CJ: No racism here, move along now

Charles Johnson is a great example of the power of belief. Whatever the eyes see, whatever the ears hears, Charles Johnson is still capable of twisting things to suit his agenda.

So when a TV crew goes out to see what Americans do when they witness discriminiation, Charles Johnson turns the episode into a 'CAIR controls the media' fable. It's a lesson in delusion.

First off, he says that "ABC News does their best to set up the 'dumb American bigots' at a roadside Texas bakery". Not so. ABC set out to see how Americans react to bigotry. And, if CJ had bothered to watch the clip, he would have seen that many of the customers react the right way: they are angry at the bigot and tell him so. Thumbs up to America, thumbs down to Charles Johnson.

Next CJ states that the scenario _ a classic 'hidden camera' situation _ has "one actor wearing misogynistic radical Muslim garb and provoking the yokels as another actor pretends to be a Muslim-hater". It's difficult to know where to start with this, because naturally any form of Islamic dress is provocating to CJ (aka the ueber-yokel). If you watch the clip though, she's not actually shown talking to anyone but the sales clerk. So arguing with a sales clerk while wearing some cloth over your head is considered objectively provocative? Give us a break. It's not like she's wearing a burqa with 'Convert to Islam or I'll eat your babies' on it.

Finally, Charles say that its "all designed and staged to show how 'Islamophobic' Americans." No it's not, you chump. It's designed to show how different people react to bigotry. And your reaction, Charles, says it all.

UPDATE: Several readers have written to us to say that there are two further - more sinister - issues to this story. The first is CJ's claim that the hijab is a symbol of *radical* Islam. The implication being that if you cover your head with a cloth, you're in favor of all kinds of *radical* Islamic ideas. By this logic most people in the Islamic world are *radical*. The second, unspoken but increasingly obvious, issue Charles is trying to allude to is the Obama photo. Remember the one showing him wearing a turban of sorts on a visit to Kenya. Although CJ hasn't come out and said it, there are plenty of people in his little lizardsphere who have been spewing nonsense about Obama being a crypto-Muslim. Why, with the picture and CJ's 101 of Islam, we know he's a *radical* crypto-Muslim. Nice work, Karl.