The massacre of nine people inside an historic Black church in Charleston, South Carolina has stunned a nation that has unfortunately become numb from such mass killings.
Police arrested 21-year old Dylann Storm Roof who has been seen wearing various symbols of White supremacy.
The horrendous act is being investigated as a hate crime, but few in the media has labeled it as an act of terrorism.
“We have been conditioned to accept that if the violence is committed by a Muslim, then it is terrorism,” said Nihad Awad, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, told the New York Times. “If the same violence is committed by a white supremacist or apartheid sympathizer and is not a Muslim, we start to look for excuses — he might be insane, maybe he was pushed too hard,” Awad said.
It’s a point of contention highlighted in an editorial in the Arab American News.
“I just think he was one of these whacked out kids,” the news service quoted South Carolina Senator Lindsay Graham as saying. “I don’t think it’s anything broader than that. It’s about a young man who is obviously twisted.”
But in the eyes of those who run Arab American News, “the crime is an act of terrorism.”
Asian American Advancing Justice, Los Angeles agrees.
“We condemn this as an act of domestic terrorism against the African American community and we support the law enforcement investigations into these attacks as racially-motivated hate crimes, the group said in a statement. “Advancing Justice – LA also extends our deepest condolences to all the individuals, families, and communities impacted by this tragedy.”
