Times Square Bomb Fail Round-Up

First of all, this from Think Progress, which is news to me, and probably should be added to the long list of reasons why the mainstream media is atrocious:

"Much of the media has latched onto Shahzad’s Muslim faith and his Pakistani identity, making inflammatory remarks and suggestions about Muslims and Pakistanis:

– CNN contributor and Redstate.com blogger Erick Erickson complained that the words “muslim” and “Islam” are “not mentioned” enough in stories about Shahzad. He wrote, “It really is pathetic that you’re more likely to see the words “racist” and “Republican” together in the newspaper these days than “terrorism” and “Islam.” [5/4/2010]

– Hate radio host Neal Boortz tweeted, “OMG! The Times Square Bomber is a Muslim! Shocker! Who would have believed it?” [5/4/2010]

– The cover of today’s Washington Post-published Express features a black-and-white photo of Shahzad with the sensationalist headline “MADE IN PAKISTAN” [5/5/2010]

"Yet one fact being ignored in the American media’s sensationalist narrative about the failed bombing is that the man who was responsible for police finding the bomb was Muslim. The UK’s Times Online reports that Aliou Niasse, a Senagalese Muslim immigrant who works as a photograph vendor on Times Square, was the first to bring the smoking car to the police’s attention:

Aliou Niasse, a street vendor selling framed photographs of New York, said that he was the first to spot the car containing the bomb, which pulled up right in front of his cart on the corner of 45th street and Broadway next to the Marriott hotel.

“I didn’t see the car pull up or notice the driver because I was busy with customers. But when I looked up I saw that smoke appeared to be coming from the car. This would have been around 6.30pm.”

“I thought I should call 911, but my English is not very good and I had no credit left on my phone, so I walked over to Lance, who has the T-shirt stall next to mine, and told him. He said we shouldn’t call 911. Immediately he alerted a police officer near by,” said Mr Niasse, who is originally from Senegal and who has been a vendor in Times Square for about eight years.

"Reflecting on Niasse’s good samaritanism Muslim-American author Sumbul Ali-Karamali writes, “It’s somewhat consoling to know that the man who first noticed the smoking Nissan Pathfinder and sought help is also Muslim, a Senegalese immigrant. … I grew up Muslim in this country, with Muslim friends and non-Muslim friends, and there was very little difference between the two groups. We were all American.'”

Secondly, you should really click on that otherwise easily ignorable patriotic sentiment at the end, because it is an insightful editorial about Islam being dragged in the mud as an inherently hateful religion when, in reality, Islam is just the soil from which this particular reactionary movement at this particular point in history has risen. Here's a little taste:

"Terrorists are not "jihadists," though they want you to believe they are. The U.S. government has stopped calling terrorists "jihadists," because so doing legitimizes the terrorists' violent behavior and makes it easier for them to recruit people. This is not political correctness - it's just smart strategy. We correctly don't describe the Ku Klux Klan and other white supremacist groups as "Christian holy warriors," (even if they base their actions on the Bible); rather, we dismiss them as fringe extremists, and we don't legitimize their actions by accepting their religious characterization of them.

"The Islamic doctrine of jihad means many things, including taking arms in self-defense, against an oppressor. Even the British take-over of India was not considered oppression enough to warrant jihad, according to prominent Muslim scholars, for the reason that the British were not actively preventing the practice of Islam. (Though if a foreign power were to take over the United States, I suspect Americans would not calmly submit.) And if, historically, some Muslims have interpreted "self-defense" more broadly to allow them to make war (as people of other religions have, as well), other Muslims have interpreted jihad to mean only nonviolent resistance. A modern example of the latter was Badshah Khan, a Pashtun who led unarmed, nonviolent protests against the British, basing his actions on the Qur'an."

So, yes, terrorist activity aimed at civilians is a bad thing (and, while we're at it, so is religion in general), but by no means a new thing or an exclusively Muslim thing. One need look no further than Arizona to see the dangerous slide this already fucked up country is taking into feverish nationalism, and we all know where that leads. Scary!

HAPPY CINCO DE MAYO!