Fort Hood and the New McCarthyism [The Guardian]
The Fort Hood shootings will likely reverberate across the media for weeks to come. In all likelihood, it will be logged as yet further evidence that the Muslims are a dangerous fifth column that simply cannot be trusted in the west.
Why? Because the shooter appears to be a Muslim. Worse: a Muslim of Arab origin.
It is interesting to see how the media have already reported on this tragic event – immediately, questions (and answers) were posed about the shooter's ethnicity and religion: implicitly (and in some cases, explicitly) making clear that such things were not just relevant to the story, but probably causal factors. The fact that he was born and raised on American soil is irrelevant.
Some may simply throw their hands up in the air in frustration, and declare: "Well, of course it's because he was an Arab Muslim that he did this!" Others may just secretly harbour such feelings – but all of them forget about people like John Russell and William Kreutzer.
Both were sergeants in the US military. The first shot dead five soldiers a few months ago at Camp Liberty in Baghdad; the second went on a shooting spree at Fort Bragg in the US, killing one, and injuring 18. Neither case (and there are others) received the same amount of media attention as this case is likely to – and in neither did any reputable journalist draw attention to the killer's religion or ethnicity.
Why? Well, the answer is clear. Those two individuals were not Muslims, and they were not Arabs.
At this point, we simply do not know why the shooter at Fort Hood did what he did (which was abject treachery and murder, without a doubt). Like other soldiers who killed their fellows, it might be down to mental instability – such things happen to soldiers in wartime. We'll find out in the weeks and months to come – but in the meantime, we just don't know.
But here is what we do know. We know that Muslim Americans number anything from 3 million to 6 million. We do know that, even without any evidence linking Islam to this tragedy, Muslim organisations denounced the killing, rejecting point blank any connection to religion. We do know that around 20,000 Muslims serve in the US military, and their loyalty to the US is unquestioned.
And we also know that people on the far right (and probably on the left as well), will use this sad turn of events to yet again "prove" that Muslim Americans are simply not American. They are merely interlopers on American soil who must be suspected and pulled aside for random checks at airports.
Any Muslims who condemn the attacks must have ulterior, clandestine motives for doing so, and be dishonest collaborators with the enemy. There are no moderates: there are only those who believe in Islam – the enemy – and those who are brave enough to leave this evil cult – our friends. There are those who see the Qur'an as revelation, who are our mortal foes, and those who see the Qur'an as the manifesto for world fascistic domination, who are our allies.
The authorities will take swift action against this man, as well they should – and I expect he will serve a sentence of life imprisonment if found guilty. But American society at large must also take swift action against those who use these events to justify a new type of McCarthyism– one that focuses not on communists, but "the Muslims".
I would like to say that I believe American democracy and American values are sufficient to withstand the temptation to fall into such a predictable trap, which will cause the likes of al-Qaida to rub their hands in glee – for obviously this is what such extremists want in the first place. Turning neighbour against neighbour, and causing civil strife is a cause celebre for such groups, after all.
But I am not so sure. I hope America proves my doubts are ill placed.
In the meantime, Muslim Americans should be aware that their situation in America will become more, not less, challenging. That's not to say they should change what they are doing – on the contrary, they should keep doing it, and do more of it. Muslim Americans are incredibly loyal to their country – and show it every day through their organisations, their work, their uniquely Islamic-American culture.
Their most prominent religious leaders – such as Umar Faruq Abd-Allah of the Nawawi Foundation, Hamza Yusuf Hanson and Zaid Shakir of the Zaytuna Institute, or Ingrid Mattson of ISNA/Hartford Seminary – have worked tirelessly to encourage those who look up to them to engender a knowledge that to be authentically "American", through Islam, was an Islamic imperative.
That sort of work is what non-Muslim Americans need to realise is normative and well rooted with Muslim American communities. That sort of work is real – and it will go on beyond this tragedy. But Muslim Americans and non-Muslim Americans alike need to be prepared to defend American pluralism against those who would sacrifice it on the altar of political expediency.
Source: The Guardian