Michigan – Muslim Americans Fear Demonization Of Islam After Mass Shooting

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    Farhan Khan (C), brother-in-law of San Bernardino shooting suspect Syed Farook, is consoled by LA Executive Director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations Hussam Ayloush during a news conference in Anaheim, California, December 2, 2015. REUTERS/Mike Blake Michigan – Muslim Americans fear their religion will be demonized and Islamophobia will spread after a young Muslim couple was accused of carrying out one of the bloodiest mass killings in the United States.

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    Across the country, Muslim Americans responded with shock and outrage after a shooting in which authorities said Syed Rizwan Farook, 28, and Tashfeen Malik, 27, stormed a holiday party attended by San Bernardino County employees in California on Wednesday, killing 14 people and wounding 21. [nL1N13S0HF]

    “I was at the gym yesterday while the shooting was taking place and all the TVs were showing that footage and all I could keep thinking to myself is ‘God, I hope they don’t have any Eastern descent, not just Middle Eastern, anything we’d associate with a Muslim’,” said Adam Hashem, 32, in Dearborn, a Detroit suburb with one of the country’s largest Muslim populations.

    “We’re all worried. We’re all concerned,” he said.

    It was the deadliest U.S. mass shooting since the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre three years ago. While the motivation remained unclear as authorities investigated the attack, details of Farook and Malik began to emerge. Farook was described as a second-generation American born in Illinois and raised by Pakistani parents. Malik was born in Pakistan and lived in Saudi Arabia until she was introduced to Farook.[nL1N13S0B3]

    San Bernardino police said they found pipe bombs and several thousands rounds of ammunition at the residence of the couple, who died in a shoot-out with police.

    In Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the Attari Supermarket bustled on Thursday with customers shopping for Middle Eastern products.

    “In every culture and in every religion there are bad apples that will spoil the rest of the apples. That has happened toward us,” said Dawod Dawod, a 25-year-old Muslim American, who manages the store that his family has owned for a decade.

    Between taking orders over the phone, Dawod said he was concerned that politicians will use the mass shooting as a way to further demonize Muslims. He noted Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s endorsement of the idea of creating a Muslim database. “It’s scary.” he said. “Ninety-nine percent of Muslims are hardworking, good people.”

    Muslim community groups condemned the massacre and urged the public not to blame Islam or Muslims.

    “The Muslim community stands shoulder to shoulder with our fellow Americans in repudiating any twisted mindset that would claim to justify such sickening acts of violence,” said Hussam Ayloush, an executive director at the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

    Within hours of the shooting, his group had organized a news conference with Los Angeles Muslim leaders and the brother of suspected shooter Malik to condemn the assault. The speed at which they went on live television underlined the depth of concerns in a community already buffeted by a rise in anti-Muslim rhetoric this year and increased public scrutiny after the Nov. 13 attacks in Paris that killed 130 people and were claimed by Islamic State militants.

    Some Muslims say they have felt singled out during a U.S. presidential race that has tapped a vein of anger and bigotry – from comments by Trump to those by fellow Republican candidate Ben Carson, who said in September Muslims were unfit for the presidency of the United States. There are some 2.8 million Muslims in the country.

    “HORRIFIED”

    Some Muslims questioned whether this week’s shooting will embolden supporters of Trump, who is current front-runner to be his party’s nominee in the November 2016 election and who has backed the idea of requiring all Muslims living in the United States to register in a special database as a counter-terrorism measure.

    Critics have also accused Trump of stirring resentment toward Muslims by asserting that he saw thousands of Muslims in New Jersey celebrating the destruction of the World Trade Center towers on Sept. 11, 2001. That claim has been disputed by public officials.

    Faizul Khan, 74, an Imam at the Islamic Society of the Washington Area, said he was “horrified” by the San Bernadino shooting. “Unfortunately people don’t understand that we as Muslims, we basically want to promote what is good and just for the entire humanity.”

    He said he feared the shooting would strengthen calls to increase surveillance on mosques.

    Achraf Issam, 22, national spokesman for the Ahmadiyya Muslim Youth Association in Silver Spring, Maryland, said it makes no more sense to say that Islam led to the San Bernardino shootings than to say Christianity led to an attack on the Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado last week by a suspect police have named as Robert Lewis Dear.

    “No one should say that because this couple is Muslim that it led them to commit those acts,” he said.

    That sentiment was echoed by Sara Nabhan, 20, a junior majoring in biology at the University of Houston who was born in Jordan and came to Texas when she was 2 years old.

    “Two people’s actions do not constitute a whole population’s actions,” she said.

    Jersey City real-estate agent Magdy Ali, 52 and of Egyptian descent, said he uses the name Alex when working to avoid conflict with people who distrust Islam. He said he expects Trump to use Wednesday’s massacre to push for anti-Muslim measures such as monitoring of U.S. mosques.

    “We are in a jam right now,” he said.


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    37 Comments
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    puppydogs
    puppydogs
    8 years ago

    Oh Pluzzee!!!

    Let’s stop portraying them as the victims here.

    chaimyhirsch
    chaimyhirsch
    8 years ago

    Why would they worry?
    Who would ever make the connection between Muslims and terror?
    It’s just a coincidence….
    Ask our beloved president and smart Secretary of state, there is no reason to suspect that their being Muslims had anything to do with that…

    curious
    curious
    8 years ago

    Its not just two peoples actions. It is also unheard of to have couples come together in fighting atture to shoot up one of their places of employment. This is terrorism. Dont be stupid!

    HankM
    HankM
    8 years ago

    Jews are no longer welcome in Europe, and we’ve done nothing wrong! So what are these folks ranting about?

    8 years ago

    how bout they leave or stop being terrorist? ? ?

    SGMoish
    SGMoish
    8 years ago

    While the rest of the world fears for their lives the Muslim world fears of “demonization”

    YossiP
    YossiP
    8 years ago

    Media Hogwash and spin… If we’re going to generalize and say “muslim americans” ..then eat this… If “muslim americans” were innocent and really feared demonization, all they would have to do is denounce these acts, thereby separating themselves from it… Instead they fear what they know they deserve…!!!

    stamm
    stamm
    8 years ago

    oy vey, a big rachmunus on the muslims, nebach nebach
    i have news for you i feel worse for the innocent people who have to live in terror on a daily basis

    favish
    favish
    8 years ago

    As if this is a isolated occurrence and because of this 1 incident they fear demonization!
    1) Twin towers
    2) Madrid
    3) London Underground
    4) Islamists all over the globe slaughtering even their own
    5) Suicide Bombers all over etc etc
    What a joke (The headline)

    favish
    favish
    8 years ago

    When we’ll see 1,000,000 Muslim march against these Islamists then we might believe……

    8 years ago

    I’m sick and tired of the “bad apple” excuse. Let’s take a closer and more objective look. The overwhelming majority of acts of terror are committed by Muslims. The population of Muslims around the world condone it, accept it, and justify it to varying degrees. Shamefully, our own Obama administration does the same. It is true that there are billions of Muslims around the world that have never committed an act of terror. But they preach a lifestyle in which murdering in the name of their religion is noble, and they classify all others, particularly Jews, as legitimate targets. Well, I consider anyone that brands me a target worthless, and suspect, whether they possess a weapon or not. Their teachings, their preachings, and their behavior all support the obvious conclusion that Islam = terror. I will forever be suspicious of any Muslim, and it will be his/her responsibility to prove they are different. This is not “politically correct”, but I don’t care a bit. Let the originators and supporters of this corrupt idea of political correctness be the victims of the next terror actions.

    Boochie
    Boochie
    8 years ago

    I don’t know …call a spade a spade at the end of the day Muslims need to do some sole searching, and figure out why most mass killings are comitited by followers of Islam

    8 years ago

    And this is precisely the only reason the terrorist’s brother in law came out to feign ignorance about his terrorist relative! Don’t believe for a minute that he didn’t know anything!

    8 years ago

    It’s too late. And I have no sympathy.

    Isaac1
    Isaac1
    8 years ago

    After every terror attack, the rotting AP pulls out this pathetic story. Getting real tired

    BLONDI
    BLONDI
    8 years ago

    Walks like a duck, sounds like a duck…must be a duck

    Logical_Abe
    Logical_Abe
    8 years ago

    Muslims fear demonization of Islam. Don’t blame America or any other country because it’s your own fault or the fault with your religion. And yes, every Arab, even the best one, cannot be trusted anymore and is a suspect, whether in America, Canada, Europe, Israel or Australia.

    54321
    54321
    8 years ago

    Get it straight once and for all, no-one is demonizing anyone, Islam is the demon himself.

    hashomer
    hashomer
    8 years ago

    Arab and Islamic culture is a failure. That’s why they are migrating to the West.

    8 years ago

    Muslims now…yidden next. There are as many crazy yidden as crazy Muslims. Don’t demonize over 1 billion people because they will blame the yidden for their torment.

    czyrankevic
    czyrankevic
    8 years ago

    i would rather they fear for thie lives than about thir religon

    DanielBarbaz
    DanielBarbaz
    8 years ago

    I don’t understand why they are so opposed to mosques being monitored? Unless they have something to hide!

    shwippy
    shwippy
    8 years ago

    “Not every Muslim is a terrorist, bet it seems that practically every terrorist is a Muslim”…..
    Nuff said

    HeshyEkes
    HeshyEkes
    8 years ago

    A few bad apples spoil the whole bushel? Probably not what she meant to say, but true! (She meant that because of a few rotten apples the perception of the public is that the entire bushel is bad.)

    8 years ago

    I don’t normally sympathize with liberals, but I find this case an exception.

    Within hours of 9/11, Guliani wisely announced to the masses the importance to remember that our Pakistani neighbor down the block was not the one who committed this crime, we should not attack them, even if the masses are very angry.This is to prevent the witch hunts which took place after such events over the last half century, after the war, when the ignorant masses nearly exiled anyone who looked Japanese to segregation camps. Or the mob hunts which swept the country for anyone who looked russian during the cold war.

    It’s at times like these, when emotions are high, when the need for education is critical.

    Let’s not forget how our emotions felt about anyone we knew who were rumored to have a mental illness after the Leiby Kletzky crisis. Some of us were ready to mass arest and lock them up. But then, after we calmed down, we slowly learned that people with mental illness are just as decent, dependable, and trustworthy individuals, and many of them posess quality middos to an ethical standard far greater than many of our “normal.”

    This is why it’s so important during such events for responsible leaders to raise awareness and education among the uneducated, shtetle generation that not every black is out to get you, not every mental illness is a “mishugerner”, not evrything you heard about him from the yentah is nessacerily true, and not all Middle Eastern looking folks are even goyim.

    Leave it to the yentehs in the Ezras Nashim to arrange emergency asifos on how to lock up ” mishugeners” into hospitals, or arrest all the Muslims in America.

    I steer clear of these ignorants. At least some of us are more advanced. Educated.