Fear and Loathing in New York

Turn autoplay off

Turn autoplay on

Please activate cookies in order to turn autoplay off

Why is Michael Bloomberg the only senior politician to have condemned the unprovoked knife attack on a Muslim taxi driver?

After all of the anti-Muslim rhetoric surrounding the debate about Park51, it didn't come as a surprise to many that someone took it to the next level. As Michael Tomasky reported on his blog, a New York City cab driver, Ahmed Sharif, was stabbed yesterday after the perpetrator asked "Are you Muslim?" Initial reports on Michael Enright, the young man who has been charged with attempted murder as a hate crime, among other things, show him as an untroubled young man who was working as a volunteer with an interfaith project and who had travelled to Afghanistan to film a documentary on US soldiers. His neighbours and colleagues have gone to the media to tell them Enright is "a nice boy". Multiple reports have referred to him as "baby-faced".

Two more incidents on the same day, though less violent, point to a rapidly escalating trend. In Queens on Wednesday night, a drunken man entered a mosque and urinated on the prayer rugs while yelling "terrorists!" On the same night, in Fresno, California, a mosque was vandalised: a window broken and a sign posted that read "No temple for the god of terrorism". Is anyone surprised? For weeks, the rightwing media, politicians and citizens have been speaking out against the building of a Muslim community center in what has been, for a long time, a neighbourhood populated by Muslims. And though not all opposition to Park51 is bigotry, or even necessarily invalid, much of it is. Calling Park51 the "9/11 Monster Mosque", as Pamela Geller has done, is irresponsible.

Calling it the "Ground Zero Mosque" intentionally to stir the emotions of those for whom the scars of 9/11 are still raw is hurtful and untruthful. And don't get me started on the protests in New York, of which photographs show men and women with Confederate flags and signs that read "Sharia" in dripping blood-red ink. There is a new red scare, and this time it's aimed at Muslims. Despite all of the rhetoric, much of which borders on hate speech, almost no one in power, with the notable exception of Mayor Michael Bloomberg, has spoken out against it. Bloomberg, for his part, has been vocal since the beginning, and following yesterday's attack, has invited injured cab driver Ahmed Sharif to a meeting (Sharif has accepted). For that, I commend him. But where are the rest of our politicians and leaders to stand up for the Muslim American community? Where is our leadership? 

Last summer, when Dr Henry Louis Gates was arrested by Cambridge police for attempting to "break in" to his own home, President Obama stated that police had "acted stupidly"; and subsequently invited Gates and the arresting officer to the White House for a "beer summit". Yet, the president, who has spoken publicly only to say that Muslims have a right to religious freedom (a point on which he then backtracked somewhat), shows no signs of standing up for the American Muslim community. Just as the arrest of Henry Louis Gates at his own home was (or was, at least, perceived as) an act of racism, there should be no doubt that President Obama understands that this is an issue of bigotry, of intolerance. Why, then, has he not spoken up for Muslims? The fact of the matter is, Michael Enright may have committed this crime without the abetting national theme of a "Muslim scare". But the circumstantial facts suggest otherwise, so we need to stop the anti-Muslim rhetoric dead in its tracks. And for that, we need our leadership to stand up.

Your IP address will be logged

Related

Park 51 dividing lines | Tom Rogan

'Ground Zero mosque' furore could take heat off Obama, Republicans fear

Obama's mixed message on New York mosque helps no-one | Richard Adams

Barack Obama defends plans for Ground Zero mosque

Your IP address will be logged

Close

Please choose a problem:

Comment: (optional)

You have 5000 characters left

Logged in as

Your email address: (optional)

Loading...............

Closing this window without pressing "Report" will result in your words being lost. Are you sure?

Thank you

Sorry, something has gone wrong and this action cannot be completed. Please try again later.

27 Aug 2010, 2:15PM

This is how it starts, and the thing is the bastards who are stirring this up are pretty much exactly the same as extreme islamists anyway. Truly sickening. It's like Germany in the 1920s.

27 Aug 2010, 2:44PM

This is what we call Tea Party rhetoric in action. This is targeted, growing hatred and it is organised. Not that that the Te Party is grooming specific people to carry out these acts, but that when you drum beat a message, you realize that it creates a situation in which some people are going to act in extreme ways.

27 Aug 2010, 2:49PM