A few things that my fellow Americans have come up with to distract the FBI and entertain themselves. Because, of course, after recent events, they have nothing to do. And of course, my fellow Americans have nothing better to do with themselves.
Mesa police have notified FBI officials who investigate hate crimes about a shooting Saturday that killed a gas station owner who was an immigrant from India [...] The 49-year-old Balbir Singh Sodhi died after a man in a truck shot him and fled. Police say the suspect then drove to a second gas station and then a house, where he fired repeatedly but didn't hit anyone. Sodhi's relatives and employers of a clerk at the second gas station say they think the men were targeted because they looked Middle Eastern. Neighbors of the home that was shot at say a family of Afghani descent lives there.
Dallas police and the FBI are investigating whether the shooting death of a Pakistani grocer in Pleasant Grove was out of anger at Muslims for Tuesday's terrorist attacks. Police have been unable to determine a motive for the Saturday night slaying of 46-year-old Waqar Hasan at Mom's Grocery. There is no evidence of robbery or a struggle, said homicide Sgt. Larry Lewis. Nothing was out of place.
How many more will there be, one wonders. How much innocent blood will be enough?
Tammie Ismail, 25, of Bridgeview said her 12-year-old brother is having trouble sleeping. Her mother tells him he has done nothing wrong, that he is a sweet little boy--but no, he had better not go out and play today. The crisis has led some to turn closer to Islam, even as they pray at home for fear of going to the mosque. They have been cursed at or intimidated or heard about such things. Ahmad's children, ages 10, 8 and 6, grew upset, she said, when they saw a sign not far from the family's home in suburban Burbank. It read: "We are going to kill Arabs." [...] At a grocery store with his mother on Wednesday, Gheith said he was deeply upset when a small girl pointed to his mother in her traditional Muslim dress and asked, "Mommy, is she going to kill us?"
So this is what we are come to. Terrifying children. At least we're ecumenical about it; we're terrifying all children -- white, black, Muslim or Arab.
On Friday, Dearborn police said three men in Taylor were being investigated for allegedly saying they were going to go to Dearborn and "kill all the Arabs." The men may be skinheads, said Dearborn Police Chief Gregory Guibord. Also, a bomb threat was phoned in Friday to Fordson High School, which has a large number Arab-American students, but it was not credible, Guibord said.
Police across Long Island said they have stepped up patrols of "potential problem areas” during the past week and urged residents to help out by reporting any unusual activity. One such tip led to the arrest yesterday of Daryn Riccardo, 29, of 479 18th St., West Babylon, who made two pipe bombs in a scheme to "get an Arab,” police said. [...] Suffolk police also arrested a 15-year-old Farmingville boy Saturday after he allegedly made several harassing phone calls to a 7-Eleven store. The youth, who police have not identified, threatened to blow up the store with a pipe bomb and made reference to the owner being Hindu, saying he should leave the country.
Speaking in Arabic, Achou said through an interpreter that agents had entered Azmath's and Khan's apartment by going out her window, onto a fire escape, and into their window. She said she believed that Azmath and Khan were from India. Neighbors said the FBI took five men into custody and confiscated a computer and a full plastic garbage bag with unknown contents as helicopters hovered over the building. Some onlookers chanted "U-S-A! U-S-A!" as the men were taken into custody, they said.
We are willing to find enemies everywhere-—most tragically, even among ourselves. All week, in a journey through two major cities and dozens of towns, I did not see one woman in a Muslim headscarf. It pains me that American women are hiding in their homes. One young Muslim acquaintance told me that she gave up wearing her scarf during the Persian Gulf War, because students on her school bus taunted her and tried to pull it from her head. She is one of more than 6 million Muslims in the United States, and like half of them, she was born here. An American Muslim today is twice as likely to be African American as Arab. These people are us, not them, and they shouldn't have to cower in their own country.
Copyright © 2001, Iain Jackson, after-words.org
[Archives: 2001 and after]
Archives before February 5, 2001
Search entries:
12/19/2001: vive la france
12/19/2001: princess, redux
12/19/2001: yemen and rumsfeld
12/18/2001: you're NOT in the army now
12/18/2001: interesting donation
12/18/2001: shame on winn dixie, indeed
12/18/2001: saudi princess
12/17/2001: new resolve
12/17/2001: a victim of the attack ... yeah, right
12/17/2001: polluters ho!