By The nation watches in horror as the tragedy at Pulse nightclub in Orlando continues to unfold. We have learned that Omar Mateen, a mentally unstable, allegedly closet homosexual with a history of drunken stupors, violent, odd, and abusive behavior, conducted the most deadly mass shooting of this century. Meanwhile, the American-Muslim community waits in terror for the backlash.
Sadly, Muslims in this nation are constantly aware of the potential for backlash due to the negative imagery of Islam and Muslims, which will open the floodgates for the ignorant and unhinged to threaten, and possibly hurt members of this community.
Thanks to mainstream media, the continuous blaming of Islam and reporting of alleged connections to ISIS, further allows for the pot of hatred in this country towards a community of faith to boil over.
Will the vilification of Islam and Muslims come to an end? Are we ever to expect that the media will provide the same coverage of a mass shooting as they do when the perpetrator is a White male? Most likely not.
In fact, we have seen the names of White male mass shooters are long forgotten as the focus remains on the victims, their stories, and their families. The last few days have proven that victims of crimes committed by someone claiming to be of the Islamic faith are not as important as the media’s whoring of a religion practiced by 1.5+ billion people.
Once gain, Muslim Dearborn residents anxiously wait, fearing for their safety as countless social media trolls reference the city and its religious institutions, calling for people to “kill the Muslim scum” and “eradicate Muslims from the face of the Earth.” The City of Dearborn is home to the largest concentrated population of Muslims in the US.
As organizations, houses of worship, and community leaders voice their solidarity with the citizens of this nation and the LGBTQ+ community in Orlando, holding vigils, launching fundraising efforts, and hosting press conferences in coordination with interfaith and LGBTQ+ community leaders, there is never enough being done or said.
Many refuse to believe that the American Muslim community are just as shocked, revolted, and saddened by such a tragedy on US soil, and that we are all one and the same. This type of negative imagery and insidious rhetoric, from politicians, leaders, and the media, only seeks to further incite hate and fear.
While media outlets continue to call this an act of terror and dismiss the fact that the shooter was an American born citizen with no solid ties to any radical groups abroad (and was mentally unstable), Muslim communities across the nation are left to defend themselves, their religion, and their commitment to this country while the entire faith is smeared, criticized, and maligned.
Recently, the Michigan Muslim Community Council co-sponsored a Launchgood effort to raise funds for the victims of the Orlando shooting. CAIR-Michigan and other faith leaders stood in solidarity with LGBTQ+ leaders to denounce such appalling actions and remind people that this is not Islamic in any capacity.
Leaders and community members have held prayer meetings, interfaith vigils, and showed their solidarity with the LGBTQ+ community through social media posts, newspaper articles, and blogs.
Our Muslim community continues to speak out against such atrocities and reminds the media of their duty to be responsible in their reporting. If we are going to malign an entire community because of one bad apple, shouldn’t past mass shooters, the majority being White males of the Christian faith, be given the same? When will common sense and understanding prevail as we address the reality that divine scriptures call for compassion, love, and charity – and not hate, killing, and adversity.
Islam is the problem. Islam is not compatible with democracy. The shooter killed these innocent people during ramadan and claimed allegence to isis. Civilized people are sick of hearing about how muslims fear “backlash.” We are being killed by people from a dangerous backwards cult and you are worried about backlash. Pathetic. Islam’s goal is to control the west; hopefully people will wake up before its too late. In 11 muslim run countries the penalty for homosexuality is death. All muslim run countries support human rights abuses against gay/lesbian people, women and people who are not muslim. Islam is the problem, there is no place for islam in the USA.
There are many articles on this website discussing the Orlando shooting and condemning the shooting and homophobia. I don’t know if you’ve seen those articles.
This article is discussing the backlash our community is facing because it’s true we are facing backlash because the shooter was Muslim. Maybe you don’t want to hear that, but it is happening.
That’s exactly what all the terrorists want people to believe. They want everyone so scared of their Muslim neighbors and to make them feel so marginalized and alienated. They want the Muslims in the West to be afraid and living in fear. This is how they develop sympathizers. Those of us that know what Islam is really about understand we can NEVER let the terrorists win.
American Muslims are living in America as tax paying citizens. We are doctors, nurses, lawyers, teachers, business owners, chefs, and etc. We know and understand that there is a separation of church and state or in our case the mosque and state. We want to be able to practice our religion freely which we are able to thankfully due to the first amendment. We believe ALL human beings regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation, and religion deserves to pursue happiness. Most of Muslim Americans voted for Bernie Sanders or Hillary Clinton and I believe that demonstrates that most of us have progressive values. We don’t care what people do in their bedrooms or who they marry.
Muslim countries have their laws and activitists there are working very hard at changing laws which abuse human rights. Please don’t belittle their work.
I’ve visited a Muslim country before, I’ve seen LGBTQ members living in that country most often in the closet. It becomes dangerous in that particular country when people are out. But, at the same time society there doesn’t even like heterosexual couples displaying PDA either. Heterosexual people could get thrown in jail for displaying lewd behavior. It’s simply because of the culture of that particular country that too much PDA is considered lewd.
It wasn’t that long ago it was the same for the LGBTQ in the United States. I’m not saying that human rights aren’t violated in Muslim majority country but it’s unfair to say it’s every country. Many articles on this website are actually discussing how LGBTQ are treated in the Muslim world and homophobia.
We still have never had a woman President in the United States and do not get equal pay. There’s been at least 7 Muslim majority countries that have elected women to serve as their President/Prime Minister.
The idea we are all barbaric individuals that do not have sense of civility is completely untrue. The only way we can move forward is if we work together united to prevent any more tragedies from ever happening again. We are not happy and celebrating. We are horrified, disgusted and grieving. We don’t want tragedies like this happening and are shocked at this heinous crime.
http://www.azquotes.com/author/39305-Ibrahim_Hooper . Islam does not separate religion from politics , never done .
Even in less fundamentalist countries constitutions , laws make this clear . Morocco does not allow you to marry a Muslim woman , can not adopt an orphan unless you become to Islam , no one can leave the Islamic religion , can not preach other religions or talk about atheism . Islam is a bad joke , shapes slave societies which enslaves .
Bernie Sanders is out of the race, and Hillary is regressive, not progressive. The only people supporting Hillary are muslims and illegal immigrants. Hillary has received millions of dollars from the middle east, especially saudi arabia, a top human rights abuse country, to support her campaign.
You are making a deliberate attempt to sound reasonable, but you are lying. If you really believed what you said then you would not be following the koran, where the only options for non muslims are death, convert, or pay a tax to the muslims. If you don’t follow the koran then why are you a muslim?
The proof is in the outcome. Look at Germany. My family has lived in the same small town in Germany for hundreds of years. We have church records going back to the 14th century. Merkle opened the borders, our town is destroyed. My cousins cannot go out unescorted by a male, and even then its dangerous. The police do nothing. The muslims are not interested in assimilating, they want the entire country to bend to their backwards savage political system thinley veiled as a religion. Look at the article on this site about the poor muslims not allowed to wear their yards of filthy cloth into the public pool. The pools, and the trains, and soon the buses are all segregated. Families cannot travel together, German’s live in fear for their daughters, sisters, wives.
So no, we are not having it. We are sick of CAIR, the muslim brotherhood, the muslim students association, all terror organizations, driving the dialoge and whining about backlash. Meanwhile innocent people are being killed here in the US and all over the workd in the name of allah. But your backwards savage ideaology will not prevail here, unlike Europe,we have the second amendment. The more muslims infiltrate our government the more guns we will buy. This is far from over, and hillary will never be president.
Another tough anonymous internet commenter, threatening to murder other Americans from safely behind his keyboard.
You can have whatever view of the world you want, I cannot change your mind. I have no reason to “pretend.” I know who I am, and nothing you can say can change it. I will always want the best for every single human being regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation or religious belief system or lack of religion. The Quran tells me saving a human life is like saving all of mankind.
I think you need to be educated on who can vote in USA. Every 18-year-old CITIZEN of USA can vote. I’m 100% sure undocumented people are not voting. Even if every Muslim citizen was voting for Hillary which is not the case, that’s only one percent of the population. How many of them are citizens and are registered voters? One percent of the population scattered all over the country. There’s no way it can make a difference enough to sway the outcome.
The “filthy cloth” you refer to is swim wear designed for more coverage. Its simply a wetsuit with a swimming cap. I hardly think it’s offensive. I believe we can all agree every person has the right to decide if they want to wear a bikini, a one piece or a wetsuit themselves. As long as it’s a form of swimwear, why do you care what other people are wearing? I’m pretty sure a wetsuit is meant to get wet. Do you find it offensive when people wear it to go scuba diving, surfing or other water sports? Clearly, you have prejudice towards Muslims without even knowing a specific individual or their personality. By definition, that’s bigotry.
I pity you. Keep on hating, it takes a lot of energy. I’m very glad I don’t hate any person or any groups of people. Extremely peaceful and truly liberating. I am not tied down by hate. I can put my energy toward good use. I’m going to go back to studying and leading a productive life. Good luck to you and all your trolling endeavors.
Associating the actions of the terrorist few with the peaceful majority
is like saying Westboro Baptists represent all Christians or the Spanish
Inquisition represented all Roman Catholics. Go troll elsewhere. You
bore me.