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Today's Top News
Isolated Incidents: A Hijab, a Hoodie, and an Iraqi American’s Death
As reporters clamored for breaking news about the vicious attack on Shaima Alawadi, an Iraqi American mother of five in El Cajon, California, her teenage daughter Fatima turned to the interviewer with a question of her own:
“‘Why did you take my mother away from me? You took my best friend away from me,’ she said, choking with tears, in an interview with CNN affiliate KUSI. ‘Why? Why did you do it? I want to know. Answer me that.’”
So far, neither the grieving family’s pleas, nor CNN, nor the police have been able to provide any answers. Issuing the standard platitude about the ongoing investigation, the authorities described it as evidently “an isolated incident.” The grim circumstances of Alwadi’s death, however, point to a pattern of hate crime that’s devastatingly familiar to many Muslim and Arab communities.
(Image: KUSI/Jezebel.com)
The 32 year-old Alwadi died of wounds inflicted in a brutal beating in her home, which had, according to her daughter, been preceded by a racial threat. “A week ago they left a letter saying, ‘This is our country, not yours, you terrorists,” she recalled when speaking to the media. “So my mom ignored that, thinking (it was) kids playing around, pranking. And so the day they hurt her, they left it again and it said the same thing.”
That such racial invective could be dismissed as a childish prank exposes how deeply racist and anti-immigrant sentiment have seeped into public culture. And if the emerging evidence ultimately confirms the community’s fears, then we’ll have yet another example of the deadly, yet sadly predictable and preventable, consequences of this entrenched racism.
Despite the growing anxieties about post-9/11 racist hysteria, the attack was a deep trauma to both the family and the surrounding community, which includes an estimated 30,000 to 40,000 immigrants from the Middle East. Hanif Mohebi, executive director of the San Diego chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, told the Los Angeles Times, “We’ve had some stuff in the past — insults mostly — but nothing physical. This is shocking to the community, the state and even the country.”
The back story also suggests the ramifications of tensions between Muslim, South Asian and Arab communities and law enforcement since 9/11. Police noted the family had not come forward about the earlier threat.
JOS at Feministing says that apparent reluctance to report the threat “is not surprising. When your community has been the target of intense racial profiling and been portrayed in the media as criminals, especially since 9/11, it makes sense you wouldn’t trust law enforcement. ”
So what can communities do and who can they trust? With the killing of Trayvon Martin, we’ve seen people rallying around the country to raise awareness not only about the pervasive bias and hostility that besieges communities of color--but also about the harm that is perpetuated and abetted by police indifference and institutional racism.
While grassroots campaigns and social media alone couldn’t bring justice for victims of racist and anti-immigrant hatred, it can raise people’s consciousness about what communities will, and will not, stand for.
CNN reported:
“social media users quickly compared Alawadi’s death to that of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, calling both hate crimes, and drawing a parallel between a hijab and a hoodie… On Sunday morning, the authors of the parenting blog, Momstrology, tweeted: ‘A teen murdered for wearing hooded sweater. An Iraqi woman beaten to death for wearing a head scarf. Our hearts ache for you.’”
The next time community members are told it’s an isolated incident, at least they can reach out in solidarity and know they’re not alone in trying to connect the dots.
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21 Comments so far
Show AllYes, left unchecked, racism kills. The RW talk show hosts and politicians supporting racists agendas, must be proud.
Thank you, Michelle, as always. Indeed: "what can communities do and who can they trust?"
One of the ultimate truths of life, Michelle, is that we are ALL connected. What happens to one of us, happens to all. A truth none of us in the U.S. has been very good at comprehending, and living from.
For decades now, homeless people have been the targets of hate. Homeless people have been killed by bigots and by cops. Where was the outrage? Did YOUR "community" protest these beatings and deaths?
You see, when we are silent about the deaths of those we consider not related to us, those we consider beneath us, of no value, it is very likely that eventually it WILL concern us.
Right you are.
" he foun’ he didn’t have no soul that was his’n. Says he foun’ he jus’ got a little piece of a great big soul. Says a wilderness ain’t no good, ’cause his little piece of a soul wasn’t no good ’less it was with the rest, an’ was whole." Grapes of Wrath
Beautiful quotation...thank you so much.
In the Lakota prayer ---Mitakuye Oyasin--We are all related.
So many wise people have reminded us of this for so long... we Rugged Individualist 'Murkins just don't seem to get it.
There is nothing "isolated" about this brutal murder. Murdering the innocent who seem to be different than what is considered to be "American" is the history of the Americas beginning with Columbus. It is as American as apple pie and deeply ingrained in the cultural psychosis of our "civilization". But There is much more to her murder than it being just a "hate crime".
The homicidal knuckle draggers responsible for this sadistic crime put an Iraqi mother into the category of a "terrorist". A significant percentage of Americans bought and still believe the bogus Iraq weapons of mass destruction war spin (the mushroom cloud language immortalized by Chevron fascist Condy Rice) promoted by the Bush administration and the mainstream corporate war-mongering media.
While our government is the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today, the public has been conditioned to accept the eternal "war on terror" used as a smokescreen to enact the global corporate agenda of gaining hegemony over various carbon based resources and world energy markets. Halliburton and Exxon, as examples, are doing very well in Iraq and hope to exploit Central Asian resources via Afghanistan.
Shaima Alawadi was killed by The White House, Congress, the Pentagon, the C.I.A., mainstream corporate media, Wall Street, members of the 1% elite who profit from international imperial crimes as well as the persistence of our violent and xenophobic culture fueled by ignorance beyond comprehension.
And of course compassion for the suffering of others has never been an important part of the American world view.
" the public has been conditioned to accept the eternal "war on terror""
Not all of us.
Executive Extrajudical Executions Above; Executive Extrajudicial Executions Below
Well said and this saves me from going there as well. This is not an isolated incident and they have been going on since 9/11. See what the NYPD has been doing for years in conjunction with the CIA on the entire Muslim communities. Continuing to state these are isolated events, not the American way, is bullsh** and our history proves different. It's the same as the WH repeatedly stating another atrocity was committed by a rogue soldier and is not typical of our brave men and women:Bullsh**. These are racial crimes. These are war crimes. And all roads lead to the White House.
And all roads lead to the White House.
And they also lead from the False Flag attacks making Muslims everywhere hated.
But as many mentioned, this hatred for 'others' is nothing new.
This country has been killing others forever.
The statement: First they came for............ now it is all of us.
With all the loss of freedoms from the FF attacks, to the new mega data mining center in UT, I am with the idea stated yesterday.
Since we no longer have freedoms, can we quit fighting wars for them?
Insantiy isn't all some on Fox News have played it up to be.
>>"The statement: First they came for............ now it is all of us."<<
Absolutely! Occupiers cry about police harassment, but where were they all these years as homeless people were harassed and beaten and killed by the cops?
Yup, finally the chickens come home to roost.
This is who we are as a nation. It's our blindness to the humanity and rights of every person, our love of violence, our arrogant exceptionalism, our gleeful embrace of collective punishment, that permits incidents like these and our endless wars.
Sadly, most of our teachers, professors, journalists, judges and clergy--those who are supposed to tell the truth and uphold principle--adhere to sicker values than the average American.
Well, we can say "It is all them", or we can commit to changing it.
" the public has been conditioned to accept the eternal "war on terror""
"Not all of us."
True, as there are always exceptions to valid generalizations.
A pledge to the American flag. Blind faith in religion. Support the troops. Why can't we replace these racist ideological commitments with a blind faith in humanity, a pledge to my fellow human beings and a support for an interconnected web of life everywhere? Could it be because it doesn't play out vey well in a society immersed in a culture of consumerism, celebrity worship and perpetual war? 8,000 years of so-called civilization and we still haven't been able to overcome that seemingly minor hurdle.
I share your concerns, and also ponder about how evolution and civilization have apparently accomplished nothing. But a minor hurdle for one is an ultimate profit for another. And since today everything is measured by "GDP" only "money" actually rules or has a voice the Citizens United ruling was far more important it seems than even Roe V Wade, the 13th or the 16th amendments to our "Constitution".
Today anyone that questions and all others are seen as adversaries and "terrorists". And officially we are at "war" with them all. We can torture, we can hold without due process. It is our official "credo". It is a world gone insane! It doesn't really matter which party holds power. Ultimately the finacial world is all that matters. Money is the only thing that matters. Even our incumbent president plays the game.
Who to trust? Simple answer: No one.
How many isolated incidents does it take before it becomes a trend? We've had "flu" scares based on less than this. Why isn't some committee of the 01% addressing this new menace? Why hasn't the "G" squad formed a committee to deal with it?
Here in California we'e had Hindis killed by dumb shits because they wore turbans. We have Mosques defiled. Yet we're to believe these are isolated incidences?
I am going to say it aloud. It's no coincidence that today we fear all things Islamic. Especially since it coincides with a period when more blacks have converted to that Abrahamic faith. They make an easy target. Why pick that faith out of the three Abrahamic faiths to demonize one more than another? In the past Hitler chose the Jews, today we pick the Muslims. Why? Because the 01% needs a boogieman and the Jews are untouchable. And Islam is an easy target.
Damn the "Constituion (torpedos), all speed ahead. This is not an isolated incident...it's a symptom of a major disease.
Why don't we all just wait for the outcome of the police investigation before we start jumping to conclusions about this horrific crime. This particular homicide is very unusual and everyone is suspect until the facts prove otherwise. Let the police investigators do their job and then you can opine to your heart's delight. Meanwhile, the first rule of homicide investigation is: DON'T ASSUME ANYTHING!.
Pacrimco: Thanks for a voice of reason. Lots of assuming going on here.
Nationwide, Catholic colleges and universities now have higher percentages of Muslim students than both public and non-Catholic private four-year institutions; a fact which I am very proud of. Besides the academic excellence, could it be they see people living their faith, believing their faith as they do theirs? Men and women immersed in social justice live together, work together, pray together and disdain the rhetoric of hatred which promotes a battered innocent as an "ongoing investigation". May the silence of this mother's cry resonate in the hearts of all Americans to bring us a dialog of....
Peace