President Obama's cautious admonition not to rush to
judgment about the Boston Marathon terror bombing until all the facts were in
put a momentary check on the media and some in the public who were rushing to spew
the perennial "Muslim terrorists" did it line. This was a sign of hope that the
nation had grown and the media in its mad flight to frenzy and sensationalism
would take a breath, and do as Obama said and wait until a suspect or suspects
was identified. The moment that happened and the evidence pointed squarely at Dzhokhar
Tsarnaev and Tamerlan Tsarnaev , two foreigners, and apparent Muslims,
that caution evaporated fast. Government officials and the police called it an
act of terrorism, which by any definition it was, but still kept to the high
ground and did not utter a breath putting "Muslim" in front of the word "terrorism."
This restraint was crucial because there was also peril
in the heinous and diabolical attack. Muslim groups understood this and issued
the ritual denunciations of the attack, and that included Russian and Chechen
officials who roundly condemned it, as well as a Tsarnaev family
member. One of the first in the door to
condemn the attack as "despicable and cowardly" was the Zakat Foundation of America, a charity and
humanitarian group that aids Chechens and other Muslims in need in America.
The murder and mayhem was just that, the apparent crazed
act of two disgruntled, despondent teens. The thousands of Muslims that have
sought refuge in this country from ethnic warfare in Russia, and thousands more
from nearby regions in Southern Russia now live in many cities and towns
throughout America and are hard-working, model citizens. There is a small but
growing Chechen community in Los Angeles and California. They have posed no
crime or violence problems, and have for the most part successfully adapted to
the country.
This doesn't mean that the psychic trauma and scars they
carry from the ethnic conflict that ripped their countries, and the shock of
being uprooted from their homes, has healed. Many of the refugees have showed,
according to studies, chronic signs of anxiety and depression. A sizeable
number of them showed even more severe signs of trauma, and complained
continually of fear, tenseness, and loneliness. In many cases, their trauma and
sense of isolation did not evaporate with time.
There's no evidence yet that the Tsarnaevs were so shell
shocked by events in the country since they hadn't lived there for years that
they were driven to plant bombs and shoot at and kill police. Even if there was
evidence of trauma that would be no justification for their heinous acts and
certainly no consolation to the families of the victims or to a city trying to
make sense of their alleged senseless act, and to heal. Still, studies have
shown that war and trauma are closely and sometimes tragically woven together.
It also showed that many refuges in the U.S. from war torn countries are still
in desperate need of continued help and resources from government and social
service agencies to ease their transition here.
This also means that public officials, as Obama and
Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick wisely did, when public anger and passions
run hot following a terror attack must do everything possible to dampen those
flames. In fact, public officials can play the decisive role in heading off any
anti-immigrant or anti-Muslim backlash to the violent acts of a few. When
homegrown terrorist Timothy McVeigh blew up the Oklahoma City federal building
in 1996, the predictable happened. By week's end, according to the Council on
American-Islamic Relations, there were more than 200 physical and verbal
attacks against American Muslims, which included the burning of three Islamic
mosques and community centers.
A full-blown domestic anti-Muslim witch-hunt was brewing.
But then President Clinton and Attorney General Janet Reno did not rush to
judgment and scapegoat Arabs. The swift arrest of McVeigh squelched the
building mob hysteria against them. President Bush, like Clinton, in his first
public words after the terror attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon
did not reflexively finger-point Arab terrorists. He took great pains to
publicly rebuke the acts of harassment or violence against American Muslims and
Sikhs in some cities. This did much to prevent wholesale acts of violence
against Muslims.
The Boston Marathon bombing was shocking and horrific. It,
as all terror attacks do, cause untold personal pain and suffering. But the
tragedy also showed that the overwhelming majority of Muslims in America from
war torn countries are working hard to rebuild their shattered lives. They
deserve praise for their resilience against the odds, and for always being
among the first to loudly denounce the despicable acts of those who sully
Muslims by committing abominable acts. The
message from them and all should always be hunt terrorists, not witch hunt
Muslims.
Earl Ofari Hutchinson is an author and political
analyst. He is a weekly co-host of the Al Sharpton Show on American Urban Radio
Network. His new ebook is: Inside the NRA: How the NRA Terrorizes
Congress. He is an associate editor of New America Media. He is the host of
the weekly Hutchinson Report on KTYM 1460 AM Radio Los Angeles and KPFK-Radio
and the Pacifica Network.
Follow Earl Ofari Hutchinson on Twitter:
http://twitter.com/earlhutchinson
