Thursday, August 26, 2010

Stabbed For Being Muslim In NY

TPM reports that "a cab driver in Manhttan was allegedly stabbed by a passenger who asked if the cabbie was Muslim (the cabbie said "yes"), and says the incident is being treated as a hate crime. The suspect has been charged with attempted murder and other crimes."

TPM in another report says the stabber is Michael Enright. (In picture with 'third world' prop so important to whiteness.)

Enright is said to be "a film student at the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan and has been working with the Intersection International, an interfaith and multicultural effort which seeks to promote justice and peace."

Ok! So what they been teaching him?

The word is that Enright is said to be a serious drinker according to his classmates.

So I guess being tanked in the US dredges up anti-Muslim hatred too.

What else?

The Muslim cab driver's name is Ahmed H. Sharif.

In a released statement Sharif said:"I have been here more than 25 years. I have been driving a taxi more than 15 years. All my four kids were born here."

Sad day for Mr. Sharif. I am very happy to know he survived to tell the world of the growing madness that lurks just beneath the veneer of American style democracy.

I lived in the US for 26 years and claim it as my 'other' place of belonging just as much (if not more at times) as South Africa.

I am ashamed to know that so much of my youthful admiration for the idea of America was mostly delusional.

This attack is merely one incident I know. But it is hardly in isolation of the rampant bigotry that Muslims face in the US.

And it extends from there.

This blog receives almost daily anonymous rants that are anti-Muslim and racist (I refuse to post most of them).

In other web places you will find acrobatic liberal and conservative translations of why a Mosque close to Ground Zero "is not the right thing ... right now."

I wish I had a dollar for each time the "right thing" mantra was thrown at me.

Calling the US on it's sh*t is "the right thing ... right now." There is no other choice but to stand against the racist drift that has 70% of Americans supporting the racist nonsense that a Mosque close to Ground Zero is not "the right thing ... right now."

Islam is not responsible for imperial Humpty falling down ... Humpty did it all by hisself.

In the end Islam will be standing long after the US is not. So the wheel turns hey.

May Mr. Sharif heal in peace.

Onward!

5 comments:

pserean said...

slms....interesting blog.
i like it:)

(recently, i came across some articles about the hiroshima a bomb anniversary...and couldnt help noticing the beautiful pictures of the scientists and the bombers- they all looked terribly wholesome- this epitome of good ole fashioned 'americanness'- the huge eyes, candidly gazing at the camera...the broad smile... the well groomed blonde head...even when you know the evil that they perpetrated, the still managed to look....devilishly innocent. like that paedophile priest...
sinister.

and on that tangent...the times magazine once posted a ludicrious article years ago-during ww2, i believe- on how to differentiate the japanese from the other asian nations- with such crackbrained sentences like-
'the eyes are smaller and have a cold look in them.'

mad stuff like that.

(im rambling. sorry. its just that these people seem to have jumped out of a stephen king monster movie.)

GiGi - The Shy Giraffe said...

Salam Ridwan,

I been reading about the madness of what's going on in NY and the phobia most americans think that the shariah law will come in force when the centre is built... sigh.
And somewhere in Gainsville, there will be Quran torch ceremony on Sept 11... I'm speechless.

I hope the month of ramadan brings you much blessing and may the coming Eid Dul Fitri gives you much joy.

=:O)

Ridwan said...

Pserean thank you for stopping by and commenting.

You presence has made me take a look at your spot and I am excited to read through your posts.

Your post "Tension Relievers" made me smile, knowingly:

"Beige carpets remember."

Memory and growth hey.

Your comment is excellent and made me think just how innocence is constructed.

We listen to the leaders in the US talk as if they hold the entire truth so easily in grasp and all the rest are wrong.

The deceitfulness of appearance and the bending of truth on display.

The US needs to confront its horrific deeds. They can't just keep on pretending like the rest of the world is wrong.

And I know there are people inside the US who recognize this.

Remember after 9/11 when the main question was: "why do they hate us?"

Do you think they even tried to fathom reasons?

Peace to you,
Ridwan

Ridwan said...

Salaam Gigi!

I trust the fast is going well and that you are well too.

Great to hear from you even though the subject matter is hardly good news.

My thinking is the same. I am still stunned by the general ignorance of Americans on issues of Islam and Muslims.

Stunned but not surprised since it has been so for centuries.

The need to vilify and create the monster 'other' is part of the American psyche.

Stay well my sista.

Peace to you,
Ridwan

pserean said...

GAH.
of all the sentences to stick out, it had to be that one...

as for fathoming the reasons...i think we -instinctively- will stop questioning if the answer means a diminishment of something or other that we want to retain.
our self respect. our comfort and ease. our land. our power...

people are like that-we do it in so many little ways -'cept the americans have honed it to a nuclear edge:P
(because they did it sideways)

slms