{"id":129623,"date":"2019-03-18T12:00:13","date_gmt":"2019-03-18T12:00:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=129623"},"modified":"2019-03-25T11:31:31","modified_gmt":"2019-03-25T11:31:31","slug":"dont-just-condemn-the-new-zealand-attacks-politicians-and-pundits-must-stop-their-anti-muslim-rhetoric","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2019\/03\/dont-just-condemn-the-new-zealand-attacks-politicians-and-pundits-must-stop-their-anti-muslim-rhetoric\/","title":{"rendered":"Don\u2019t Just Condemn the New Zealand Attacks \u2014 Politicians and Pundits Must Stop Their Anti-Muslim Rhetoric"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

15 Mar 2019 – \u201cIt\u2019s the birthrates.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

So begins the online manifesto\u00a0of the man accused of shooting and killing at least 49 Muslims<\/a> in a terror attack targeted at two mosques in New Zealand.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven if we were to deport all Non-Europeans from our lands tomorrow, the European people would still be spiraling into decay and eventual death,\u201d it continues. \u201cIn the end we must return to replacement fertility levels, or it will kill us.\u201d<\/p>\n

The alleged shooter goes on to refer to his \u201cdislike\u201d of Muslims, and his particular hatred for converts to the Islamic faith, while referring to the attacks as \u201crevenge\u201d against Islam. He talks of a \u201cwhite genocide\u201d and describes Muslim immigrants as the \u201cmost despised group of invaders in the West.\u201d<\/p>\n

Whether or not this manifesto turns out to be a trap, designed for the purposes of trolling, baiting, and \u201cshitposting<\/a>,\u201d as Bellingcat\u2019s Robert Evans<\/a> has argued, there is no denying that it is a hate-filled screed. It is vile, viciously anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant, and unhinged.<\/p>\n

But what it is not is shocking. There is nothing shocking about it. How can there be? Have you not been paying attention? Much of his rhetoric and references are borrowed from the political and media mainstream \u2014 especially here in the United States.<\/p>\n

When I read his manifesto, I couldn\u2019t help but think of high-profile American politicians, such as the president of the United States who said<\/a>, \u201cIslam hates us,\u201d referred<\/a> to \u201cpeople coming out of mosques with hatred and death in their eyes and on their minds,\u201d and compared<\/a> a caravan of migrants to an \u201cinvasion.\u201d Or Sen. Ted Cruz, who called<\/a> on \u201claw enforcement to patrol and secure Muslim neighborhoods before they become radicalized.\u201d Or Sen. Marco Rubio who said<\/a> he was in favor of \u201cclosing down anyplace \u2014 whether it\u2019s a cafe, a diner, an internet site \u2014 anyplace where radicals are being inspired.\u201d Or Sen. Lindsey Graham who declared<\/a>: \u201cIf I have to monitor a mosque, I\u2019ll monitor a mosque.\u201d Or former Gov. Mike Huckabee who described<\/a> Muslims in the Middle East coming out of mosques on Fridays \u201clike uncorked animals.\u201d Or even former President Bill Clinton, who suggested<\/a> at the Democratic National Convention in 2016 that Muslim-American citizenship was contingent on good behavior and proving loyalty: \u201cIf you\u2019re a Muslim and you love America and freedom and you hate terror, stay here and help us win and make a future together.\u201d<\/p>\n

When I read the alleged shooter\u2019s manifesto, I couldn\u2019t help but recall how right-wing pundits have made so many similar statements \u2014 and paid no penalty. For example, author Ann Coulter who has spoken openly<\/a> of \u201cragheads,\u201d \u201ccamel jockeys,\u201d and \u201cjihad monkeys,\u201d declaimed<\/a>\u00a0three days after 9\/11 that \u201cwe should invade their countries, kill their leaders, and convert them to Christianity.\u201d Or commentator Ben Shapiro, who believes<\/a>\u00a0that a \u201cmajority\u201d of the world\u2019s Muslim population is \u201cradicalized\u201d and has claimed<\/a>\u00a0that \u201cArabs like to bomb crap and live in open sewage.\u201d Or Fox News host Tucker Carlson, who has won the support of neo-Nazis<\/a> by repeatedly<\/a> making<\/a> not-so-coded<\/a> references to the white genocide conspiracy theory<\/a>\u00a0and has also dismissed<\/a> Iraqis as \u201csemiliterate primitive monkeys.\u201d Or Brigitte Gabriel, friend of the president<\/a>, who thinks<\/a>\u00a0that \u201ca practicing Muslim who believes the word of the Quran to be the word of Allah, who abides by Islam, who goes to mosque and prays every Friday \u2026 cannot be a loyal citizen to the United States of America.\u201d Or Steve Bannon, former executive chair of Breitbart News and ex-adviser to the president, who has declared<\/a>, \u201cIslam is not a religion of peace\u201d but \u201ca religion of submission,\u201d and warned that the U.S. could transform into the \u201cIslamic States of America.\u201d<\/p>\n

When I read the manifesto, I couldn\u2019t help but remember the names of some prominent liberals, too, such as atheist and scientist Sam Harris, who dubbed<\/a> Islam \u201cthe mother lode of bad ideas\u201d and announced<\/a> that \u201cwe are not at war with \u2018terrorism.\u2019 We are at war with Islam.\u201d Or TV host Bill Maher who called<\/a> Islam \u201ca mafia\u201d and accused<\/a> \u201cviolent\u201d Muslims of bringing \u201cthat desert stuff to our world.\u201d Or author and ex-Muslim Ayaan Hirsi Ali, who has demanded<\/a>\u00a0that Islam be \u201ccrushed\u201d and thinks<\/a> \u201cevery devout Muslim who aspired to practice genuine Islam, even if they didn\u2019t actively support the [9\/11] attacks, they must have at least approved of them.\u201d Or novelist Martin Amis, who once said<\/a>,\u00a0\u201cThere\u2019s a definite urge \u2014 don\u2019t you have it? \u2014 to say, \u2018The Muslim community will have to suffer until it gets its house in order.\u2019 What sort of suffering? Not letting them travel. Deportation \u2014 further down the road. Curtailing of freedoms. Strip-searching people who look like they\u2019re from the Middle East or from Pakistan.\u201d<\/p>\n

To be clear: I am not suggesting that any of these people, whether conservatives or liberals, politicians or pundits, are directly responsible for this heinous crime. (The alleged shooter does, though, praise<\/a> Donald Trump \u201cas a symbol of white identity and common purpose,\u201d and claims<\/a>\u00a0that \u201cthe person that has influenced me above all was Candace Owens,\u201d an \u201calt-right,\u201d social media superstar<\/a>. Again, this may or may not be shitposting.)<\/p>\n

What I am suggesting, however, is that violence does not exist in a vacuum. In fact, since the 9\/11 attacks, the right has demanded that progressives and Muslims crack down on \u201cpreachers of hate<\/a>.\u201d Remember the so-called conveyor belt<\/a>\u00a0that leads from nonviolent rhetoric to violent acts by Muslims? Remember how \u201cideology matters<\/a>\u201d?<\/p>\n

Isn\u2019t it past time for conservatives to take their own advice?<\/p>\n

And what of the rest of us? What lessons will we learn from this latest hate-filled atrocity in New Zealand? Are we willing and able to stand up to Islamophobia on days when there are not brutal terrorist attacks on Muslims in mosques? Will we call out vile anti-Muslim rhetoric when we see it on cable news, or in our newspapers and magazines \u2014 or only when we see it quoted from the online manifesto of a deranged mass murderer?<\/p>\n

I doubt it. \u201cPeople who can only condemn racism and Islamophobia \u2014 being \u2018horrified\u2019 and \u2018shocked\u2019 \u2014 only when so much blood is spilled are part of the problem,\u201d the Cambridge academic Priyamvada Gopal observed on Twitter<\/a> on Friday. \u201cBecause the rest of the time, they are busy normalising & minimising them.\u201d<\/p>\n

____________________________________________<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Mehdi Hasan<\/a> – mehdi.hasan@\u200btheintercept.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 theintercept.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

15 Mar 2019 – \u201cIt\u2019s the birthrates.\u201d So begins the online manifesto of the man accused of shooting and killing at least 49 Muslims in a terror attack targeted at two mosques in New Zealand. \u201cEven if we were to deport all Non-Europeans from our lands tomorrow, the European people would still be spiraling into decay and eventual death,\u201d it continues. \u201cIn the end we must return to replacement fertility levels, or it will kill us.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":116661,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[225,56,62],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-129623","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-spotlight","category-asia-pacific","category-media"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129623","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=129623"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129623\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/116661"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=129623"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=129623"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=129623"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}