How did I end up on an Islamophobic hate blog?

This started out so well. I enjoy my blogging life because I keep finding people who interest, encourage and teach me. One such is Kurt Brindley, owner of a fascinating webpage called Relating to Humans. Kurt is going to make a movie from one of his short stories, and is raising money by offering space on his blog to his donors. The movie will center on the first group of navy women stationed aboard ship. I’ve written a book, c3, about obstacles faced by young women and a donation to him seemed like much better use of my meager budget than one more ad on Facebook. Plus, I’d like to see him get the movie made.  So I signed on. My guest post looks great and I was quite pleased.

Not only have 50 or so people liked the post, but one went so far as to post it again on his own blog. Wasn’t that nice.  I wrote him a note of gratitude and hit the like button all around.

Then I got up this morning and checked out his blog. Oh. My. God. Okay, I know that there are people on the internet who hold radically different opinions than my own. They are entitled. I just didn’t expect my name and the cover of my book to ever end up on one of the saddest websites I’ve ever visited. (And remember, I researched a book about hate groups on the internet so I have been to some pretty bad ones already.) This man, who goes by Old Poet 56, equates the Islam religion with the devil, has a passionate post about how President Obama is a Muslim trying to bring this country down, and, well, it goes on from there.  This is beyond crazy stuff to me. I suppose that it is merely his view of the world to him.

At the risk of sending more people his way, I am going to insert a link to his site called Truth Troubles because it doesn’t seem fair to level what is basically an accusation of paranoid hatred without giving any other reader of this post the chance to see if I am overreacting.  I welcome hearing opinions on the subject!

I agonized for awhile about what to do. Finally, late this morning I posted this comment on Kurt Brindley’s perfectly fine blog and also on Old Poet 56’s toxic blog as well. I haven’t heard a peep back anywhere.

Old Poet 56: while I initially appreciated your publicity for my book, this morning I spent some time on your blog and am compelled to tell you that I am offended by the harsh Islamophobia that I found on your website. I am approximately your age and have worked with a large variety of cultures as I spent 32 years as a geophysicist in the oil business. I have found many good, kind people among every nation, creed, age group and other demographic I encountered and I believe you do humanity a huge disservice by painting any one group with a single brush. I think it would be best if you removed any reference to my book from your site. If you read it, you would find that it treats all cultures found in Central Asia with appreciation and respect and that it presents a theme of peace well at odds with the tone of your blog.

I don’t know if he will ever take down the reblog of my guest post or not. I don’t know if there is any mechanism for me to force him to do so. I do know that I do not wish to be associated in any way with the intolerance I found on his site.

Now what do I do…