Americans Kill Arabs and Muslims in Response to Violent Acts Because Appearance, Not the Act of the Perpetrator Defines Terrorism to Them
By
Ray Hanania
December
30, 2020
When a
recreational vehicle parked on a street in a major tourist area of Nashville,
Tennessee exploded on Christmas Day, police officers were hesitant to call it
an act of terrorism.
The massive
bomb, placed in a motorhome of the kind used for road-trip travel, exploded in
the early hours of the morning. Three people were injured and 41 businesses
were affected by property damage, including one building that completely
collapsed.
Police said
the vehicle had been parked at the site of the explosion for several hours.
Shortly before the blast a message was broadcast in English warning people to
evacuate the area, accompanied by the 1964 Petula Clark song “Downtown.”
Police are
still trying to determine a motive for the attack. Evidence recovered at the
scene included DNA from the remains of a person who was in the vehicle. Police
suspect they belong to the bomber and that he intended to kill himself in the
blast.
Social
media was quickly flooded with all kinds of conspiracy theories. The bomber
wanted to destroy a nearby AT&T transmission building, for example, over
concerns about the effects of 5G networks or fears that they are being used to
control people’s minds. Or evidence of stolen ballots from the US presidential
election were being stored in the area.
If this
attack does not appear to be terrorism, I do not know what does. Yet the FBI
and police in Nashville declined to use that word, saying they are
investigating the motives and need to connect them to an “ideology” before they
can declare it an act of terrorism.
Well, I can
tell you that whenever there is an act of violence in the US and the suspect is
Arab or Muslim, there is never any hesitation by the authorities and the news
media in labeling it as an act of “terrorism.”
In the minds
of many Americans terrorism is a culture, not a political form of violence
intended to achieve a specific goal. Although, to be honest, I cannot imagine
any act of violence, outside of accidental violence, that does not have as a
goal the desire to be destructive and harmful.
The
hesitation to declare the Nashville bombing an act of terrorism raises
important questions about the use of stereotypes, racism and even hatred by
Americans to label those they dislike — and Arabs and Muslims have never been popular
in the US.
I know this
from firsthand experience. I served honorably in the US military during the
Vietnam War in the early 1970s, and for 12 more years in the Air National
Guard, joining thousands of other Arab Americans who have served this country
patriotically.
But that
wasn’t enough for the FBI and the powers that be at the time. The FBI
investigated me for two years because I wrote a letter defending Palestinian
rights that was published in two once-prominent national magazines, Time and
Newsweek.
I was
investigated because I am Arab — and since most Americans do not know the
difference between Arab Muslims and Arab Christians, they suspected I was a
“Muslim terrorist.”
In fact, as
a Christian Palestinian Arab my first reaction whenever there is an act of
violence is one of concern and hope that the person responsible for it is not
an Arab, just to avoid the vicious and immediate backlash that will inevitably
follow.
There is no
doubt in my mind — and, I am sure, the minds of the majority of Arabs and
Muslims — that had the suspect in Nashville been identified as Arab or a
Muslim, the US would already be placing the military on alert for a possible
attack on a target.
Instead of
conspiracy theories about voter fraud or the effect of technologies such as 5G
on our minds, the discussions would be about the Arab and Muslim “threat.”
Stories in the news media would be filled with concerns about violence by Arabs
and Muslims, and before we know it the Nashville bombing would be eclipsed by
attacks on innocent people who happen to be “Arab-looking” or “Muslim-looking.”
After the
terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, dozens of Arabs and Muslims in the US were
targeted in revenge attacks, along with many of their businesses. Several
people were killed simply because they “looked” Arab or Muslim. Among the dead
were several non-Arabs, including Pakistanis and Sikhs. Yet they are not on the
list of victims of Sept. 11, even though that is clearly what they were.
The logic
against recognizing their suffering as being related to the attacks seems to be
simple: how can people perceived, even wrongly, as being “terrorists” also be
the victims of terrorism?
That kind
of logic is also exactly what continues to emanate from American society in
response to the violence perpetrated by Israeli authorities against Arab or
Muslim civilians. Every day, Israeli soldiers arrest, beat or kill
Palestinians. On Dec. 21, for example, they shot and killed a 17-year-old named
Mahmoud Omar Kameel in occupied Jerusalem’s Old City. The Israeli PR spin
alleged that he had fired a weapon at the soldiers.
Very few
major media outlets reported on the killing, which was covered mostly by a few
“pro-Arab” blogs, so the Israeli claims that Kameel was armed were just
accepted as truth. The Israelis quickly labeled him a “terrorist.” Why not? He
was an Arab and a Muslim, after all.
That
“terrorist” label defines how the public views acts of violence and determines
the level of anger in response — and fuels revenge. It determines the level of
response.
In America,
no one will destroy the home of the family of the Nashville bombing suspect,
who has been identified as Anthony Quinn Warner. But you can bet the Israelis
will destroy the home of the family of Mahmoud Omar Kameel, the Arab and
Muslim. We probably will not know about such retribution for weeks, or maybe
months, because it is rarely reported.
As Arabs
and Muslims, we should be concerned. We should be concerned that the West views
us as guilty until proven innocent when we are accused of crimes. We should be
concerned that different standards are applied to us when it comes to violent
acts of terrorism: Arabs and Muslims are judged as being guilty almost
immediately. Even when the suspect cannot immediately be identified, the
suspicion of Arab or Muslim involvement is often deliberate and pronounced.
If a group
is automatically viewed as being “guilty” of terrorism — or almost anything
else — it makes it easier to marginalize the concerns, rights and humanity of
members of that group.
That’s why
it seems so easy for the West to condemn and kill Arabs and Muslims in response
to violent acts, while deliberating long and hard about similar acts of
violence committed by non-Arabs and non-Muslims.
----
Ray
Hanania is an award-winning former Chicago City Hall political reporter and
columnist.
Original
Headline: It is not the act that defines terrorism for most Americans but the
appearance of the perpetrator
Source: The Arab News