more full and true loss of the thread
what is terrorism? is it having your house of worship firebombed? (i'd say yes).
islamic americans (that's AMERICANS, in case you missed it or are unclear on the concept) in corvallis, oregon had their house of worship torched because a somali teen fbi-sting-victim slash terrorist occasionally and coincidentally attended. it's the one actual act of terrorism committed among the many varied details of this particular situation/story, and it was committed by americans against americans in exactly the way we would like to think our "enemies" behave, while, in fuller truth, it's actually the way WE behave, only we're too myopic and arrogantly self-centered to admit it.
yes, as walt kelly was fond to say, "we have met the enemy and he is us".
yes, and it's evidence that these "americans" who took it upon themselves to hate and blame an entire religion for the acts of individual criminals have well and truly lost their minds, and, coincidentally, made all the rest of us far less safe, because they are fomenting violence by their own violence.
are we against terrorism, or aren't we??? (at least some of us are).
the fbi got turned onto mohamed osman mohamud via an anonymous tip. if we take a step back from the heated emotions here, and put a little thought into it, it doesn't take too long to figure that the source of that anonymous tip was very likely someone who was close enough to mohamud for him to offer evidence of his potential behavior, and that this likely someone was further likely someone who, say, may have attended a mosque with him. i'm just sayin'.
yes, patriotic americans will share such info with authorities, and i, for one, am grateful that someone in this case did. the fact that this person may have had their place of worship set ablaze for their efforts is a shameful statement on the state of "homeland security" in this country.
have we lost our minds???
edited to add:
the new englander points out that tarring all muslims with the stain of mohamud's attempted terrorism is no different than tarring all americans with the stain of the actual terrorist (i say "terrorist" cuz that's exactly what it is) retaliation. point fairly taken. where i would disagree is where he stops short of recognizing that this act of misdirected retribution IS a valid example by which ALL OF US share guilt of dangerous complicity with such actual terrorism.
paraphrased from my comment on the blog, we have to recognize that NOTHING EFFECTIVE was ever done to protect that mosque, the need for which was quite rightfully predicted and expected by its leadership once Mahomud was arrested. the FBI says "we have made it quite clear that the FBI will not tolerate any kind of retribution or attack on the muslim community", (per arthur balizan, special agent in charge of the FBI in oregon), but the obvious truth is that not they nor any other branch of "homeland security" have done anything effective to prevent it.
we spare no effort or expense to pull needles (mohamud) out of haystacks (random bombings), but we can't stop a simple and obvious arson attempt against a high-profile target???
that's disingenuous at best, and criminally and ethically and morally negligent at worst.
we MUST do better.
islamic americans (that's AMERICANS, in case you missed it or are unclear on the concept) in corvallis, oregon had their house of worship torched because a somali teen fbi-sting-victim slash terrorist occasionally and coincidentally attended. it's the one actual act of terrorism committed among the many varied details of this particular situation/story, and it was committed by americans against americans in exactly the way we would like to think our "enemies" behave, while, in fuller truth, it's actually the way WE behave, only we're too myopic and arrogantly self-centered to admit it.
yes, as walt kelly was fond to say, "we have met the enemy and he is us".
yes, and it's evidence that these "americans" who took it upon themselves to hate and blame an entire religion for the acts of individual criminals have well and truly lost their minds, and, coincidentally, made all the rest of us far less safe, because they are fomenting violence by their own violence.
are we against terrorism, or aren't we??? (at least some of us are).
the fbi got turned onto mohamed osman mohamud via an anonymous tip. if we take a step back from the heated emotions here, and put a little thought into it, it doesn't take too long to figure that the source of that anonymous tip was very likely someone who was close enough to mohamud for him to offer evidence of his potential behavior, and that this likely someone was further likely someone who, say, may have attended a mosque with him. i'm just sayin'.
yes, patriotic americans will share such info with authorities, and i, for one, am grateful that someone in this case did. the fact that this person may have had their place of worship set ablaze for their efforts is a shameful statement on the state of "homeland security" in this country.
have we lost our minds???
edited to add:
the new englander points out that tarring all muslims with the stain of mohamud's attempted terrorism is no different than tarring all americans with the stain of the actual terrorist (i say "terrorist" cuz that's exactly what it is) retaliation. point fairly taken. where i would disagree is where he stops short of recognizing that this act of misdirected retribution IS a valid example by which ALL OF US share guilt of dangerous complicity with such actual terrorism.
paraphrased from my comment on the blog, we have to recognize that NOTHING EFFECTIVE was ever done to protect that mosque, the need for which was quite rightfully predicted and expected by its leadership once Mahomud was arrested. the FBI says "we have made it quite clear that the FBI will not tolerate any kind of retribution or attack on the muslim community", (per arthur balizan, special agent in charge of the FBI in oregon), but the obvious truth is that not they nor any other branch of "homeland security" have done anything effective to prevent it.
we spare no effort or expense to pull needles (mohamud) out of haystacks (random bombings), but we can't stop a simple and obvious arson attempt against a high-profile target???
that's disingenuous at best, and criminally and ethically and morally negligent at worst.
we MUST do better.
posted by kad barma at 2:21 PM
1 Comments:
I am all for the "we must do better" side of this, but the burning of houses of worship have a long history in this nation. They are often a form of intimidation. It is ugly. Muslims are late to this problem. Catholics, Mormons and Blacks have a longer history of experience.
All that being said, burning any house of worship is flat out wrong. While, at the end of the day, not all of these things can be prevented, the odds can be greatly reduced and we should be working on that and our law enforcement leadership should be out addressing this issue.
I am willing to accept broad brush responsibility for not encouraging better law enforcement. I am not prepared to accept responsibility for every act of burning a house of worship.
Regards — Cliff
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