Havasu, I was talking about LEGAL immigrants. And yes, the people did hate them because of where they were from. There used to be signs on places saying "No Irish" and they wouldn't let southern Italians stay places. They talked about them that they were all dirty, smelly, violent creeps. People didn't want to give them a chance. But, they integrated and people eventually accepted them.
And if you're only hating on the illegals, why hate on the Muslims? Many of them are born here or come here legally. CNN only seems to fact-check SNL skits, so no, I don't buy their figures. I don't count CNN as a reliable news source. Also, keep in mind that polls don't always accurately reflect the attitudes of the whole- those are just from the people who actually responded. I've seen "news" groups sample a very small group of people (sometimes less than 1k) and claim that the majority believe x. It's How To Lie With Statistics 101. Skewing "5% of the people we polled" is posted as "5% of Muslims" and often they don't cite how many people they actually got answers from. Just see what would happen if they did a similar poll asking white people if they condone violence against Muslims and, depending on the sample size, you'd probably find more than 5% saying "yes".
Your daughter not getting financial aid because she has no Mexican blood is about racism, not about illegals. If we didn't have for-profit medical system, it wouldn't have cost that much for her treatment (and I'm very sorry to hear she went through that and hope she's ok now). It sounds like she got screwed by an unscrupulous employer who *should* have been paying her medical bills. That is not the fault of the immigrants themselves, but of the system.
I don't think it is fair for illegal immigrants to come here and get a free ride (if that is what they are doing), but I don't think that means we need to hate legal immigrants/citizens who aren't white or that we need a huge border wall all the way across the entire border. I also don't think we should lock up children in cages & mistreat them because their parents brought them to the border while seeking asylum. The kids should not be punished- and it's costing us more $ than it would for the usual process of vetting them as a family.
I think part of the problem with our system is that there are bottlenecks with legal immigration and people don't know how to come here legally. People who come here legally agree not to avail themselves of public assistance programs. Do some violate that? Yeah. But there are also citizens who abuse the system-- although mostly it's businesses that seek to defraud the government. For awhile, it used to take only 3 months to process applications for citizenship or to come to the US. Now it can take well over 10 years. The system is broken and needs to be fixed.
If the Muslim men you know treat their wives like shit, that may just be the culture they are from (not reflective of their religion). I know a lot of Christian men who treat their wives and girlfriends like shit. I've known some who beat their wives too. It doesn't mean that all Christian men abuse women. Every single Mormon family I knew, the husbands treated their wives and/or daughters like utter garbage. I don't know if they physically abused them, but they certainly abused them verbally and emotionally. Does that mean all Mormons are bad? Of course not!
Having lived in a country surrounded by many different Muslims. I never met a single one of them who was cruel to anyone. Most of them treated their wives as equals. I have a Muslim friend I keep in touch with online who treats his wife like a queen and encourages others to treat everyone with kindness and love. I'm not sure I get what you're saying about "the difference" being that your Muslim friends call themselves American. There are many people who identify as Muslims AND Americans. There is room for both.
When JFK ran for president, people were worried that he would try to push a Catholic agenda on the government, but he didn't. He wasn't exactly a beacon of morality & fidelity, but just being Catholic did not make him put aside his oath of office & push his religion on the government. Mind you, we have had (and currently have) so-called Christian legislators who are trying to push their religion on the country and who violate the first amendment. Doesn't mean they are all going to do that though. Also doesn't mean that the Muslim members are going to try to push "sharia law".
