The US right-wing media that never hesitate to lose even a small opportunity to link the violent incidents anyway with Islam and brand such violence as 'Islamic' terrorism, mostly leaves Muslims threatened with flaring up headlines. The recent incident at a workplace in Oklahoma, where a man was charged with a first degree murder of beheading his co-worker, though the federal officials ruled out any links with Islam during investigation.
Dr Marvin Weinbaum, a veteran scholar at the Middle East Institute, Washington DC, however, justified the media role to report killings prominently in the US. "In general, the degree to which these incidents have created troubles for Muslims in the US is limited," he said.
But, Interfaith and Outreach Director at Adams Center, Washington DC, Farhanahz Ellis, AAR blames the media for its overstating attitude to create troubles for Muslims in the US. "The media makes even a small incident a big thing [against Islam]," she said.
Dr Marvin said the recent incidents in Iraq and Syria have not caused any troubles for Muslims in the US. "There have, for example, been not reported attacks on Muslims in this country as a result of the recent publicity given to the recent incidents in Syria and Iraq," he said.
When asked whether associating a violent incident by anyone to a particular religion or community is justified, he said "no doubt there are people in this country [US] who are inclined to associate Islam with violence".
However, political leaders in the US have publicly asked Americans to avoid conflating the recent terrorist acts with the Muslim religion, he said "religious leaders here have joined in stressing that most Muslims are peaceful".
The rightwing media outright called the Oklahoma beheading incident as terror but he agreed that no matter a workplace crime even it may be harsh or brutal cannot be dubbed as terrorism. "By definition, a workplace crime is not a terror act since it requires that the act be ideological, that is, that the motives be political or religious."
To a question when asked whether one man's fault can be a reason for criticism for entire community of specific religion followers, Islam, he said: "I don't believe that any reasonable person in the US or elsewhere would subscribe that point of view."
He said though freedom of speech is lawful in the US, however any speech that is found racist and can be interpreted as inciting violence then such freedom of expression loses such legal binding.
"However, if the speech is racist or could be called fascist and could be interpreted as inciting violence, it loses its immunity and is not legally tolerated," Dr Marvin said.
Farhanahz said the Adams Center has strict rules to protect the Muslims children and youth from terrorism.
"We are very hard to protect our children from that [terrorism]."
However, dealing with hatred against Islam from the different groups or media, she said the Adams Center follow teaching of Prophet of Islam (PBUH) to defuse the situation. "We don't go to the high level conversation with them [hatters]," she said.
On Muslim involvement in terrorism in the US, she said the Adams Center sticks to the teachings of Islam and deal with all sentimental issues judiciously.
"We try to defuse the sentimental situation to keep our children protected if such things happen," she said.
"Except in exceptional circumstances, Muslims in the US do not feel threatened," Dr Marvin said, adding that the different terrorist groups are using religion to justify their actions that badly hit the sanctity of Islam in the US and around the world.
"Obviously, because so many of organized terrorist organisations today use religion as their justification, the reputation of Islam here and elsewhere in the world is tarnished," he was of the view.
The veteran scholar urged the influential Muslim leaders to stand up against the acts of violence across the world with a view to overcome the terrorism and its aftermath.
The right-wing media termed the beheading incident as terrorism, giving a new voice to the calls for deportation of Muslim immigrants and ban on their immigration to the US.
Comments
Comments are closed.