Monday, July 31, 2006
global bloodshed, local violence

"Humanity collectively has lost their moral consciousness.
They've forgotten the value of that one life."


-Ali Salaam Mahmoud, imam of a mosque in Des Moines


While violence in Lebanon between Israeli forces and Hezbollah continues to spiral out of control, Seattle itself seemed to be sucked into the conflict with the shooting rampage this past Friday at a local Jewish community organization by a man identified only as a "Muslim American".

Why do news organizations always use that term, anyways? I don't see them printing "Christian American" or "Buddhist American".

While some media outlets have had the good sense to suspend judgement before all the facts of the case are revealed, I'm sure there are plenty of others out there who are quick to accuse the Muslim American community of terrorist conspiracies despite organizations like CAIR being quick to condemn the killings. I suspect that even if the suspect is tried and convicted as a lone gunman with a history of mental illness and doubtful religious convictions, his act of violence will still be used as an excuse to persecute and stereotype the Muslim American community.

On the positive side, it seems like Seattle itself has taken the responsible stand of supporting the victims while decrying sectarian violence. Local leaders and laypeople from multiple faiths attended the funeral of Pamela Waechter, who died in the shooting on Friday.


.:.


*EDIT*

For more thorough analysis of the event, Orcinus has a great post here.

  |


Comments: Post a Comment

in?scrip?tion (n-skrip-shun)n.
1. The act or an instance of inscribing.
2. Something, such as the wording on a coin, medal, monument, or seal, that is inscribed.
3. A short, signed message in a book or on a photograph given as a gift.
4. The usually informal dedication of an artistic work.
5. Jeremiah 31:33

the facts.
name. Gar AKA "that Chinese guy" "Sleepy.McSleeping"
ethnicity/nationality. Chinese/American, 4th gen.
location. Sea-Town, WA, USA Kawanishi, JAPAN
occupation. less-cynical poor grad student
age. younger than you think, older than you know

 



 

[contact]
UnseenGC @ AIM
(myname) @ gmail.com

 

 

[ARCHIVES]
main listing

[memories]
i - ii - iii - iv - v

  This page is powered by Blogger. Isn't yours? Weblog Commenting and Trackback by HaloScan.com Creative Commons License