Muslim and Arab Killings in the US

[jsteele]

One of the reasons I have been aggressive about deleting threads and posts that I see as anti-Muslim is that I am concerned about anti-Muslim and anti-Arab hate crimes that result when people are demonized. There have been two incidences of Muslims and/or Arabs being killed in recent days. In New York, an Imam and his assistant where shot in the head after leaving their mosque. A Hispanic man has been arrested for their killing, but at this point we don't know his motive. However, given that the two victims were dressed in traditional clothing and were not robbed or shot for any apparent reason, it is suspected that this was a hate crime. But, let's wait for the investigation to determine this.

In Tulsa, Oklahoma, a killing of a Lebanese-American was much more clearly rooted in anti-Arab and anti-Muslim prejudice. In this case, a white man with a history of violence began harassing his Lebanese neighbors. Despite the fact that the family is Christian, he made many anti-Muslim as well as anti-Arab statements to them. The family was able to get a restraining order against the man, which he was arrested for violating. He was then arrested for hit and run after running into the mother with his car. Out on bail for the hit and run, he was able to obtain a gun. When 37-year-old Khalid Jabara heard that his neighbor was armed, he called the police. The police came, said there was nothing they could do and left. Eight minutes after the police left, the neighbor walked up to Khalid and shot and killed him.

When the killer, Vernon Majors, was arrested for the hit and run last year, "Majors remarked that Mrs. Jabara and her family were filthy Lebanese and they throw gay people off roof tops." This is a perfect example of ISIS and American Islamophobes working in concert. ISIS committed an atrocity as an act of propaganda. Their action is not reflective of the views of the vast, vast, majority of the world's Muslims. It is even less reflective of the views of Muslims in America and it is absolutely not reflective of all but a microscopic percent of the world's Christians (the Jabara's religion). Yet, Islamophobes have managed to implant this perception of Muslims into significant numbers of Americans. They have literally done ISIS' work for them.

Trump says that he wants to make America great. I submit that America can not be great when negative stereotypes of minorities are not only allowed to flourish, but encouraged, leading to hate crimes. It cannot be great when our justice system allows a man to violate a restraining order, commit a hit and run, and then be released without monitoring to return next door to his victims. It cannot be great when gun laws allow such a man to obtain a weapon and prevent police from doing anything about it.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2016/08/16/mans-unusual-fixation-with-lebanese-neighbors-led-to-murder-tulsa-police-say/

[Anonymous]

Muslim American here. Child of immigrants. I'm actually scared for the first time in my life. I worry about Eid-al-Adha this year in particular, but any visit to the mosque or outwardly observant act, or any display of anything someone or another will perceive as "difference."

[Anonymous]

I agree with most of your post, but I particularly agree with this statement:

It cannot be great when our justice system allows a man to violate a restraining order, commit a hit and run, and then be released without monitoring to return next door to his victims. It cannot be great when gun laws allow such a man to obtain a weapon and prevent police from doing anything about it.

There is no excuse for this. He should NOT have been able to obtain a gun, and frankly, I don’t think he should have been out on bail for the hit and run.
Our criminal justice system is broken when things like this are allowed to happen.

[Anonymous]

Daughter of two extremely unreligious Muslims here who immigrated to the US. While we are not religious, we have a very clear religious last name. As September 11th was happening, one of my dad's coworkers walked up to him in front of everyone and slapped him blaming him for the attacks. Someone else defaced and vandalized his car. My dad is the sweetest man in the world with zero hate in his heart. He's a proud American who loves this country and his worked tirelessly his entire life here in support of it. My youngest sister was 5 when 9/11 happened and I can't even begin to tell you how badly she was bullied at school after the attacks—physically, mentally, and emotionally. My parents had to pull her out of school for a bit until things settled down. And this was in the first grade, with a lot of the hate towards her being taught by parents to their kids at home.

Fast forward to this year and Trump's candidacy. I'm legitimately (and extremely) worried that what happened after 9/11 will happen to our family again any day now. These two latest attacks on Muslim Americans terrify me to my core and as an American citizen, as a human being, I should not be made to feel this way in my own home country.

Jeff, thank you for doing your part and for deleting the hate filled threads. It makes this little corner of the Internet feel a lot more safe and I for one am grateful of all you do to keep it that way.

[Anonymous]

Well, Jeff it's your forum, you do what you want with it. I just hope you keep in mind the difference between having a substantive discussion about the systemic issues with Muslims and Arab countries/cultures and how that may impact non-Muslims and non-Arab countries, and what you call "anti-Muslim and anti-Arab" threads.

Sadly when we engage in the former, some posters will come in and throw around short quips that falls into the later. And we certainly can't be great when people doing the later causes us not to have a conversation about the former.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Daughter of two extremely unreligious Muslims here who immigrated to the US. While we are not religious, we have a very clear religious last name. As September 11th was happening, one of my dad's coworkers walked up to him in front of everyone and slapped him blaming him for the attacks. Someone else defaced and vandalized his car. My dad is the sweetest man in the world with zero hate in his heart. He's a proud American who loves this country and his worked tirelessly his entire life here in support of it. My youngest sister was 5 when 9/11 happened and I can't even begin to tell you how badly she was bullied at school after the attacks—physically, mentally, and emotionally. My parents had to pull her out of school for a bit until things settled down. And this was in the first grade, with a lot of the hate towards her being taught by parents to their kids at home.

Fast forward to this year and Trump's candidacy. I'm legitimately (and extremely) worried that what happened after 9/11 will happen to our family again any day now. These two latest attacks on Muslim Americans terrify me to my core and as an American citizen, as a human being, I should not be made to feel this way in my own home country.

Jeff, thank you for doing your part and for deleting the hate filled threads. It makes this little corner of the Internet feel a lot more safe and I for one am grateful of all you do to keep it that way.

Yes. I am married to an Arab Muslim, and our young children - trilingual, US-born - have unmistakably Arab last names. For the first time in twenty years in this country, I am afraid for what future has in stock for my American, yes, American children. I worry about how this country will treat them. And a little bit of me is glad that we thought ahead to take out citizenships for them in our respective countries of birth. If things turn ugly, they will have options.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Daughter of two extremely unreligious Muslims here who immigrated to the US. While we are not religious, we have a very clear religious last name. As September 11th was happening, one of my dad's coworkers walked up to him in front of everyone and slapped him blaming him for the attacks. Someone else defaced and vandalized his car. My dad is the sweetest man in the world with zero hate in his heart. He's a proud American who loves this country and his worked tirelessly his entire life here in support of it. My youngest sister was 5 when 9/11 happened and I can't even begin to tell you how badly she was bullied at school after the attacks—physically, mentally, and emotionally. My parents had to pull her out of school for a bit until things settled down. And this was in the first grade, with a lot of the hate towards her being taught by parents to their kids at home.

Fast forward to this year and Trump's candidacy. I'm legitimately (and extremely) worried that what happened after 9/11 will happen to our family again any day now. These two latest attacks on Muslim Americans terrify me to my core and as an American citizen, as a human being, I should not be made to feel this way in my own home country.

Jeff, thank you for doing your part and for deleting the hate filled threads. It makes this little corner of the Internet feel a lot more safe and I for one am grateful of all you do to keep it that way.

Some people are assholes, even some people in the US. I've been bullied, punched, picked on, laughed at, but I see it clearly that these are the actions of individuals here in the US.

Fast forward to Trump's candidacy, I don't see how his proposed policies will make your life harder or more dangerous. While two attacks on Muslim Americans is sad, lets not blow this out of proportion - there is no epidemic of violence against Muslim Americans in the US. Based on hate crime statistics, Jewish hate crime victims out-number Muslim hate crime victims by over 3 times. There were in fact more Asian hate crime victims than Muslim hate crime victims. Your fears are irrational, and it's sad that you see fit to leverage your fears to silence others.

[Anonymous]

I can understand your perspective Jeff. You feel a duty to the public. I appreciate that being of Syrian Christian heritage. And I thought my neighbor was horrible, I guess it could be much worse!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Daughter of two extremely unreligious Muslims here who immigrated to the US. While we are not religious, we have a very clear religious last name. As September 11th was happening, one of my dad's coworkers walked up to him in front of everyone and slapped him blaming him for the attacks. Someone else defaced and vandalized his car. My dad is the sweetest man in the world with zero hate in his heart. He's a proud American who loves this country and his worked tirelessly his entire life here in support of it. My youngest sister was 5 when 9/11 happened and I can't even begin to tell you how badly she was bullied at school after the attacks—physically, mentally, and emotionally. My parents had to pull her out of school for a bit until things settled down. And this was in the first grade, with a lot of the hate towards her being taught by parents to their kids at home.

Fast forward to this year and Trump's candidacy. I'm legitimately (and extremely) worried that what happened after 9/11 will happen to our family again any day now. These two latest attacks on Muslim Americans terrify me to my core and as an American citizen, as a human being, I should not be made to feel this way in my own home country.

Jeff, thank you for doing your part and for deleting the hate filled threads. It makes this little corner of the Internet feel a lot more safe and I for one am grateful of all you do to keep it that way.

Some people are assholes, even some people in the US. I've been bullied, punched, picked on, laughed at, but I see it clearly that these are the actions of individuals here in the US.

Fast forward to Trump's candidacy, I don't see how his proposed policies will make your life harder or more dangerous. While two attacks on Muslim Americans is sad, lets not blow this out of proportion - there is no epidemic of violence against Muslim Americans in the US. Based on hate crime statistics, Jewish hate crime victims out-number Muslim hate crime victims by over 3 times. There were in fact more Asian hate crime victims than Muslim hate crime victims. Your fears are irrational, and it's sad that you see fit to leverage your fears to silence others.

Perfectly rational to people that have been affected by it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Daughter of two extremely unreligious Muslims here who immigrated to the US. While we are not religious, we have a very clear religious last name. As September 11th was happening, one of my dad's coworkers walked up to him in front of everyone and slapped him blaming him for the attacks. Someone else defaced and vandalized his car. My dad is the sweetest man in the world with zero hate in his heart. He's a proud American who loves this country and his worked tirelessly his entire life here in support of it. My youngest sister was 5 when 9/11 happened and I can't even begin to tell you how badly she was bullied at school after the attacks—physically, mentally, and emotionally. My parents had to pull her out of school for a bit until things settled down. And this was in the first grade, with a lot of the hate towards her being taught by parents to their kids at home.

Fast forward to this year and Trump's candidacy. I'm legitimately (and extremely) worried that what happened after 9/11 will happen to our family again any day now. These two latest attacks on Muslim Americans terrify me to my core and as an American citizen, as a human being, I should not be made to feel this way in my own home country.

Jeff, thank you for doing your part and for deleting the hate filled threads. It makes this little corner of the Internet feel a lot more safe and I for one am grateful of all you do to keep it that way.

Some people are assholes, even some people in the US. I've been bullied, punched, picked on, laughed at, but I see it clearly that these are the actions of individuals here in the US.

Fast forward to Trump's candidacy, I don't see how his proposed policies will make your life harder or more dangerous. While two attacks on Muslim Americans is sad, lets not blow this out of proportion - there is no epidemic of violence against Muslim Americans in the US. Based on hate crime statistics, Jewish hate crime victims out-number Muslim hate crime victims by over 3 times. There were in fact more Asian hate crime victims than Muslim hate crime victims. Your fears are irrational, and it's sad that you see fit to leverage your fears to silence others.

Perfectly rational to people that have been affected by it.

Hate crime victims aren't the only metric that matters. There's the drip ... drip ... drip of hate speech, demonization, marginalization, threats, bullying, taunting, harassment, marginalization and the rest. America is not a better place when the likes of Frank Gaffney and Pam Geller are given a microphone and platform by mainstream conservatives.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Daughter of two extremely unreligious Muslims here who immigrated to the US. While we are not religious, we have a very clear religious last name. As September 11th was happening, one of my dad's coworkers walked up to him in front of everyone and slapped him blaming him for the attacks. Someone else defaced and vandalized his car. My dad is the sweetest man in the world with zero hate in his heart. He's a proud American who loves this country and his worked tirelessly his entire life here in support of it. My youngest sister was 5 when 9/11 happened and I can't even begin to tell you how badly she was bullied at school after the attacks—physically, mentally, and emotionally. My parents had to pull her out of school for a bit until things settled down. And this was in the first grade, with a lot of the hate towards her being taught by parents to their kids at home.

Fast forward to this year and Trump's candidacy. I'm legitimately (and extremely) worried that what happened after 9/11 will happen to our family again any day now. These two latest attacks on Muslim Americans terrify me to my core and as an American citizen, as a human being, I should not be made to feel this way in my own home country.

Jeff, thank you for doing your part and for deleting the hate filled threads. It makes this little corner of the Internet feel a lot more safe and I for one am grateful of all you do to keep it that way.

Some people are assholes, even some people in the US. I've been bullied, punched, picked on, laughed at, but I see it clearly that these are the actions of individuals here in the US.

Fast forward to Trump's candidacy, I don't see how his proposed policies will make your life harder or more dangerous. While two attacks on Muslim Americans is sad, lets not blow this out of proportion - there is no epidemic of violence against Muslim Americans in the US. Based on hate crime statistics, Jewish hate crime victims out-number Muslim hate crime victims by over 3 times. There were in fact more Asian hate crime victims than Muslim hate crime victims. Your fears are irrational, and it's sad that you see fit to leverage your fears to silence others.

NP. I had have a friend named Osama. After 9/11 one of his colleagues accused him of being a terrorist. He made his life a living hell at work. No one intervened, defended Osama or reprimanded the accuser. In fact, he was encouraged and the employer started investigating some of the allegations. Osama finally quit and found a new job.

Sure, it takes just a few individuals, but what happens when good people let these things happen?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Daughter of two extremely unreligious Muslims here who immigrated to the US. While we are not religious, we have a very clear religious last name. As September 11th was happening, one of my dad's coworkers walked up to him in front of everyone and slapped him blaming him for the attacks. Someone else defaced and vandalized his car. My dad is the sweetest man in the world with zero hate in his heart. He's a proud American who loves this country and his worked tirelessly his entire life here in support of it. My youngest sister was 5 when 9/11 happened and I can't even begin to tell you how badly she was bullied at school after the attacks—physically, mentally, and emotionally. My parents had to pull her out of school for a bit until things settled down. And this was in the first grade, with a lot of the hate towards her being taught by parents to their kids at home.

Fast forward to this year and Trump's candidacy. I'm legitimately (and extremely) worried that what happened after 9/11 will happen to our family again any day now. These two latest attacks on Muslim Americans terrify me to my core and as an American citizen, as a human being, I should not be made to feel this way in my own home country.

Jeff, thank you for doing your part and for deleting the hate filled threads. It makes this little corner of the Internet feel a lot more safe and I for one am grateful of all you do to keep it that way.

Some people are assholes, even some people in the US. I've been bullied, punched, picked on, laughed at, but I see it clearly that these are the actions of individuals here in the US.

Fast forward to Trump's candidacy, I don't see how his proposed policies will make your life harder or more dangerous. While two attacks on Muslim Americans is sad, lets not blow this out of proportion - there is no epidemic of violence against Muslim Americans in the US. Based on hate crime statistics, Jewish hate crime victims out-number Muslim hate crime victims by over 3 times. There were in fact more Asian hate crime victims than Muslim hate crime victims. Your fears are irrational, and it's sad that you see fit to leverage your fears to silence others.

Trump has said nothing that could really be considered functional policy, so no one is worried about him magically using his Presidency to be "productive". But Trump has incited violence and hatred by spewing lies and exaggerations. He has legitimized religious hatred and discrimination with his rhetoric.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Daughter of two extremely unreligious Muslims here who immigrated to the US. While we are not religious, we have a very clear religious last name. As September 11th was happening, one of my dad's coworkers walked up to him in front of everyone and slapped him blaming him for the attacks. Someone else defaced and vandalized his car. My dad is the sweetest man in the world with zero hate in his heart. He's a proud American who loves this country and his worked tirelessly his entire life here in support of it. My youngest sister was 5 when 9/11 happened and I can't even begin to tell you how badly she was bullied at school after the attacks—physically, mentally, and emotionally. My parents had to pull her out of school for a bit until things settled down. And this was in the first grade, with a lot of the hate towards her being taught by parents to their kids at home.

Fast forward to this year and Trump's candidacy. I'm legitimately (and extremely) worried that what happened after 9/11 will happen to our family again any day now. These two latest attacks on Muslim Americans terrify me to my core and as an American citizen, as a human being, I should not be made to feel this way in my own home country.

Jeff, thank you for doing your part and for deleting the hate filled threads. It makes this little corner of the Internet feel a lot more safe and I for one am grateful of all you do to keep it that way.

Some people are assholes, even some people in the US. I've been bullied, punched, picked on, laughed at, but I see it clearly that these are the actions of individuals here in the US.

Fast forward to Trump's candidacy, I don't see how his proposed policies will make your life harder or more dangerous. While two attacks on Muslim Americans is sad, lets not blow this out of proportion - there is no epidemic of violence against Muslim Americans in the US. Based on hate crime statistics, Jewish hate crime victims out-number Muslim hate crime victims by over 3 times. There were in fact more Asian hate crime victims than Muslim hate crime victims. Your fears are irrational, and it's sad that you see fit to leverage your fears to silence others.

Attacks on anyone who looks Middle Eastern (even a Seikh) have increased since 9/11. FBI hate crime database has indicated as much.

As an Asian American, I have no doubt that if the US were to go to war with some Asian country, there'd be more assaults on Asians. I feel so badly for innocent Muslims in this country. It sucks to be Black, ME, and with Trump, now Hispanic, in this country.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Daughter of two extremely unreligious Muslims here who immigrated to the US. While we are not religious, we have a very clear religious last name. As September 11th was happening, one of my dad's coworkers walked up to him in front of everyone and slapped him blaming him for the attacks. Someone else defaced and vandalized his car. My dad is the sweetest man in the world with zero hate in his heart. He's a proud American who loves this country and his worked tirelessly his entire life here in support of it. My youngest sister was 5 when 9/11 happened and I can't even begin to tell you how badly she was bullied at school after the attacks—physically, mentally, and emotionally. My parents had to pull her out of school for a bit until things settled down. And this was in the first grade, with a lot of the hate towards her being taught by parents to their kids at home.

Fast forward to this year and Trump's candidacy. I'm legitimately (and extremely) worried that what happened after 9/11 will happen to our family again any day now. These two latest attacks on Muslim Americans terrify me to my core and as an American citizen, as a human being, I should not be made to feel this way in my own home country.

Jeff, thank you for doing your part and for deleting the hate filled threads. It makes this little corner of the Internet feel a lot more safe and I for one am grateful of all you do to keep it that way.

Some people are assholes, even some people in the US. I've been bullied, punched, picked on, laughed at, but I see it clearly that these are the actions of individuals here in the US.

Fast forward to Trump's candidacy, I don't see how his proposed policies will make your life harder or more dangerous. While two attacks on Muslim Americans is sad, lets not blow this out of proportion - there is no epidemic of violence against Muslim Americans in the US. Based on hate crime statistics, Jewish hate crime victims out-number Muslim hate crime victims by over 3 times. There were in fact more Asian hate crime victims than Muslim hate crime victims. Your fears are irrational, and it's sad that you see fit to leverage your fears to silence others.

Trump has said nothing that could really be considered functional policy, so no one is worried about him magically using his Presidency to be "productive". But Trump has incited violence and hatred by spewing lies and exaggerations. He has legitimized religious hatred and discrimination with his rhetoric.

Here
http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2016/05/09/donald_trump_and_the_rise_of_anti_muslim_hate_crimes.html

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Daughter of two extremely unreligious Muslims here who immigrated to the US. While we are not religious, we have a very clear religious last name. As September 11th was happening, one of my dad's coworkers walked up to him in front of everyone and slapped him blaming him for the attacks. Someone else defaced and vandalized his car. My dad is the sweetest man in the world with zero hate in his heart. He's a proud American who loves this country and his worked tirelessly his entire life here in support of it. My youngest sister was 5 when 9/11 happened and I can't even begin to tell you how badly she was bullied at school after the attacks—physically, mentally, and emotionally. My parents had to pull her out of school for a bit until things settled down. And this was in the first grade, with a lot of the hate towards her being taught by parents to their kids at home.

Fast forward to this year and Trump's candidacy. I'm legitimately (and extremely) worried that what happened after 9/11 will happen to our family again any day now. These two latest attacks on Muslim Americans terrify me to my core and as an American citizen, as a human being, I should not be made to feel this way in my own home country.

Jeff, thank you for doing your part and for deleting the hate filled threads. It makes this little corner of the Internet feel a lot more safe and I for one am grateful of all you do to keep it that way.

Some people are assholes, even some people in the US. I've been bullied, punched, picked on, laughed at, but I see it clearly that these are the actions of individuals here in the US.

Fast forward to Trump's candidacy, I don't see how his proposed policies will make your life harder or more dangerous. While two attacks on Muslim Americans is sad, lets not blow this out of proportion - there is no epidemic of violence against Muslim Americans in the US. Based on hate crime statistics, Jewish hate crime victims out-number Muslim hate crime victims by over 3 times. There were in fact more Asian hate crime victims than Muslim hate crime victims. Your fears are irrational, and it's sad that you see fit to leverage your fears to silence others.

Perfectly rational to people that have been affected by it.

Do you read what you are replying to? The PPs are worried about what's going to happen, not what has already happened. If we are worried about a general trend, the crime statistics don't warrant such fears, therefore having those fears are irrational. I agree that when something bad happens to someone on an anecdotal basis, the impact is severe and significant to that individual, but we as a group of Americans should not make policy based on anecdotes.