Authorities have yet to determine what motivated suspects Tamerlan, 26, and Dzhokhar, 19, Tsarnaev to set off two home-made bombs at Monday’s Boston Marathon, killing three and severely injuring over 170 people. Nonetheless, the bombings have been labeled an “act of terror”, implying that a known political motive is not necessary for an attack in the US to consitute “terrorism”. While this raises significant questions about the term “terrorism”, it also highlights a grave double standard in the US government’s response to mass murder. Read More
Ahmad Almujahed, Heba Almujahed and baby Shaam Abolaban during a family trip to the Boston Aquarium earlier this month. (Malden Patch/ Chris Caesar)
The word “terrorism” is synonymous with “Middle Eastern” in this country, so much so that Arabs and Muslims faced harassment and assault even before any details about potential Boston Marathon bombing suspects were published.
Heba Abolaban, a Palestinian woman in Malden, Massachussets, was walking with her friend this afternoon (both were wearing hijabs and strolling their babies) when she was attacked by an angry man who blamed Muslims for the Boston bombings. The Malden Patch reports that the man “forcefully punched her left shoulder and began shouting at them.” Read More
Ahmad Almujahed, Heba Almujahed and baby Shaam Abolaban during a family trip to the Boston Aquarium earlier this month. (Malden Patch/ Chris Caesar)
The word “terrorism” is synonymous with “Middle Eastern” in this country, so much so that Arabs and Muslims faced harassment and assault even before any details about potential Boston Marathon bombing suspects were published.
Heba Abolaban, a Palestinian woman in Malden, Massachussets, was walking with her friend this afternoon (both were wearing hijabs and strolling their babies) when she was attacked by an angry man who blamed Muslims for the Boston bombings. The Malden Patch reports that the man “forcefully punched her left shoulder and began shouting at them.” Read More
UPDATE: The reporter who asked the question is Amina Ismail, a journalist at McClatchy. I urge you to thank her for asking it (her twitter handle is @AminaIsmail) because I can’t imagine it was easy given how extremely rare and frowned upon it is to challenge the dominant “war on terror” narrative, especially as a female reporter with an Arab-sounding name. And Amina, if you’re reading this, thanks for kicking ass!
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Matthew Keys, the social media editor at Reuters, posted audio of a reporter asking White House Press Secretary Jay Carney if U.S. bombings that kill innocent civilians in Afghanistan constitute an “act of terror” given the labeling of the Boston Marathon bombing as “terrorism”. She specifically refers to a U.S. airstrike earlier this month that killed 11 children, just the latest in a seemingly endless line of Afghan civilian deaths at the hands of the U.S. government.
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Carney completely dodged the questions, pointing instead to the 9/11 terrorist attacks to justify U.S. bombings in Afghanistan. After a long-winded answer excusing U.S. conduct, Carney concludes, ” we take great care in the prosecution of this war.”
Tell me, does this look like “great care” to you? Read More
Updated at the end of the post.
Every 28 hours a black woman, man or child in the United States is executed by a person employed or protected by the US government according to a year-long investigation by the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement (MXGM), which has thus far been virtually ignored by the news media, progressive outlets included. Read More
Every so often, the New York Times does something worthy of praise. This is one of those times.
The Times has published the words of Samir Naji al Hasan Moqbel, an innocent man imprisoned at Guantánamo Bay since 2002. Al Hasan Moqbel is currently on a hunger strike, protesting the US government’s failure to free him. His words are powerful and should be shared with everyone you know: Read More
Mohammad Khalek, 14 (Source: DCI)
The Associated Press reports that a 14-year-old Palestinian-American boy has been held in Israeli military lockup since last week after Israeli soldiers “burst[ed] into his family home and arrest[ed] him in an overnight raid for allegedly hurling rocks at Israeli motorists in the West Bank.”
The boy’s father, Abdelwahab Khalek, said his 14-year-old son Mohammad was taken into custody early last Friday morning by eight assault-rifle wielding soldiers. They shackled and blindfolded his son as his five siblings watched, he said.
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