Cover of TIME Magazine
On Tuesday night, a NYC cab driver was stabbed several times by Michael Enright, a reportedly “intoxicated” passenger. Enright allegedly stabbed Ahmed H. Sharif after Enright asked him whether or not he was Muslim. According to USA Today,
In a statement Wednesday the from New York Taxi Workers Alliance, Sharif warned his fellow cabbies. “Right now the public sentiment is very serious” because of the ground zero mosque debate, he said. “All drivers should be more careful…I have been here more than 25 years. I have been driving a taxi more than 15 years. All my four kids were born here. I never feel this hopeless and insecure before,” he said.
The incident sparked immediate debate among pundits, bloggers, and blogger-pundits alike, as many tried to analyze whether the stabbing was not only a hate crime but a reflection of growing Islamophobia in America (Max Fisher over at The Atlantic Wire has a good run-down of the commentary). Juan Cole didn’t blame Enright (who apparently works for Intersections International, a New York-based “global initiative dedicated to promoting justice, reconciliation and peace across lines of faith…and other boundaries that divide humanity,” which had recently announced their support for Park 51, previously known as the Cordoba House, more famously dubbed as the ‘Ground Zero Mosque’.). Cole blamed the Republican National Committee. He wrote:
I have said for some time that the American Right’s scapegoating of ordinary American Muslims– Muslims who serve in the US military, die for our country, invest in our cities, find cures for diseases, save our children’s lives in hospitals– would eventually cause pogroms and get people killed. A New York cabbie came close to dying for the sake of the G.O.P. Tuesday night.
So what ultimately drove Enright to stab this cab driver? Was it the messaging of the RNC, as Cole suggests, that incited violence? Or was this an isolated incident that shouldn’t be taken as a reflection of a larger phenomenon?
It’s a tough question. Taking the stabbing as a reflection of growing Islamaphobia in America would ultimately be the same thing as buying into the notion that Faisal Shahzad, the wannabe Time Square bomber, was a reflection of homegrown extremism, wouldn’t it? At the same time, at what point do isolated incidents – Pastor Terry Jones calling for a bonfire of Qurans on September 11th in Florida, protests and fear-mongering over Park 51, and a stabbing – all motivated by a fear/hatred/intolerance of Islam – become part of a wider trend? Moreover, if the media didn’t disproportionately cover these issues within the Islamaphobia context, would we be having this conversation?
Update: (via @alexlobov and @venkatananth) Another day, another drunken anti-Islam incident. This time, “an intoxicated man entered a mosque in Queens on Wednesday evening and proceeded to urinate on prayer rugs,” reported MSNBC. In Fresno, California, there have been a spate of hate crimes committed against a mosque. The imam walked into the Madera Islamic Center today to find a pair of menacing signs, including one that read, “Wake up America, the enemy is here.“
Unfortunately, it’s a failure of political leadership that starts in the White House. Across issue areas, it’s a rarity in American politics that our elected leaders do what they’ve been elected to do: LEAD. Not govern by referendum or respond to whichever way the wind blows, but help to shape the public discourse in a responsible way that’s consistent with our national values.
Why doesn’t this happen more? It’s simple: fear. Fear of unpopularity, fear of losing, fear that some imagined positive effect resulting from the implementation of a broader political agenda will be imperiled. It’s too easy to appeal to people’s baser motives and leverage their anxiety and ignorance than it is to shame the intolerant and tell Americans that more is expected of them.
People are always going to act like assholes, especially people that ARE assholes. But would they be so willing to behave in socially inappropriate, criminal ways if not for the general tone of acceptance and encouragement of “resistance to Islamist influence” that’s being stoked by so much of our contemporary socio-political rhetoric? I doubt it.
tl;dr version: yes, this is part of a broader trend, and yes, the general tone of Islamophobia and the media’s coverage of it have helped to accelerate that trend.
Well said, especially the point about the media. Max Fisher tweeted that he think this phase will pass, given American history – but I don’t know how similar memes were covered by the media before. And Islamophobia, as others have noted, has been adopted as a strategy by Republicans – a party that was in charge of America for 8 years not too long ago.
So there is real political support for this divisive and dangerous discourse,backed not just by the likes of Coulter and Beck but by an entire news network (some have said that Rupert Murdoch is more responsible than anyone else for shifting America to the right…even though that statement needs to be examined carefully).
More worryingly, this debate is not staying within US borders – Canada has also seen a shift to the right, with a previously spotless human rights record now muddied and greater conservatism than ever before.
This adds credence to the theory of global journalism ethics, which says that journalists must now be aware of the impact that their work has beyond the borders of their traditional areas of influence – in an increasingly globalized world, what Tim says in Kentucky matters a lot to Tariq in Karachi.
Here’s a great add-on article by Marc Lynch for Foreign Policy:
http://lynch.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2010/08/25/us_anti_islam_movement_angering_mainstream_arabs_not_extremists
“Where the anti-mosque movement and escalating anti-Islam rhetoric is really resonating is with the Arab mainstream — that vast middle ground which had hoped that the election of Barack Obama would mark a real change from the Bush administration but have grown increasingly disappointed. The mosque issue has been covered heavily on Arab satellite TV stations such as al-Jazeera, and the images of angry Americans chanting slogans and waving signs against Islam have resonated much like the images of angry Arabs burning American flags and denouncing U.S. policy did with American viewers after 9/11. The recent public opinion surveys showing widespread hostility towards Islam among Americans have also gotten a lot of attention.”
Briefly, it’s about American perception of diplomacy. Answer this why haven’t ummah address this. Saudia Arab, Gulf states,Egpyt and Muslim nations. Facade secular governments benefit. Off provides of former glory’ Wall street. Call my comments vague no America is Lie! Many of
you brothers expect us to confrom. To American ways not
acknowledging Allah such. A laugh but not America EU and
Canada. Harsh upon Islamic culture were are leaders when
need. The to protect the Prophet and Nation! All Puppets!
Your English is fantastic! That can’t be achieved by mixing Vodka and Whiskey alone? What else did you mix?
LOL!
Even in the tamed West (good old Canada) – things are changing quickly.
There are MORE incidents (that are conveniently unreported) and we only hear about them through an emotionally shaken imam speaking on behalf of some distraught family or other during the Khutba.
Recent one was where a woman in a mall (North York) with her kids, was beaten and her Hijab pulled off her head. She called police, they could not get ANY body to come forward as a witness in a mall full of people. But the security footage caught the incident and the women attackers (yes women) were caught.
I recently started doing Hijab and my son and I are outside a lot doing stuff in the community. I have noticed the attitude of the local librarian become strange and hostile towards us (she made me empty my bag saying she thought she saw library books in there) and we’ve been going to this library for a year now, twice every week. She knows us.
There is no doubt that any sign of Islam illicits from most people a reaction of any of the following: distrust, disgust, fear, hatred, curiosity (I like to think that is positive), disappointment.
@ Stranded
Just our of curiosity (in a positive way);
1. Are you confusing your attitude that has changed instead of their attitude? I am asking because maybe since you started wearing hijab you may have become of conscious of everything around you?
2. Why is that you started doing hijab after so may years? Was that because of definace or you started to believe in doing it?
3. If people’s attitude have changed towards you, why is that so? It is because of Hizab or because of what it represents? If later is true what does it represents; not to you but to people who look at you. I am asking this because people knew that you were Muslim before and they were perfectly cordial to you but Hijab changes everything. If it does it must represent something that had nothing to do with Islam or being a Muslim?
As I said again I am a regular commenter here and do not mean to question you, but just want to understand what you exactly mean and feel.
Thanx
[...] the from New York Taxi Workers Alliance, Sharif warned his fellow […] Read more at: CHUP! – Changing Up Pakistan cab driver, global initiative, ground zero, hate crime, intersections, islamophobia, juan cole, [...]
@Stranded,
And why do you think the attitudes have changed like this?
Juan Cole is ridiculous. Some guy who works for an organization which supports construction of the Ground Zero/Cordoba House mosque stabs a Muslim cab driver and the RNC is to blame? Amazingly tortured logic.
I think we are seeing a lot of trees but missing the forest. For all of the isolated reports of anti-Muslim sentiment — a handful in this country of 305+ million — such acts remain very rare.
As Jonah Goldberg noted in a recent column, the number of anti-Muslim hate crimes has been around 150 per year since 2003. That’s about one for every two million Americans.
In contrast, as Goldberg notes:
“In 2002 and pretty much every year since, anti-Jewish incidents have outstripped anti-Muslim ones by at least 6 to 1. Why aren’t we talking about the anti-Jewish climate in America?”
This, mind you, in the context of a country that has had a number of terrorists acts committed against in the name of Islam (an obvious perversion of the faith) while zero by radical Jews.
The story of America and its Muslim inhabitants continues to be one of amazing tolerance. That’s the real story, and anything else is just media hype and invention.
First amendment reads, ”Congress shall make no law establishing articles of faith, or a mode of worship, or prohibiting the free exercise of religion, . . .”
Madison must be grave rolling.
The fact: The rest of the world and the muslim community are finding increasing incidents of mistrust. There have been killings, bombings, protests, acts of terrorism etc in the name of Islam against Hindu, Christian, Buddhist majority countries. There have been incidents of violence against Muslims living in non-islamic counties too.
The way ahead: To make allowances for change.
The final question: Should the rest of the world learn to live with Islam the way it is (Kings ruling countries, public stonings, death to apostates, death to homosexuals, burkhas, mainstream national TV programs proclaiming Jews are pigs and christians are dogs, polygamy, honor killings et all)? Or should Islam adapt to the rapidly changing world around them?
Clever strategy by Islamists to shut-up anti-Islamist sentiments..
http://www.jihadwatch.org/2010/08/muslim-brotherhood-libelblogger-charles-johnson-blame-geller-spencer-for-leftist-pro-mosque-group-em.html
Muslim Brotherhood, libelblogger Charles Johnson blame Geller, Spencer for Leftist pro-mosque group employee’s attack on Muslim cab driver
“‘Bigot’ slashes Muslim cabby,” says the New York Post. “Rider Asks if Cabby Is Muslim, Then Stabs Him,” says the New York Times.
That was enough for the Islamic supremacists and their Leftist dhimmi tools. Libelblogger and CAIR tool Charles Johnson’s vile sycophants at Little Green Footballs were quick to blame Pamela Geller and me. And the Muslim Brotherhood went full-frontal with their hatemongering and defamation at their English-language Ikhwanweb site, with a photo of the cabbie who was attacked and the headline “Pamela, Robert .. Congrats!!”
There was just one problem with all this: the attacker was a Leftist employee of an organization that has gone on record as favoring the mosque. So whatever may have been his motivation in attacking this cab driver, one thing that almost certainly wasn’t motivating him was rage over the Islamic supremacist mega-mosque at Ground Zero.
And even if he were motivated by rage against the mosque, what would that have to do with us? Absolutely nothing. We are working on peaceful protests against the mosque, and trying to raise awareness among the American people about who is behind this effort and what its significance is. We have never advocated or condoned any violence or vigilantism — unlike the mosque’s own leader Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, who refuses to condemn the bloodthirsty jihad terror group Hamas. We are not responsible by any conceivable stretch of the imagination for everything any given opponent of the mosque does.
So what is going on here? Remember: the thuggish Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) has actually trumpeted fake anti-Muslim hate crimes in the past, in order to use them to score political points. They did this again just weeks ago in Georgia.
CAIR, an unindicted co-conspirator in a Hamas funding case, has claimed that “anti-Muslim hate crimes” have risen sharply in the U.S. since 9/11. In fact, the rate of such crimes has actually dropped. CAIR knows well that victimhood is big business: insofar as they can claim protected victim status for Muslims in the U.S., they can deflect unwanted scrutiny and any critical examination of how jihadists use Islamic texts and teachings to justify violence and supremacism.
That’s most likely why CAIR and others have not hesitated to stoop even to fabricating “hate crimes.” They want and need hate crimes against Muslims, because they can use them as weapons to intimidate people into remaining silent about the jihad threat.
Was this attack on a Muslim cab driver in New York yet another faked hate crime designed to tar opponents of Islamic supremacism as bigoted people who are fomenting hate? It cannot be ruled out. I hope that New York investigators are honest enough and brave enough to say so if that turns out to be the case.
This is Pakistani nationalist smut at its finest, “holier than thou” through and through. CHUP! was known for changing up Pakistan, not harassing us Americans over a trivial PR issue. Yes, Americans in large numbers are distraught by the Mosque’s location, but very few have attempted to stop it, and in Pakistan churches are burned down weekly. What hypocrisy from the author!
Instead of joining the din of Pakistani commentators attacking the lycnhing of two teens for no reason by a large crowd of Pakistanis in Sialkot, Punjab, the authors thought it wise to attack my country where no one has died from Islamaphobia just yet. Had Pakistani nationals over the years not attempted to commit acts of terror on my country, perhaps my faith would not be so denigrated in the minds of the public.
Write about Sialkot, or about the aid not getting where it should get, and leave our affairs entirely.
i wish you’d all read the NY Times report and the close to 500 comments on that story … 90% from non-muslims…. i did not see a single one justifying the incident, blaming muslims, Asians, calling for comparisons b/w Muslim countries and US. All said they were ashamed and they blamed ‘intolerance among Americans’!
a marked difference from the comments i read here…
and before someone says i’m biased coz i am a Hindu – lemme just say that the comments on indian websites are even more jingoistic and belligerent.
we still have a long way to go, as nations and as a society.
the indident was widely reported, the guy was immediately arrested and faces upto 25 years in prison! compare that to our track record for similar incidents in India/ Pak.
@androidguy
are you asking a real question or brushing aside the concerns of peaceful people experiencing bigotry by sing sarcasm?
Hi,
Every action has equal and opposite reaction. It is unfortunate that all the people have started thinking of an eye for an eye. Sooner or latter the world would be left with blind guys. Attack on the taxi is unforgivable as he is unarmed and harmless and at the same time all violence by islamic fundamentalism is equal deserve condemnation.