Campus Times > Opinions

VT shooting brings forth anti-Muslim prejudices

Aunali Khaku

http://www.campustimes.org/2.4982/1.1113671-1.1113671

Published: Wednesday, September 19, 2007

As the emotions generated by the Virginia Tech massacre settle and experts
decipher what went wrong, let us look back and critically analyze this tragedy
from a different perspective. It is interesting to note that Seung-Hui Cho escaped
the "terrorist" tag, even though terror is exactly what he sought to inflict.
Furthermore, this incident is referred to as a "massacre" and not a "terrorist
attack."

Like most people, as news about the incident spread, I found my heart sinking.
However, as an American Muslim, my anxiety levels were super high. While I
intuitively knew that no true Muslim would do this, I feared that some crazed
lunatic who did not represent us might. I prayed earnestly to not let this be a
Muslim. So when the descriptions of the killer surfaced, I felt relieved that
Muslims would not have to yet again apologize for something that they had nothing
to do with - I was wrong!

It seems that "Islamophobia" in America is worse than I imagined. Fairly rapidly,

speculations about the Islamic connection to this incident became widespread.
Mainstream media and popular blogs reeked with anti-Islamic sentiments. One Web
site talked about blood sacrifices in Islam and concluded: "which leads me to
think that there might have been Islamic motivation behind the madness he
displayed." Another cynically stated, "I'm sure it's just a coincidence, right?
[…] Maybe 'Ismail Ax' is the name of a friend of his. Or maybe he wanted to remind
himself to buy an Ax for his friend Ismail for next Ramadan." Yet another claimed
that "Radical Islam Loves Cho." Needless to say, these are baseless accusations.
Baseless but not benign, for this recurrent demonization of Islam and Muslims
reflects the deep-rooted Islamophobia in America and has a profound impact on the
social psyche of American Muslims!

Let us shift gears for a moment and consider this: Cho's videos were broadcast and
his actual statements repeated again and again on national media. There were
absolutely no references to Islam, but repeated references to Christ and
Christianity. Cho explicitly stated, "Thanks to you I die like Jesus Christ, to
inspire generations of the weak and the defenseless.'' If this was a motivating
factor in his senseless rampage, then why, I ask you, was this not termed
Christian terrorism? If we substitute a revered Muslim figure's name in place of
Jesus, in this quote, would this not then most definitely be labeled "Islamic
terrorism?" (As a side note, Muslims also revere Jesus but do not believe he is
divine, and as author of this article, I do not at all intend to call this
Christian terrorism, or even think that it is; I only use it as an example.)

Why is it that the term "terrorist" is reserved mainly for killers who happen to
be Muslim? Timothy McVeigh is called the Oklahoma City bomber, not a terrorist.
The perpetrators of Columbine were shooters. The recent burning of the Neturei
Karta synagogue was not Jewish terrorism. The Israeli army's destruction of Jenin,
killing 52, was a massacre, not state-sponsored terror. The killing of civilians
in Fallujah, Haditha and other such campaigns of terror are never referred to as
terrorism, although that is exactly what they are!
While it may be easy to denounce this as self-pitiful thinking, this is not an
isolated occurrence. Time and again, Islam will go to trial for every little wrong
committed by any Muslim. In fact, this permeates other aspects of life, as well.
When Muslim women voluntarily don the veil, they are considered oppressed, whereas
when Catholic nuns do the same, they are practicing their faith. Why the double
standard? Why the irony?

To me, this is blatant and dangerous Islamophobia. The roots of Islamophobia,

however, are much deeper. When one examines the writings of historians of the
Middle Ages, one is struck by the sheer bigotry toward Muslims. Islamic
contributions to science and philosophy are minimized by contending that Muslims
never contributed anything to civilization; they merely translated the Greek
works. This, of course, goes against all evidence. It was not until fairly
recently that the works of Avicenna (Ibn Sina) were still used in medical schools
like Harvard as primary texts. Muslim contributions in fields like algebra,
logarithms, chemistry and ophthalmology were so fundamental that these disciplines
bear names with Arabic roots.

As American Muslims, we love this country and what it stands for, yet we find
ourselves castigated from within and without. If we support America blindly,
despite its atrocities abroad, the rest of the world sees us as sellouts; if we
speak against America's unjust foreign policies, then we become unpatriotic and
traitors and even risk deportation (and there are many such cases). American
Muslims are caught between a rock and a hard place.

What happened at Virginia Tech was shocking and painfully tragic, and this is by
no means meant to take away from that tragedy. Yet just as we can learn from every
problem, let us also learn that perhaps some of our hidden biases may be false and
dangerous. As America grieves the loss of its brightest, the media has a duty to
investigate and report. Yet, it also has a duty to be fair. We all grieve together
for the victims and their families, but we also hope and pray that our fellow
Americans rise above this false, narrow, negative stereotypical view of Islam.
Racism is racism whether it is against Arabs, Muslims, Jews or others and can't be
good for America.

In my humble and honest opinion, America needs a big-time paradigm change in its
attitude toward Muslims. Americans need to educate themselves on what Islam is and
who the Muslims are. Ignorance is no longer bliss.

Khaku is a medical student.