When it turned out that the alleged bomber wannabe was of Pakistani descent, almost the entire right side of the nation jumped on the chance to once again paint all people of Arabic descent and/or of the Muslim religion as natural born terrorists determined on destroying America.
As for me, I would rather see what they find out what his motivation was. Authorities are reporting that they can't find any ties to al-Qaeda or any other such group. It could be that he was an Muslim extremist. Or it could turn out that he was just emotionally disturbed.
What I do find ironic is that the right side, in their haste to condemn whole races and/or religions, ignore the fact that there was another Muslim involved in this story.
The street vendor that first noticed the smoke coming from the SUV and alerted the police has been rightfully named as a hero by just about everyone. The street vendor, Aliou Niasse, is also a Muslim.
It is beyond me how they can handle the cognitive dissonance of simultaneously condemning a whole race or religion, yet still praise someone of the religion that they are condemning.
The Think Progress article on this also has two good points worth noting:
H/T One Wisconsin Now via TwitterAs the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights notes, “South Asian, and Muslim communities may yield useful information to those fighting terrorism. Arabs and Arab Americans also offer the government an important source of Arabic speakers and translators. The singling out of Arabs, South Asians, Muslims, and Sikhs for investigation regardless of whether any credible evidence links them to terrorism will simply alienate these individuals and compromise the anti-terrorism effort.”
Reflecting on Niasse’s good samaritanism Muslim-American author Sumbul Ali-Karamali writes, “It’s somewhat consoling to know that the man who first noticed the smoking Nissan Pathfinder and sought help is also Muslim, a Senegalese immigrant. … I grew up Muslim in this country, with Muslim friends and non-Muslim friends, and there was very little difference between the two groups. We were all American.”
Posts
Ok, well that is news to me that the vendor was a Muslim.
ReplyDeleteBut since Bloomberg first put out that the possibility the bomber was a white guy and a tea bagger, that's why the right is bringing this up more forciibly.
I don't understand the media's attempt to color Tea Party protesters as violent when we have immigration groups destroying property and throwing things at the police.
ReplyDeleteAnd I don't understand what Tea Parties or immigration demonstrations have to do with this post.
ReplyDeletecapper your use of generalizations in your stories is getting funnier, as in this classic tale of "the right side, in their haste to condemn whole races and/or religions". While dismissing the generalizations of the media declaring the tea party movement as violent or the Mayor of NY in his generalization of the bomber might be a person against the health care bill.
ReplyDelete