Arizona shootings: Let’s all “refudiate” collective blame

Last updated on: January 19, 2011 at 5:30 am by Hesham Hassaballa

Arizona shootings: Let’s all “refudiate” collective blame 2011-01-19T05:30:08-04:00 Hesham Hassaballa

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Standing on her own

As the shock and horror of what transpired on January 8, when a “deranged gunman” opened fire and killed 6 people outside a Tuscon grocery store, continues to subside, I cannot help but be bewildered by the extreme efforts of some in the punditocracy to deflect any sort of collective blame for what happened. Commentator after commentator, mostly on the Right, continually stress that the actions of this man, Jared Lee Loughner, have nothing to do with the Conservative movement or the millions of Americans who call themselves so. Writing in the National Review Online, Jonah Goldberg states:

The effort to assign blame to conservatives or tea partiers is unfair slanderous nonsense, driven by a desire to demonize fellow Americans and drive conservative views outside the bounds of legitimate discourse. Indeed, even if conservative rhetoric — or, sigh, Facebook maps – were misconstrued by a tiny fraction of a fraction of the roughly 40% of Americans who call themselves conservative to the point where they committed a violent act, it would still be outrageous to assign that intent to mainstream Republican or conservative figures or to the ideas they espouse.

Quoting the sainted figure Ronald Reagan, Sarah Palin said: “‘We must reject the idea that every time a law’s broken, society is guilty rather than the lawbreaker. It is time to restore the American precept that each individual is accountable for his actions.'”

She then continued: “Acts of monstrous criminality stand on their own. They begin and end with the criminals who commit them, not collectively with all the citizens of a state, not with those who listen to talk radio, not with maps of swing districts used by both sides of the aisle, not with law-abiding citizens who respectfully exercise their First Amendment rights at campaign rallies, not with those who proudly voted in the last election.”

To be clear, Mr. Goldberg and Mrs. Palin are exactly correct. It is totally outrageous to assign the blame on an entire segment of the American population for the actions of, to use his words, “a tiny fraction of a fraction” of that segment. Yet, when it comes to Muslims committing violence, such extreme efforts to deflect blame upon all Muslims or Islam itself is almost never seen, even though the acts of violence are committed by said “tiny fraction of a fraction” of Muslims.

Take the recent FBI-orchestrated bombing attempt in Portland, Oregon as an example. The mosque which the bombing suspect, Mohamed Osman Mohamud, attended was revealed, and it was deliberately set on fire. Almost always, when a Muslim suspect is apprehended, the mosque which he either regularly or even occasionally attended is highlighted. Why?

On Jared Lee Loughner’s Wikipedia page, It delineates his history in excruciating detail. Yet, there is no mention of the church with which he may have been affiliated (in fact, it mentions that he was critical of religion). This is completely appropriate, because knowledge of the church with which he may have been affiliated is completely irrelevant. The congregants of that church have nothing to do with his actions.

In her statement, Sarah Palin lashes out at journalists who had the audacity to link the actions of Jared Lee Loughner with her infamous map on which individual Congressional districts, including that of Gabby Giffords, were targeted with graphics of gun cross-hairs: “…journalists and pundits should not manufacture a blood libel that serves only to incite the very hatred and violence they purport to condemn. That is reprehensible.” Of course, it is not known for certain that this map was the motivation behind Loughner’s massacre. And so many are quick, rightly, to point this out.

Yet, imagine, for one moment, if a “MuhammadPAC” had published a map of Muslim-unfriendly Congressional districts and had cross-hairs or even little scimitars on them. If a Muslim gunman had then opened fire in one of these districts, is there any doubt that there would be an immediate linkage? Is there any doubt that this gunman, and “MuhammadPAC,” would be considered as full-blown terrorists? Is there any doubt that the entire Muslim community would be blamed for the attack?

Moreover, Mrs. Palin herself used this “collective blame” tactic when speaking out against the so-called “Ground-Zero Mosque,” which is a local, New York issue, and issued a call to the entire American Muslim community: “Ground Zero Mosque supporters: doesn’t it stab you in the heart, as it does ours throughout the heartland? Peaceful Muslims, pls refudiate.” What does this mean, exactly? Those Muslims who support the Park51 project are not peaceful? And what does the entire American Muslim community have to do with the Park51 project, which is, again, a local New York City issue?

In fact, this sort of collective blame, which the right is vigorously attacking when it seems to be directed at them, seems to be behind the thinking of the new Chair of the House Homeland Security Committee, Rep. Peter King (R-NY). Speaking to Frank Gaffney on his radio show, Mr. King said:

Yeah, and Frank, this is very unusual for our country because despite a person’s ethnic background or religious background, when a war begins, we’re all Americans. But in this case, this is not the situation. And whether it’s pressure, whether it’s cultural tradition, whatever, the fact is the Muslim community does not cooperate anywhere near to the extent that it should. The irony is that we’re living in two different worlds. One is the real world that I find when I’m talking with police officers, talking with federal law enforcement authorities. And when I raise the question of Muslim cooperation, they look at me like ‘oh of course not, no there’s no cooperation, we don’t anticipate that.’ You know, ‘We never expect cooperation.’ They try but hardly ever get it.

Not only is this patently false, as the Muslim community has played an instrumental role in breaking up potential terrorist plots, but it speaks to a larger sense that American Muslims are not “real” Americans. They are foreign, strange, and not to be trusted. This is probably why attacks by Muslims such as Nidal Malik Hassan did not generate such deep introspection about civility, political discourse, and the like. Nidal Malik Hassan, even though he was American-born, just doesn’t seem like “one of us,” whereas Jared Lee Loughner does.

In his moving speech at the memorial service for the dead and wounded in Tuscon, President Obama said:

But at a time when our discourse has become so sharply polarized -– at a time when we are far too eager to lay the blame for all that ails the world at the feet of those who happen to think differently than we do -– it’s important for us to pause for a moment and make sure that we’re talking with each other in a way that heals, not in a way that wounds…

I echo this call and urge it be applied to all of America’s citizens, including her Muslim ones. Jonah Goldberg’s words are completely correct, and they apply just as much to the Muslim community as they do to conservatives. Sarah Palin is absolutely right in saying that, “Acts of monstrous criminality stand on their own. They begin and end with the criminals who commit them…,” and that includes criminals who have a Muslim name or background.

The tragedy in Tuscon has deeply wounded our country, and I hope and pray that we as a country as made stronger as a result of what has happened. And if, God forbid, another Muslim is accused of plotting an act of terror, I hope and pray that people remember the words of our President: “What we cannot do is use this tragedy as one more occasion to turn on each other. That we cannot do. That we cannot do.”

Hesham A. Hassaballa is a Chicago physician and writer. He is the co-author of “The Beliefnet Guide to Islam,” published by Doubleday in 2006. His blog is called God, Faith, and a Pen. His latest book is Noble Brother: The Story of the Prophet Muhammad in Poetry (Faithful Word Press).

Commentary

Hesham Hassaballa

Previous Post

January 18, 2011

Dr. Mehmet Oz: My Muslim identity

Next Post

January 21, 2011 Tunisia turmoil: Dare we hope for democracy?

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category 2012 Elections 30 Dayd 30 Writers (2017) 30 Days 30 Writers 30 Days 30 Writers (2015) 30 Days 30 Writers (2016) 30 Days 30 Writers (2018) 30 Days 30 Writers 2017 Ali Asadullah Ali Eteraz Alper Bilgili Arthur Richards Asides Asma Uddin Black History Month Briefings Charles Turner Commentary Cyrus McGoldrick Eman H Aly Fatimah Popal Hajj Hajj and Dhul Hijjah Hesham Hassaballa Hisham Hellyer Ibrahim Abusharif Inas Younis Irfan Yusuf Jalal Baig Junaid Afeef Laila Alawa Laila Alwala Mas'ood Cajee Muqtedar Khan Nakia Jackson Newsmakers Parvez Ahmed Podcasts Rabia Chaudry Rafia Zakaria Ramadan Reviews Safiyyah Ally Saud Inam Shahed Amanullah Svend White The Opinionated Oncologist Visions Wajahat Ali Zahed Amanullah Zahir Janmohamed Zainab Khan

Select a Month November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 April 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006 September 2006 August 2006 July 2006 June 2006 May 2006 April 2006 March 2006 February 2006 January 2006 December 2005 November 2005 October 2005 September 2005 August 2005 July 2005 June 2005 May 2005 April 2005 March 2005 February 2005 January 2005 December 2004 November 2004 October 2004 September 2004 August 2004 July 2004 June 2004 May 2004 April 2004 March 2004 February 2004 January 2004 December 2003 November 2003 October 2003 September 2003 August 2003 July 2003 June 2003 May 2003 April 2003 March 2003 February 2003 January 2003 December 2002 November 2002 October 2002 September 2002 August 2002 July 2002 June 2002 May 2002 April 2002 March 2002

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

In Jude, what are believers told to build themselves up in?

Select your answer to see how you score.

The knowledge of God Christian community The fear of the Lord Their most holy faith