason, there is even a push to make Muslim Heritage Month nationwide; bills to make that happen have already been introduced in both the House and the Senate.
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Robert McCaw of the Hamas-linked Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) explained that Muslim Heritage Month was meant to “educate and expand the awareness of the Muslim community. There are so many rich traditions to explore.” That’s swell, Bob, but usually when there is a celebration of some heritage or other, there is a heritage to celebrate. Yet when we speak honestly (which would already be a sharp departure from CAIR’s usual practice), what is there to speak of about Muslim heritage in the United States? Actually, there is plenty.
McCaw would never admit it, but Muslims in the U.S. were the cause of some remarkable innovations in airport security procedures after September 11, 2001, and aside from that, what is there? The U.S. pursued long, wrongheaded and fruitless wars in Iraq and Afghanistan because of those same Islamic jihad attacks of September 11. Then there were the jihad massacres at Fort Hood; the Boston Marathon; the Pulse Nightclub in Orlando, Florida; San Bernardino; Chattanooga; New York City; New Orleans; and so very many other places.
In light of that, efforts to establish Muslim Heritage Months in the various states as well as nationwide are not just stupid, although they are certainly that. They’re also useless: no Islamic jihadi is going to tell his comrades, “No, brothers, let’s call off this attack on a major American city. After all, they established a Muslim Heritage Month.” It’s giving aid and comfort to a people among whom are many who consider themselves to be enemies of the United States. There used to be a word for people who did that.
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