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“A dream you dream alone is only a dream; a dream you dream together is reality.” — Yoko Ono
“In my heart, I think a woman has two choices: either she’s a feminist or a masochist.” –Gloria Steinem
Oct
4
Children Attacked at Mosque, Mainstream Media Stays Silent
Filed Under bigotry, media, race and racism, violence against women and girls | Posted by Cara |
On Friday September 26, a chemical/gas was sprayed into a Dayton, Ohio mosque room where children and babies were kept while their mothers prayed during a Ramadan service. A ten-year-old girl was sprayed directly in the face. Coincidentally or not, this attack came at the end of a week in which thousands of copies of the Islamophobic DVD Obsession: Radical Islam’s War Against the West were distributed in Ohio through the mail and local newspapers. The media is all but entirely ignoring this story. And the one main news source that is reporting on the story is heavily implying that bloggers are exaggerating the situation.
There are many — mainly anti-Muslim bigots who you will not find me linking to — claiming that the whole thing was a “hoax.” By this, they seem to mean one of two things: 1. the worshipers at the mosque, including the little girl who was sprayed, made the whole thing up or 2. because no hazardous chemicals were detected on the girl, whatever was sprayed on her was benign and therefore a hoax rather than a genuine expression of hatred by the perpetrator(s).
The first suggestion is rather absurd for obvious reasons and so I’m not even going to entertain the suggestion that worshipers interrupted their own religious service to pretend that someone had attacked them, and a child in particular, in order to elicit sympathy from the general public. The second suggestion is completely and utterly irrelevant when looking at whether or not this could accurately be referred to as terrorism or as a hate crime.
Thea Lim leaves a comment with these important points on her own post at Racialicious:
From Wikipedia:
“Hate crimes (also known as bias motivated crimes) occur when a perpetrator targets a victim because of his or her membership in a certain social group…”
I don’t think it matters what the intention of the perpetrator was. If you commit a crime against a group of people because they belong to that group, it’s a hate crime – whether you are doing so because you are a bigot or just because you are trying to be shocking.
In the same way, whether or not the attack had anything to do with the DVD, it’s still an act of Islamophobia. I think the fact that it happened just after the DVDs were distributed simply tells us a lot about the situation for Muslims today in America.
I’d like to add to that definition by noting that the sole purpose of hate crimes/terrorism is not to inflict harm. The reason that we legally target hate crimes in a specific manner is precisely because they are a form of terrorism — they are not intended only to harm someone from a particular group, but to put that group “back in its place” and to instill fear. This perhaps the main goal of terrorism, and where it gets its name — to terrorize a population of people. Causing actual people harm helps terrorism, but is not necessary to it. We should be thankful and relieved that this girl and the other people who were in the mosque are okay. But that is not a reason to dismiss the attack as though it doesn’t matter. It does matter. Those who go to that mosque are not going to forget this incident tomorrow just because everyone was physically unharmed in the end, and that is precisely the point.
I further agree with Thea that just because there is only circumstantial evidence connecting the DVD and this terrorist attack, it doesn’t mean the DVD, those who created it, and those who distributed it are off the hook. Thea says that the DVD tells us a lot about the situation of Muslims in America today — specifically, it also points to the gross irresponsibility at best and viciousness at worst of anyone distributing this kind of material in a time where this kind of attack can occur and people will argue over whether or not it’s a hate crime and refuse to use words like terrorism to describe it.
Quite simply, I cannot see this kind of quibbling over semantics occurring if the same attack was on a room in a Christian church where children were being kept during an Easter worship service. And I can’t see bloggers needing to spread the word about it because the mainstream media won’t. But that’s precisely the situation we’re in. I’m late on this story, but far too many still haven’t heard about it — so please, help get it out there.
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“Men, their rights, and nothing more; women, their rights, and nothing less.” — Susan B. Anthony
Thanks for posting this.
I cannot believe that people are debating as to whether or not this is a legitimate hate crime. The fact that they targeted a mosque is not accidental, they were seeking to victimize a specific group of people.
It further bothers me that this has not been in the mainstream press. Had it not been for the internet and the time I spend blogging I never would have heard about this. Why is this not important enough to cover and yet we can spend all manner of time on ridiculous minutia? CNN has repeatedly replayed the VP debate until it has become tired and old. Yes an election is important but so is the safety and well being of the citizenry.
Maybe the media don’t consider Muslims real citizenry.
I have seen some commentators pushing the “another Mosque probably did it” line and the “they’re lying” line. As well as whether this would be counted as a hate crime if it had been a church, I also have to wonder whether there would be such doubts as to the veracity of it had it been a boy that got sprayed in the face rather than a girl.
A commentator at Shakesville posted this:
http://www.koamtv.com/Global/story.asp?S=9088500
… about another attack on a mosque, this time arson, which has been deemed a hate crime.
Another mentioned a piece at the Philly Inquirer:
http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/attytood/Was_it_Obsession_Hate_crime_at_an_Ohio_mosque.html
… which mentions the Obsession disk.
You’re absolutely right that if it were a Christian church that was attaked, the mainstream media would be all over it. Just another example of the “otherization” of Muslim people. It’s ignored by most, and those who do acknowledge it downplay it.
The Dayton Daily News not only suggests it wasn’t a hate crime, it’s also trying to play down the seriousness of the attack. The same newspaper reported that emergency personnel treated people for burning eyes and difficulty breathing and that two people were hospitalised; those details have been erased in their latest story. They also ignore the eyewitness account Chris Rodda included in her blog, describing a child being given oxygen, as well as the mosque-goers’ fear and panic and the climate of terror the attack has produced.
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