|
|
|
Fight against Ethnic Hatred to avoid War against Civilians
by Alison
Wier
Following Tuesday's horrifying and tragic events, ethnic hatred has
already
begun to set in. Arab American groups have been receiving death threats
and
emails telling them to "get out of the country," there have been reports
of
crowds yelling "Kill Arabs," Americans of Palestinian heritage have
become
fearful for their families' safety.
Sadly, this is not new. Immediately following the Oklahoma City bombing,
news commentators blamed "Islamic terrorists" for the attack. As we now
know, this accusation was entirely false. In fact, it turned out that an
ultra-nationalist American, a former soldier who had participated in the
Gulf War, was responsible for this tragic violence. And yet, many
Americans
unthinkingly believed the accusations against "Arab terrorists." In
fact, in
the hours after the bombing, angry mobs attacked family homes; in one
case
causing a terrified woman to go into premature labor, losing her baby.
We ask everyone to speak out against this kind of irrational behavior.
In
World War II we interned Japanese Americans because of hysteria that led
Americans to tolerate actions that should have been, and normally would
have
been, opposed by decent Americans. Let's not do this again to Arab
Americans.
To many of us who have been actively studying the situation in the
Middle
East, today's events are shocking on every level. It is quite clear that
they required enormous strategic planning, coordination, and resources.
To
us, such complex logistical actions would seem to have required a level
of
planning and organization more consistent with those to be found at the
governmental level of a nation-state with access to our security
defenses
than with renegade factions.
But we don't know. No one knows. We have no evidence and no knowledge
about
who was responsible for today's horrific tragedy.
What we do know is that no matter who did it - no matter what their
religious or ethnic background turns out to have been - American,
Israeli,
Arab, or any other - that it is deeply wrong, always, to blame an
entire
religious or ethnic group for the actions of those who claim to act in
its
name. By now, Americans should know better. We hope and expect that
decent
people will act decently.
Please do not allow yourself to be whipped up into making war against
civilians, anywhere, who are not our enemy.
Source:
by courtesy & © 2001 Alison
Wier & Al-Awda
by the same author:
|
|
|
