The last time I
wrote about this, I didn't include anything about counter-terrorism advisor's John Brennan's
speech:
Conspicuously absent from Brennan’s list of seven terrorist incidents is any discussion of the “individuals radicalized here at home” by the Christian Hutaree “militia,” a group secretly planning coordinated, deadly attacks in Michigan. Brennan also forgets about the 2009 shooting at the Holocaust Museum in Washington, carried out by a dedicated white supremacist. Brennan’s lengthy speech makes no mention of the danger posed by right wing radicals like Joseph Stack, who flew an airplane into an IRS building. Most tellingly, Brennan didn’t express any concern about terror inflicted against Arab, Muslim, Sikh, and South Asian communities in the form of violent hate crimes, including a pipe bomb that exploded at a mosque in Florida not long before Brennan’s speech.
In short, Obama’s chief counterterrorism advisor seems to reserve the use of the word “terrorism” exclusively for violent acts that are carried out by Muslims.
Erik Love continues about the implications as well as I can:
The Obama Administration’s conspicuous linking of Muslims to terrorism is not a benign rhetorical issue — it has serious repercussions for Muslim Americans. The American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee issued a statement of concern in May, because they expected to see more hate crimes directed against Arab Americans. Similarly, Muslim Americans told journalists in Connecticut that they fear backlash.
Unfortunately, those fears were well-founded. Just a short time after a Muslim American man presumably tried (and failed) to bomb Times Square in April, a powerful pipe bomb successfully exploded at a mosque in Florida. The exploding pipe bomb was captured on video. Remarkably, there was no statement from the Obama White House on this apparent hate crime. The local office of the FBI issued a reward for help in finding out who carried out the hate attack on the mosque — an attack that could very easily have been fatal (just as the Times Square bomb could have been fatal).
The double standard, emanating from the White House, on what counts as terrorism adds to a climate of fear for Muslim Americans, and a racialized group of Americans who “look like” Muslims: Arabs, Sikhs, South Asians, and others. The Obama Administration must take a more proactive line on de-linking terrorism and Islam — no matter what the political cost.
As I wrote
last time:
Until we have some honesty in place and call terrorism what it is, from all sides, then our "War on Terror" or whatever we're calling it these days cannot be seriously considered anything other than a racist holy war against brown-skinned Muslims.
And there's no sign in sight that we will have said honestly in place soon.
