Is all Terrorism the same kind?
Terrorism defined requires the following: premeditated, politically motivated, violent, against a non-combat target, by a subnational group, and usually has a purpose to influence its viewers. Nowadays, however, all kinds of terrorism defined for us means a group of radical Muslims exploding bombs in the name of ‘Jihad’. No questions asked, just an automatic conclusion. Why is it that you turn on the TV and see the headline “49 shot dead, 58 injured”, and Muslim terrorists runs through your mind? Is all terrorism really placed into one category? Many would say so and this is because of the widespread influence media has on us. Not all terrorism is Muslim. In this blog post, we are going to look deeper into an incident of Islamic terrorism and explain exactly what happened, and try to find out why it is so easy to blame Muslims for all the terrorism in this world, while simultaneously trying to study the incident objectively.
2016 Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando:
We chose the specific incident of the 2016 Pulse Nightclub shooting in Orlando which was pronounced the worst mass shooting in US history, as 49 people were killed and 58 injured. Soon after shooting all his victims, Mateen pledged allegiance to Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi, who is the leader of ISIS. The shooter was screaming as he was cornered by the police saying “You need to stop the U.S. airstrikes in Syria.” He said that as soon as the USA stop bombing is when he will stop killing. (Ralph Ellis, Ashley Fantz, Faith Karimi and Eliott C. McLaughlin, June 13, 2016). Soon after this, with the tactical planning of the police, he was shot dead. In the media, we see the headlines “terrorist attack” a little too often. Who is doing these things and why? How can we stop this? We know for a fact that violence cannot be the answer.
Mateen was raised Muslim and had previously been a prison guard. He additionally had a long history of using steroids. This was an extremely dark day in history. However, why did this come about? Why did Mateen feel the need to slaughter and terrorize the innocent people in that nightclub? If we look closely into the incident, we come to know that the man was asking for something. He asked for the U.S. airstrikes in Syria and Iraq to be stopped. Between 2014 to present, estimates show that about 3100 civilians have been killed in the airstrikes by the U.S. in Syria and Iraq. Could this incident have been a sick way of getting revenge? Or an attempt at blackmail to stop the U.S. airstrikes? There is no justification for the acts of the perpetrator of the Orlando shooting. However, in order to prevent such cases in the future maybe we should look to fix the foundation of these problems and tackle the root instead of finding temporary solutions.
Media:
There are many issues with mass media and one of them is that all news sources are biased to some degree. Additionally, few opinions dominate 99% of the media and those in power with money will have to hear what they want you too and not necessarily what is true. The media is growing away from telling people actual facts and just telling people what they should believe. The purpose of media in the first place is to inform so that we as active citizens can then take action. The purpose of media has become rigged and dominated by a few elite who have an agenda, and it works. “I think that the bias in the media is the root of one of the deepest political issues that we have in this country, as it prevents civil discourse between individuals of separate ideologies, inhibiting compromise and progress.” (Kessler, 2013). We see this exact thing with the issue of terrorism.
Coverage of the shooting and how it impacts Muslims:
While the Orlando shootings covered all the details of the incident, most of them failed to explain the ‘agenda’ or the reason that the crime was committed. Basically, drowning the viewers in so much hate for the perpetrator that they wouldn’t even think to question why he did it in the first place. Therefore, their opinion ends up being highly subjective. In an NPR article, “Kearns says the "terrorism" label is often only applied to cases where the perpetrator is Muslim. And, those cases also receive significantly more news coverage. "When the perpetrator is Muslim, you can expect that attack to receive about four and a half times more media coverage than if the perpetrator was not Muslim," Kearns says. Put another way, "a perpetrator who is not Muslim would have to kill on average about seven more people to receive the same amount of coverage as a perpetrator who is Muslim."” We do not think about the other side of the story as the media coverage helps us to turn a blind eye toward it. We do not even think about how these events negatively impact the lives of the “Muslim terrorists”, that constitute 21 percent of the population of U.S.A. themselves. “On days the media has negative news about Muslims, either because of a terrorist attack or something else, I brace myself. See I am a Muslim and I choose to wear hijab. One day after the Paris attacks I was at Sam’s Club and this guy, a customer, started following me and my kids around the store. When I walked past one of the employees he went over to her and pointed at me and said “How is she allowed in here? You need to call security and get her out.” I don’t know how the rest of that conversation went, I got away from them as soon as I could. My children do not need to hear that kind of aggression towards their religion at such a young age.” - here is a direct quote from an article by a Muslim woman about the aggression she and her family face due to the way the media successfully portrays them.
Conclusion:
Terrorism is a big concern in today’s world, but the media and the ordinary citizen is merely criticizing the issue and not looking at or understanding the broader picture. They do not want to know the motive behind the attacks or come up with possible solutions for the mishap. The media, as well as its onlookers, concentrate on the attacks and not the motive. For some, these “terrorists” are labeled freedom fighters. And for some, the US Military invading Middle Eastern countries and air striking their land, for example, could be labeled as terrorism. A few Muslims who were responsible for the September 11 attacks, for example, did not represent the religion as a whole, but the West and other culture stereotyped the religion as being hostile, and violent, basing on a few groups and individuals. As a result, Muslim minority groups are severely being marginalized in the US. It’s the perspective that has to be changed. Talking through the situation, being empathetic as well as educated and understanding our fellow human beings can lead to solutions and therefore peace, and as a result war and terrorism can be prevented.
References
Boyle, T., Schmidt, J., Cohen, R., Vedantam, S., Penman, M., & Klahr, R. (2017, June 19). When Is It 'Terrorism'? How The Media Cover Attacks By Muslim Perpetrators. Retrieved October 31, 2017, from http://www.npr.org/2017/06/19/532963059/when-is-it-terrorism-how-the-media-covers-attacks-by-muslim-perpetrators
Ross, B., Margolin, J., & Christie, M. (n.d.). Orlando police release new body-camera video from Pulse nightclub shooting. Retrieved October 31, 2017, from http://abcnews.go.com/US/hours-body-camera-footage-orlando-nightclub-shooting-released/story?id=47753356
Alsharif, M. S. (2016, August 19). How Media Coverage Effects My Life As A Muslim American. Retrieved October 31, 2017, from https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/how-media-coverage-effects-my-life-as-a-muslim-american_us_57b71218e4b029a9a4659fe6
Fantz, A., Karimi, F., & McLaughlin, E. C. (2016, June 13). 49 killed in Florida nightclub terror attack. Retrieved October 31, 2017, from http://www.cnn.com/2016/06/12/us/orlando-nightclub-shooting/index.html
URL: http://abcnews.go.com/US/hours-body-camera-footage-orlando-nightclub-shooting-released/story?id=47753356
Website Title: ABC News
Article Title: Orlando police release new body-camera video from Pulse nightclub shooting
Date Accessed: September 22, 2017
No comments:
Post a Comment