Boston Bombing Suspects' Identity Sparks Fear Of Backlash For American Muslims, Sikhs
WASHINGTON -- For Arab-Americans -- and people who are mistaken to be Arab -- there's an extra layer of fear that rides along with the frightening news of a possible terror attack: the very real possibility that they will be blamed.
Linda Sarsour, the national advocacy director for the National Network for Arab American Communities, knows it happens. But when the bombs exploded Monday at the Boston Marathon, it was her 13-year-old son who brought that reality home with startling and personal impact.
He did it with a simple text message about an hour after the news broke that asked: "Mom, who did it?"
For Sarsour, it showed just how deeply the fear of guilt by bogus association is embedded in the Arab-American community, even in children born and raised in the United States whose prime obsessions tend to be video games, not race relations.
"The fact that young teenagers and young kids in our community are interested in who did it -- in hopes that it's not someone that's going to be affiliated with them -- is the kind of psychological trauma that our people in our community have," Sansour said.
That's why her organization and several others were quick to put out a statement Friday appealing for restraint and understanding after the identities of the bombing suspects, Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, were publicized, and the two were revealed to be of Chechen descent.
"Our thoughts and condolences continue to be with the victims of the Boston Marathon attacks," read the unity statement. "We are grateful to the brave first responders and law enforcement officers, who endangered their own lives in pursuit of the suspects and to keep the people of Boston safe.
"This is a time for us to come together as Americans during a sad and difficult moment," it continued. "As information continues to emerge, we urge the media and the public to refrain from scapegoating or turning against our fellow Americans based on their racial, ethnic, religious or immigrant identity."
Sansour pointed to an incident already reported in New York, where a gang on Monday beat a Bangladeshi man who was raised in the Bronx because they decided he was "a f---ing Arab." She also noted the recent front page of the New York Post that put a big red circle around the faces of two innocent young men.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/1 ... 1366409828
