By MIKE KELLY
RECORD COLUMNIST
At one point, a portion of the crowd menacingly surrounded two Egyptian men who were speaking Arabic and were thought to be Muslims.
"Go home," several shouted from the crowd.
"Get out," others shouted.
In fact, the two men – Joseph Nassralla and Karam El Masry — were not Muslims at all. They turned out to be Egyptian Coptic Christians who work for a California-based Christian satellite TV station called "The Way." Both said they had come to protest the mosque.
"I'm a Christian," Nassralla shouted to the crowd, his eyes bulging and beads of sweat rolling down his face.
But it was no use. The protesters had become so angry at what they thought were Muslims that New York City police officers had to rush in and pull Nassralla and El Masry to safety.
"I flew nine hours in an airplane to come here," a frustrated Nassralla said afterward.
Reading that made me think of this scene from the 1943 Henry Fonda move "The Oxbow Incident."
In this scene, Fonda is reading a letter to a group of men who had just found out they had hanged an innocent man in their zeal for vengeful "justice." The words in the letter were the hanged man's last to his wife and infant sons.
I don't believe I am exaggerating in stating that I think it's just a matter of time before Fox and the wing-nuts have innocent blood on their hands.
----k
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