Pen Mightier Than Any Frenzied Mob
Tariq A. Al-Maeena, close_encounters@gawab.comEarlier this month, in a shooting rampage, a 25-year-old Canadian gunman opened fire on the student body in a college in Montreal, killing one student and injuring over nineteen others. The shooter, Kimveer Gill, was killed during the ensuing police battle at the site.
Some days later, a 15-year-old Canadian boy was arrested for posting similar threats on the same website used by Gill. He was allegedly threatening to go on a shooting spree in a high school in Hudson, Que., west of Montreal. But surprise of all surprises, none of the media or wire services were quick to tag labels on these two offenders. There was no cry of “Christian†extremist or “Christian†terrorist in any of the headlines. And there shouldn’t have been any.
But had a student of our faith been involved, then I have no doubt about the immediacy of our religion of Islam coming under attack with headlines blaring “Muslim terrorist†or “Islamic†extremist goes on killing frenzy, killing the innocent. And the coverage would have been extensive.
Tariq Al-Maeena makes his point pretty clearly. It’s certainly the truth that if a Muslim is involved in any sort of criminal activity, there are those who are quick to assume that it must be an instance of “organized Islamic terrorism”.
I would add, however, that this is not a one-way street. There’s certainly a tendency in the media of Islamic countries to see evidence of a “crusade” or “war against Islam” in any event that may disadvantage Muslims. The case of Homaidan Al-Turki and the reactions it has created serve as pretty clear evidence of that.
Instead of trying to fit everything into some “big picture analysis”, it might be more helpful to take most individual cases as individual cases. As Sigmund Freud is reputed to have said, “Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar”.
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10:45,
It may not just be “others” who are quick to assume. Kimveer was not Christian, he was an athiest who was of Indian (India - Sikh) descent, who embraced the “Goth” culture. According to his blog, before it was taken down, he hated among many other factions…Catholics.
He was a very disturbed young man.
10:50,
I absolutely agree: we all seem far too quick to ascribe motives (that fit our world view) to the acts of others. I do wish we’d all stop it.
11:42,
There has been an enormous kerfuffle raised in Canada by a journalist who has pointed out that all the school shootings in Quebec history were done by people not of “old stock” heritage. She (an Asian-Canadian born and raised in Montreal) attributes this to the difficulty immigrants have being accepted into Quebec culture. No less than the premier of Quebec and the prime minister of Canada have written letters of protest to the newspaper, Canada’s largest.
I think she’s out to lunch. Individual cases it is. She’s on especially shaky ground with Marc Lepine, who was white and French.
11:57,
As I said, trying to see the “big picture” is fraught with problems, starting with the data sets one’s using. Too many people are using limited data to reach sweeping conclusions.
That goes for those who see any bad action my a Muslim as “proof” that Muslims are bad as well as those who see any bad act toward a Muslim as “proof” that the West is at war with Islam.
In general, it’s a bad combination of xenophobia, ignorance, and out-and-out stupidity.
12:50,
Actually he makes what appears to me to be a very Islamic assumption: All westerners must be Christian. My experience with many Islamic scientists over the years is that the assumption is all people in the US are somehow Christian, which is not true. Many westerners aren’t and in this case, we know one was anti-Christian and we don’t know about the other. In the US these days the odds are if either were Christian, it would have been in the headlines where if they were Muslim it would have been buried in the later paragraphs.
13:23,
John, this behaviour is nothing new, unfortunately. It seems pretty well standard for the human race. Makes me sympathize with the Psalmist, “What is man, that you think of him?”
Indeed.
Kevin, that is very true. Even most of those who wear the label Christian do it mainly out of habit, not conviction. They are totally astonished to see themselves referred to as Crusaders by al-Qaeda. There is obviously a deep misunderstanding of the role of religion in Western society.
22:30,
There’s a very, very deep misunderstanding.
When I was in Riyadh, I set up a USG program to bring teachers of Islam to visit parochial schools (i.e. schools with a religious affiliation–Catholic, Protestant, Quaker, Jewish, Mormon, Hindu, etc.) The visitors had no idea such things existed. They were impressed that the schools could teach their own religious values without demonizing other religions.
I’ll confess that I intentionally excluded the worst. My point was to show what was possible.
16:14,
John, while I greatly appreciate your blog, with all the perspectives FROM Saudi Arabia, please feel free to give perspectives OF Saudi Arabia. It sounds like you would have a lot of good stories to tell. Or have I just missed them? Hmm, maybe I better explore the site a bit more first…
18:19,
I try to make my perspectives clear in each piece I write, but can’t reprise them in every piece. (Except for the ones that I do with no comment.) So, I guess, you do have to explore the site!
My general perspective is that like any other country, Saudis are nice people, on the whole. There are some unpleasant ones and some dangerous ones. Most people are more concerned with the issues of daily life than with global politics or great historical trends.
The country is very traditional. Some of the traditions are not wise, merciful, or very religious. Others are innocuous, yet others are very noble.
The country is far more religious than any other country I’ve lived in or visited (excepting, maybe, the Vatican). People do take their religion seriously. Some confuse religion with tradition and cultural values. Some confuse religion with how they’d like the world to work.
Saudi women are extremely powerful in many ways. While some are abused, many others are entirely happy with their lives. Mostly, Saudi women object to foreigners telling them what they should or should not be wanting in their lives.
I think the country is very, very complicated, with a mixture of ultra-modern and ultra-conservative/traditional values competing to be heard, to be accepted, to be ascendent.
18:51,
What I especially meant, John, was recounting some of your own personal experiences and viewpoints as stand-alone posts. Just a thought.
23:37,
I’ll have to think about that. My life in Riyadh, post 9/11, was mostly in the office. After 5/12/03, the date of the Riyadh bombings, it was almost exclusively in the office.
06:24,
Yes, Gill was a very disturbed young man. Can we attribute his behaviour to athiesm? Or to the gothic culture he embraced?
I agree with Al-Maeena to a degree, but I’ve also seen the power of the media flow the opposite direction, too. There are many internet sites that totally bash Islam, but the general media in the U.S. seems to be downplaying it lately. The UK is less discriminating on their coverage.
Using a psychological basis for crimes, I always want to know the background of the criminal. Not his religion, but his upbringing, and choice of lifestyles. We have some pretty insane serial killers who were raised in a “religion” who hardly practice it when preying on victims.
To use the “persecuted| (fill in the blanks)to avoid being punished is not acceptable in any country, any more than being harshly punished for your respective race, religion, or nationality.
Personal responsibility is a choice.