Anti-Muslim Tactic Not Gain American Votes

Stephan Salisbury of motherjones.com writes a good piece over the miscalculating Right Wing politicians in the US who thought they would win votes by being anti-Muslims which turned out to be untrue:

“Americans are learning what Europeans have known for years: Islam-bashing wins votes,” wrote journalist Michael Scott Moore in the wake of the 2010 election. His assumption was shared by many then and is still widely accepted today.

But as the 2012 campaign ramps up along with the anti-Muslim rhetoric machine, a look back at 2010 turns out to offer quite an unexpected story about the American electorate. In fact, with rare exceptions, “Islam-bashing” proved a strikingly poor campaign tactic. In state after state, candidates who focused on illusory Muslim “threats,” tied ordinary American Muslims to terrorists and radicals, or characterized mosques as halls of triumph (and prayer in them as indoctrination) went down to defeat.

If this analysis is true, then the future of interfaith relation in the US still has hope. In Europe, the anti-Islam tactic does still works. Geertz Wilder is one example of politician who are successfully win the votes with this anti-Muslim method.