Two weeks ago, news of the senseless assassination-style shootings of the three Muslim university students in North Carolina made us sick in our hearts. The country that we often idealize as the land of the free, seemed like the land of wild freedom, where a gun-toting neighbor can murder you because he does not like the way you look, dress, speak, or no wait, just because he disapproves of your use of parking space in the neighborhood.
It was in the backdrop of this violence that the Obama administration hosted a summit on Countering violent extremism last week, attended by people from all walks of life, including several Muslim community leaders.
In one of his speeches at the summit, President Obama praised the American Muslim community, and even reprimanded non-Muslim Americans for creating an atmosphere of hate-mongering, with a reference to the killing of the three practicing Muslim students.
However, his ultimate motive was pushing the same US agenda as has been the case for the past two decades at least, seeking the support of the rest of the world as Washington embarks on more military interventions in Muslim countries.
According to US government reports, white males have been responsible for 70 percent of the mass shootings that have taken place in America in the last 30 years. And Craig Stephen Hicks, the man in police custody, for the killing of the three Muslim students is no exception.
Yet, while President Obama had much to say about the radicalization in the Muslim world, the summit saw no speeches about why white men like Hicks become radicalized, and how they can be stopped. He acknowledged that Muslim Americans feel they have been unfairly targeted, but stopped short of commenting on the conditions in the US that foster suspicion and hatred of the Muslim communities. Islamophobia in the US is a stark reality, and this summit was an ideal opportunity for the Obama administration to deal with it head-on.
The mainstream media, for example, choose to show the average American a distorted picture a view that demonizes and alienates Muslim minorities everywhere in the world. Media audiences are taught to equate all Muslims with a small minority of extremists who indulge in terrorist activities. Speakers in the US, such as Richard Dawkins are free to spew spiteful venom against Muslims, Congress members can, and do propose and pass anti-Shariah bills, and thousands of primetime news hours are spent vilifying Islam.
There is no such thing as objectivity in the manner that media agencies choose to tell a story, and their double standards allow them to pick and choose stories that ensure the propagation of only a particular viewpoint. When the perpetrators of a crime are Muslims, like they were in the Sydney siege, the Boston marathon, or even before, in the 7/7 or 9/11 attacks, the mainstream media, and even many politicians belonging to this land of wild freedom take no time to demarcate the world, dividing it into us and them, with their loud headlines and minute-by minute coverage. However, when the victims are Muslims, or are thought to be Muslim, it becomes an isolated case: a deranged or upset man, in this case one with a general disregard for all religions (and neighbors), who found easy prey in the house of three practicing young Muslims.
The crux of the North Carolina tragedy is that it was the probable outcome of the daily dose of suspicion and hatred pumped into the average American. Yet, with this mixture of media bias and the global antipathy towards Muslims, there is something else that we now need to think about and come to terms with when we think about migration.
Muslim migrants who make the choice to move to the US for the sake of quality education, better jobs or political stability, often lacking in our home countries, should know full well the challenges that await them. Granted that America is a democracy. While that means a voice and legal rights for everyone, the fact remains that it is one where Muslims are not the majority. It is also a country where others also use the very freedom that we set out to enjoy, to express their dislike of our presence there.
The Muslims embrace some of the values and culture of the country of immigration, yet there are strings of discord in what we choose to wear, the language we speak and the rituals, values and beliefs that we carry forward.
In this highly polarized world, this might be seen as reason number one for the difficulty that the West, and especially the extreme right in America has, in co-existing with Muslims because they do not seem to assimilate completely. But if the US is to prosper as a multi-faith and multicultural society, the Obama administration needs to reach out to Muslim Americans, and ensure an end to hate crimes against them by right-wing extremists. This, then, is the extremism that the Obama administration should have focused on in his speeches during the summit the extremism that is being cultivated at home. –Rabia Alvi
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