[News] Chicago-area Islamic centers attacked
Anti-Imperialist News
news at freedomarchives.org
Tue Aug 14 12:04:23 EDT 2012
Chicago-area Islamic centers attacked after Congressman says radical
Muslims "trying to kill Americans every week"
Submitted by Maureen Clare Murphy on Tue, 08/14/2012 - 05:19
http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/maureen-clare-murphy/chicago-area-islamic-centers-attacked-after-congressman-says-radical
At a town hall meeting in suburban Chicago last Wednesday, 8 August,
Congressman Joe Walsh warned that "radical Islam" is "a real threat"
which is "much more at home now than it was after 9/11."
That threat is "in Elk Grove, it's in Addison, it's in Elgin," Rep.
Walsh said, referring to Chicago suburbs. He added that radical Muslims
are "trying to kill Americans every week," and that "it's not a matter
of 'if' --- it's a matter of 'when' " a major terrorist attack will
happen again in the US ("Walsh: Muslims 'trying to kill Americans'
<http://www.salon.com/2012/08/09/walsh_muslims_are_trying_to_kill_americans/>,"
Salon.com, 9 August 2012).
*Rep. Walsh's Islamophobic tirade came just days after a gunman murdered
six persons at a /gurdwara/, a Sikh house of worship, in suburban
Milwaukee, about a 90-minute drive from Chicago.*
The suspect, who died of a self-inflicted bullet wound at the scene, was
a former US Army psychological operations specialist with longstanding
ties to white supremacist and neo-Nazi groups. The Department of
Homeland Security is treating the shooting as a case of domestic
terrorism; Sikh Americans along with other communities have been
targeted in anti-Muslim hate violence in the last decade (see this essay
by Valarie Kaur
<http://www.cnn.com/2012/08/06/opinion/kaur-sikhs/index.html>, a Sikh
American who has documented "the stories of Sikh Americans profiled,
beaten, stabbed, shot but persevering in faith and resilience").
The Electronic Intifada has also reported on Rep. Walsh's efforts in
Congress
<http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/tea-party-congressman-joe-walsh-supporting-one-state-solution-palestine>
to cut off funding to the Palestinian Authority and to support Israel's
annexing of "Judea and Samaria" (the Biblical terms Israel uses for the
occupied West Bank) in the event of a unilateral declaration of a
Palestinian state at the United Nations.
Chicago area Islamic centers attacked days after Congressman's
Muslim bashing
Four days after Rep. Walsh's warning of radical Islam being the enemy
within, a man who lives next to a mosque in Morton Grove, a Chicago
suburb, *shot the building with a high-velocity air rifle while 500
worshippers were inside* for evening prayers during Ramadan.
And two days after that, a soda bottle filled with makeshift explosives
made from household chemicals was thrown at an Islamic school in Lombard
--- *a town in Rep. Walsh's district* as of the 2011 redistricting which
followed the 2010 census (and just next door to the town where this
writer was raised).
Cairo-based journalist Ghazala Irshad attended the Morton Grove mosque
as a child and published this sobering reflection today
<http://ghazalairshad.com/2012/08/one-week-in-brown-america/>: "My baby
sister wonders if she will have to wear a bulletproof vest during Eid
prayers. If this isn't terrorism, then I don't know what is."
Chicago media omit mention of Rep. Walsh hate speech
Revealingly, the website of Chicago's most prestigious daily
publication, /The Chicago Tribune/, posted a combined nine stories about
the attacks on suburban Islamic centers but only one of these eight
reports makes any mention of Rep. Joe Walsh's statements that the "real
threat" of "radical Islam" is "already here" in the suburbs of Chicago.
It is worth noting that the one report that gives the context of the
congressman's comments was written by the Reuters news service
<http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/sns-rt-us-usa-crime-mosquebre87c15a-20120813,0,285108.story>,
rather than a /Chicago Tribune/ contributor.
The /Chicago Tribune's/ reportage is representative of other local press
coverage on the two incidents. Even a report titled "Islamic groups
alarmed by suburban incidents
<http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/ct-met-mosque-shooting-20120814,0,4901542.story>"
fails to mention Rep. Walsh's anti-Muslim statements made just days ago
in the Chicago suburbs.
This omission is not because area Muslims are unconcerned toward his
remarks; to the contrary, the Council on American-Islamic Relations -
Chicago along with other groups held a press conference to state that
<http://www.cairchicago.org/2012/08/09/press-conference-rep-joe-walshs-anti-muslim-statements/>
*"Such indiscriminate vilification is not unrelated to the rise in hate
crimes and acts of vandalism we are seeing today. When elected
officials, trusted by many, indicate that the enemy could be any Muslim
living in your neighborhood, it gives rise to xenophobic vigilantism
where fearful citizens target other Americans for simply looking
different."*
The Congressman's "fear-mongering comments" were also mentioned in a
CAIR-Chicago release on the homemade bomb thrown at the Lombard school
<http://www.cairchicago.org/2012/08/13/press-release-illinois-muslim-school-hit-with-acid-bomb/>,
as well as the group's press statement on the Morton Grove mosque
shooting
<http://www.cairchicago.org/2012/08/11/press-release-shots-fired-at-illinois-mosque/>.
Walsh contorts Pew poll findings on Muslim Americans
Chicago media's omission of Rep. Walsh's anti-Muslim rant, which made
national as well as local headlines, in its reportage on actual attacks
on area Muslims, *including Rep. Walsh's constituents*, is most
irresponsible. Critical questions must be posed whether Rep. Walsh's
speech has encouraged such attacks. He must be held accountable for his
speech and its consequences.
In case there was any room for interpretation, Rep. Walsh issued a
statement the following day reiterating his fear-mongering words
<http://walsh.house.gov/press-releases/rep-walsh-defends-comments-about-radical-muslims1/>:
"The threat that radical Islam poses to American families and our
way of life is not anything new. It is a real threat. The Committee
on Homeland Security, of which I am a member, has held five hearings
that examined the threat of Muslim radicalization, especially
radicalization within the Muslim-American community. Members of the
Committee are not alone in this --- even Attorney General Holder and
Janet Napolitano of the Obama Administration have warned about the
dangers of radical Islam."
"We cannot let political correctness blind us to reality. While most
Muslims in America and around the world are as peace loving as the
rest of us, we would be foolish to ignore the fact that there is a
radical minority that simply wants to destroy America and the values
that we stand for. A recent Pew Poll said that 15% of
Muslim-American men between the age of 18 and 29 could support
suicide bombings. How people can dismiss things like that, I don't
understand, but I won't. It is our responsibility as Members of
Congress to protect American families."
Walsh's claims that 15 percent of Muslim-American men between the age of
18 and 29 support suicide bombings contradict a comprehensive, 127
page-long survey on Muslim Americans published by the Pew Research
Center last year
<http://www.people-press.org/2011/08/30/muslim-americans-no-signs-of-growth-in-alienation-or-support-for-extremism/>.
The report, subtitled "No signs of growth in alienation of support for
extremism," states quite clearly that 86 percent of US Muslims believe
that suicide bombing and other forms of violence against civilians is
only rarely or never "justified to defend Islam from its enemies." (An
overwhelming 81 percent say suicide bombing is never justified.) Only
one percent replied that such violence is "often" justified, and seven
percent replied that it is "sometimes" justified. (Six percent replied
that they don't know whether it is justified.)
As the Pew report states, "Most Muslim Americans continue to reject
violence and extremism. As in 2007, very few see suicide bombing and
other forms of violence against civilians as ever justified in the
defense of Islam, and al Qaeda is even less popular than it was then."
If Rep. Walsh was truly concerned about public safety in the United
States, he'd be more concerned with these statistics from the Pew report
regarding profiling and harassment of Muslim Americans:
Significant numbers report being looked at with suspicion (28%), and
being called offensive names (22%). And while 21% report being
singled out by airport security, 13% say they have been singled out
by other law enforcement. Overall, a 52% majority says that
government anti-terrorism policies single out Muslims in the U.S.
for increased surveillance and monitoring.
The report adds:
Negative views about Muslims, discrimination and ignorance about
Islam top the list of the problems Muslim Americans say they face.
The most frequently mentioned problem is people's negative views
about Muslims (29%), including stereotyping, being viewed as
terrorists and distrust. One-in-five (20%) cite discrimination,
prejudice and unfair treatment as the biggest problem facing Muslims
in this country. Another 15% mention ignorance or misconceptions
about Islam.
And rather than casting suspicion on young Muslims in the US and
contributing to the widespread ignorance cited in the Pew report, Rep.
Walsh should be more concerned about how more than half (56 percent) "of
Muslims under the age of 30 say they have been treated with suspicion,
called offensive names, singled out by law enforcement of some kind or
have been physically threatened *in the past year*."
Muslim Americans are not the threat in America. Racism and bigotry are,
especially when promoted by public figures like Rep. Joe Walsh.
The mass shooting in Oak Creek, Wisconsin earlier this month is a
reminder of what is inevitable when hate is allowed to flourish without
challenge.
--
Freedom Archives 522 Valencia Street San Francisco, CA 94110 415
863.9977 www.freedomarchives.org
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