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Meanwhile, I spent a good chunk of yesterday calming down one of my student workers who experienced SIGNIFICANT backlash. He interns at a Muslim arts center in Boston and is Pakistani. I can't even begin to tell you some of the things that were said to him (though, more hearteningly, several people stood up against those shouting insults).
Unfortunately, it's a different world when it comes to people perceiving the perpetrator as Muslim. It reminds me enough of the Olympic Park Bombings that I have a bit of hope that it was some crazy extremist from the woods who hopes to pop back into obscurity. There would be NO backlash against whites, where backlash against Muslims is significantly more accepted.
As someone of Pakistani stock, I am not too surprised. Too many people are ignorant - not knowing that Pakistan is in the heart of the battle against terrorism, with its neo-Taliban threat spiking since 2007. A tiny minority of Pakistanis share such Wahabbist ideology and yet the blow back suffered by innocent folk is significant.
That country suffers a Boston type attack every few weeks and has lost 40,000 people to Islamist violence over the last decade. Few people oppose radicalism quite like the mass of Pakistanis do. I didnt suffer any backlash yet, but maybe that's cos I'm a big dude (6ft, 225lbs).
I've seen garbage from both the far left and the far right, but this Salon article sinks to a new low. I hate to think that any of those writers are Americans.
Look at the source and it makes sense. Yes, too many depend on garbage like this for their learning experiences. Salon is just one, H. Post is another as we know and there are hundreds more, a lot we see on here or references to them. Of course not all Democrats depend on this crap for their news, not even all libs, but there are enough that do...How sad is that? It is worse than those who get all their news from FOX. At least Fox does have a mixture of contributors regardless of what the left might think. When I hear people say, FOX isn't balanced I know I am listening to someone who either doesn't watch FOX or thinks balanced means only left wingers.
I am not sure if this is a domestic terrorist from either the Left or the Right.
I think this is either a lone nut with no particular political motivation (although he might harbor certain political beliefs) or a small group of nuts (several bombs) or possibly a terrorist group like AQ.
Why?
1) American political terrorists tend to pick clearly symbolic targets. Right-wing terrorists tend to pick targets like Federal buildings or offices of certain government agencies. Left-wing terrorists pick things like corporate headquarters or places that have symbolic meaning in terms of historical labor disputes.
2) People who purely want to kill people without any motivating politics and groups like AQ tend to want to kill whomever is there and that is good enough.
As someone of Pakistani stock, I am not too surprised. Too many people are ignorant - not knowing that Pakistan is in the heart of the battle against terrorism, with its neo-Taliban threat spiking since 2007. A tiny minority of Pakistanis share such Wahabbist ideology and yet the blow back suffered by innocent folk is significant.
That country suffers a Boston type attack every few weeks and has lost 40,000 people to Islamist violence over the last decade. Few people oppose radicalism quite like the mass of Pakistanis do. I didnt suffer any backlash yet, but maybe that's cos I'm a big dude (6ft, 225lbs).
One of the things that killed me was listening to this kid cry and say, "Don't they understand that we get it too?" He doesn't have your size to help him - just a scared, skinny, flamboyantly gay kid who wants nothing but peace in BOTH of his countries.
"Risk analyst Alexia Ash said the early signs suggest the *attack was more likely perpetrated by a home-grown terrorist, rather than a foreign network like Al Qaeda."
I agree with the premise of the article in Salon because we have been taught that white people never conspire to commit terrorism. That is the biggest lie ever. We white people have been committing atrocities on each other and everyone else for millennia. The biggest bunch of terrorists ever were the soldiers of the British Empire and we Americans are rapidly catching up. What else do you call assassinating individuals and anyone nearby without hearing, trial or even conformation that they are anti-American terrorists? I call it international bullying. Where else did the high school proto thugs go after graduation?
I expect if the perpetrator of the New Boston Massacre is a foreigner, from another culture or religion the entire group will be vilified. In contrast if he a 'good old boy" he will be singularly blamed even if he was part of a gang of bombers because we do not want to accept collective guilt for bringing up such a crazy.
On that note, he had two job offers for after graduation: one in Pakistan and another in the US, both at Muslim arts institutions. He was leaning toward the position in the US. Last night, he accepted the offer in Pakistan.
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