I’m not sure what’s scarier:  The current anti-Muslim fervor, or the double-talk that people use to justify it.

Listening to the news tonight, I heard the head of an organization that calls itself “Americans Against Hate” state that “Muslims are spitting in the eye of Americans by celebrating EID on 9/11.”

Whoa, Nellie!

The date of EID (which ends Ramadan) is dictated by the lunar calendar, as are the dates of my own Jewish holidays.  Does this mean that, if Rosh Hoshanah happens to fall on 9/11 next year, Jews will be “spitting in the eye of Americans” by observing it?

Of course not.  And, in 2010, most people wouldn’t say that Jews are “spitting in the eye of Americans” when we quietly pursue our own rituals, because most people understand that American Jews are Americans.

It’s OK, though, to demean American Muslims — to dismiss their culture, deny their citizenship and declare that they’re “spitting in your eye” by observing a holiday on the day that it falls — yet still call yourself an “American against hate.”

Apparently, in our double-talk world, what being “against hate” means is I’m against anyone hating me, but it’s patriotic for me to hate you.

And isn’t that just hateful.