http://www.upi.com/Features/Culture_Society/2009/11/09/In-Michigan-questions-linger-over-Fort-Hood-imam-killings/12578022711078/
In Michigan, questions linger over Fort Hood, imam killings
EAST LANSING, Mich., Nov. 9 (UPI) — The shootings at Fort Hood, Texas, raised new concerns for Muslims in southeast Michigan, coming so soon after the killing of Imam Luqman Abdullah during an FBI raid in the Detroit area.
“(The community) is on edge here. It is frightening,” said Dawud Walid, head of the Michigan branch of the Council for American-Islamic Relations. “We’re afraid of backlash.”
Walid said he worried about the negative light the coverage of Fort Hood was casting on Islam. The suspect in the shooting at the Texas U.S. Army base is Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, a Muslim who had reportedly claimed Islamic law took precedence over the U.S. Constitution.
“The Muslim community is always forced to defend itself when someone with an Arab name or a person claiming to be Muslim is involved in these tragic events,” said Walid.
He mentioned a double homicide in Orlando, Fla., last month that made national news, with no mention of the killer’s religion.
“Why mention Islam in the first story (Fort Hood), yet ignore religion altogether in the second?” he asked.
In East Lansing, Muslims also said they were looking for answers.
“We don’t know all the facts,” said Najim Salman, religious coordinator for the Islamic Center of East Lansing. “I know one thing: We are against killing innocent people. Islam should not be judged as a whole on this incident. This man must speak for himself.”
The discussion also reached the campus of Michigan State University where a former student was arrested a few weeks earlier on charges that he had made terrorist threats.
Freshman Chris Barnett, who said he prefers to be known as Abdallah, said that he feared the sequence of events would contribute to more “Islamaphobia” and misunderstanding of Muslims.
“With the arrest of a 17-year-old on the first floor of my dorm for terrorism, to the shooting in Dearborn, to the shooting at Fort Hood, I fear that it will be easier for people to point the finger at my religion instead of the people involved in these incidents,” he said.
“I think that these events together will make more people angry at Muslims and blame us for other people’s actions, despite the fact that in none of the incidents I mentioned were the Muslims acting according to Islam.”
In addition to the concern voiced after the Fort Hood massacre, Muslims in the Detroit community were still trying to understand last week’s FBI shooting of Imam Luqman Abduallah in suburban Dearborn. Walid said that incident was affecting not only Muslims but others in the area.
“There is a lot of frustration in the community,” Walid said. “People are asking themselves ‘did he really do what they say he did?’”
Family members alleged that the imam was shot 18 times and that a dog wounded in the shootout was airlifted for emergency care before the imam was given treatment. The FBI said agents returned fire from suspects in the targeted warehouse and the raid was necessary to protect the community and national security.
Abdullah’s Committee of Islamic Organizations of Michigan has called for an independent investigation of the shooting.
Ron Scott, director of the Detroit Coalition Against Police Brutality, endorsed that demand.
“It is extremely important,” Scott said. “There are too many unanswered questions.”
The imam was African-American and Scott said such killings by law enforcement personnel were too common.
“There is evidence that they have been putting informants in mosques,” Scott said. “They used to do this when trying to root out the Black Panthers. Old wounds have been reopened.”
Scott said a “combination of fear, anger and resentment” toward the police and FBI lingered within the community.
For Abdallah at Michigan State, an explanation for the recent violence involving Muslims was not so obvious.
“I feel confused and frustrated,” he said. “I don’t know who to blame or if I should even blame anyone. I cannot come away from this feeling that justice has been served.”
