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Fort Hood Rampage: Why Media Stereotyping?
By Abubakar N. Kasim
Freelance Writer — Ontario
"I really hope it is not a Muslim" was my first reaction upon hearing the breaking news about the shooting rampage at the Texas army base where 13 American soldiers were killed and 30 others were wounded.
I wished whoever was responsible for the carnage was anyone but a Muslim. Things would not get out of hand even if the suspect was a priest and had a Bible under his arm. Emotion would not run high as the crime would be treated of what it is – a crime.
If the recent killing was carried by a non-Muslim man; the faith he had belonged to or the church he used to frequently attend would not have been the focal point of discussions. Religion would have not been in the picture.
Everyone would have acted responsibly towards the crime. The suspect would have been the only one to blame for the crime and not his religion, even if he was a high ranking official in his denomination.
Psychiatrics, sociologists and psychologists would have been among the professionals who would come up with theories of why the massacre had to happen the way it did.
Perhaps he lost his cool due to the current economical crisis, some might have argued. Or perhaps it was due to family crisis that might have pushed the suspect to do what he did.
I was saddened when I learned that the suspect was a Muslim. As soon as the news broke out, hate started to turn into heat.
Why Is Religion Associated First?
Even while the crime was on its infancy level, the media started repeating the word Muslim every time they mentioned the story.
A picture of Major Nidal Malik Hasan wearing the traditional Middle Eastern attire that had surfaced in the news kept flashing on the screen without stop.
I wonder why we connect the dots when the suspect of a crime is named Mohamed and don’t do the same when he or she is a clergyman and a devoted faithful of other communities? If Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan has been a priest or a Rabbi, we would have certainly dealt with the crime differently.
When will we show justice and respect to the community and deal with a crime as such as we always do with other communities?
We would have considered other factors other than religion even if he had worn the cross on his neck when committing the crimes.
Despite the facts that are surfacing about Maj. Hasan and his professional career that had exposed him to incredible amount of undue stress, the link to his religion still stands in the media. It supersedes everything else.
Guilty by Identity
Maj. Hasan has probably been proven guilty in people's minds due to his faith even though the whole situation of the incident still needs to be demystified. All that is needed to convict him was his faith.
It is deeply disturbing to see the trend the media takes towards the community when a Muslim is caught in trouble. This could certainly lead to backlash and hostility towards the community that already feels besieged after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
"Another shooting incident occurred at Fort Hood on September 8, 2008. When Specialist Jody Michael Wirawan, fatally shot 1st Lieutenant Robert Bartlett Fletcher, 24, of Jensen Beach, Florida. When police arrived, Wirawan turned his gun on himself and died on the scene," the Muslim American Society (MAS) Freedom said in a recent statement on the incident.
"According to Pentagon figures, Fort Hood has the highest suicide rate over any Army base in the country, with 75 soldiers taking their own lives since 2003," said the group.
There are indeed some lunatics who commit wild acts in the name of Islam. There are mad men in every community – be it religious or otherwise. Muslims are judged differently from everyone else. When a man murders his family, the crime is labeled as a domestic violence. But when a Muslim does it, it is called honor killing. It is double standard in its ugliest form.
Losing Balance?
I wonder what would have the media labeled the Columbine High School massacre, where two students had massacred dozens of students in 1999 before taking their own lives, had the suspects been Muslims.
What would the media had referred to the Virginia Tech Massacre had the alleged conspirator Seung-Hui Cho, who had massacred 32 people and wounded many others on April 16, 2007 if his name was simply Mohammad or Ali? Headline news would have read, "Islamic terror at schools."
The mosques where the suspects used to attend would have been put on the spotlight. Religious leaders would have been forced to issue statements to denounce the crimes. Such denunciation would have still been found not strong enough.
The so-called experts on terrorism would have gone wild in their speculation about the threat of home grown terrorism and how the suspects were influenced by the religious teachings that promote hatred towards the west.
As a hardworking citizen, I feel greatly offended by the way the media deal with Muslim related issues. It is outrageous to see the media losing balance and abandoning its professional standards that are supposed to be based on high level of integrity and honesty.
In doing so, they put my life into great danger as a result of portraying my faith negatively. Why should I be held liable for a crime that I know nothing of?
What the media has been doing is shameful and disgraceful to every principle the profession stands for. It is hypocrisy in the highest order.
It needs to stop this form of malicious dehumanization of the community in portraying Muslims as enemies that everyone should guard against.
"The perpetuation of negativity in such instances often unwittingly serves as an equally unnecessary exacerbation of the atmosphere of hate, violence and Islamophia under which the Muslim community already exists," stated MAS Freedom Executive Director Mahdi Bray.
The majority of Muslims are peaceful and law abiding citizens, who are struggling to pay taxes, support their families and make the two ends meet. They are not out there to kill the infidels, as the media portrays them. Their religion tells them that killing one person unjustly is like killing all humanity and saving one soul is like saving all.
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