Reflections on Fort Hood

I landed in London at 6:30 am (GMT) and turned on my BlackBerry to find it flooded with emails sent while I had been in the air, flying home from the Middle East. Looking at just the "sender" and "subject" lines, I observed that some were "news alerts," others came from various members of my staff at the Arab American Institute in Washington. The last group included statements and press releases issued by other Arab American and American Muslim organizations.

My curiosity piqued, I commenced reading these emails in the order they had been received. The "news alerts" began mid-afternoon providing, at first, just the bare outlines of the horrible murders of what was thought to be 12 military personnel at Fort Hood, Texas. Reading on, the story unfolded with new details emerging and erroneous early reports corrected as facts became known. Early on, for example, I read that there were thought to be three shooters, before it was established that there was just one. At one point there was a report that the lone shooter was a Muslim, possibly a convert, and that he had been killed. Only later was the killer's identity established and it became clear that he is an Arab American 39-year-old Army Major. He is Jordanian-Palestinian, born in the US. It was also established that he is a psychiatrist counseling returning soldiers from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

Next came a flurry of missives from my staff writing to me or to each other, copying me, reporting on their handling of this crisis and what they were hearing from reporters who were calling for reactions or from the community seeking guidance. (The earliest of these was sent at 8 pm EST, the last after 3 am). My first reaction to this particular set of emails was a pang of guilt. My current staff, though extraordinarily talented and dedicated, is quite new -- new enough not to have been on board when we last faced similar crises. I know the pressure they are under dealing with demands from all sides: statements needing to be prepared, as do talking points for community leaders around the country, and they would need to put in place mechanisms to deal with the hate or threats that might come (one such call, I learned, had already come into the office shortly after 6 pm), and much more.

Though I wanted to be with them, to provide whatever guidance I could, as I continued to read their emails, I found that, for the most part, they had the complex demands of this situation well in hand. Since some had sent questions to me (not knowing when I would get them, or whether I would be able to respond in time), I used my wait in the airport lounge to give my best advice on next steps: what a follow-up statement might include; what messages to avoid (I noted that among the emails I had received were statements for some other groups with headlines condemning the killings and warning against anti-Arab or anti-Muslim backlash. My advice was "don't go there." This is not about us right now, it's about the victims and the pain of their families. If it were to be about anyone or anything else, it shouldn't be about the potential this horrible act poses to Arab or Muslim American groups. Rather, concern should be shown for the challenges all this will pose for the thousands of patriotic Arab Americans currently serving with distinction in the US military, some of whom, may now unfairly be targets of suspicion.); how to log and deal with threats should they come, and who should do what before I return.

In the more than three decades I have been engaged in this work with my community, we've weathered many storms -- from hijackings and terrorist acts (some of which were perpetrated by Arabs, while in other cases there was a rush to judgment wrongly accusing Arabs) to wars, some involving our country fighting in the Middle East, others involving Israel, but with our political leaders and many in the media behaving as cheerleaders. In each of these instances we've had to face down challenges.

In our media age, where news is omnipresent and instantaneous, we don't just read about stories as detached observers, we live them. We become caught up in unfolding dramas with each new morsel of information becoming "breaking news," and the subject of endless commentary. As a result, more than being just a story, a crisis becomes an event in which we become participants. It draws us in directly and drives our emotions.

I have been here before, riding this rollercoaster -- forced to live these stories but wondering what it would be like to just watch them: to be able to just mourn the senseless loss of life without having to look over my shoulder because someone holds my community responsible and may strike out, or at least create fear by threatening violence. To not have to, as one of my staff members wrote in an email "hold my breath and pray that it's not an Arab involved" -- because we know that if it is some may hold us all responsible.

Of course, what was different this time was that I learned about all of this from afar, feeling it unfold while reading about it on my Blackberry in the London Airport lounge. I then boarded a plane, lost in reflection about the trauma and the fear that captured so many, and wrote about this all the way home knowing that once back I would, no doubt, become a participant once again in wherever the unfolding story would be upon my arrival.

 

Comments

[OldSchoolLiberal]

Neither Judaism nor Sikhs look to convert and though since Jews have lived all over the world it is also a religion with adherents of every color. Though the conflated ethnicity in Judaism is almost always ashkenazic, specifically NYC ashkenzaic but this is actually not correct either.

[LanceThruster]

I remember after 9/11, many Sikh men were beaten and murdered (est. deaths - 19) most likely because they wore turbans. I as a white American somehow escaped being assigned by the media the collective guilt for those attacks, injuries, and deaths. Seems only those with minority status have the obligation to take ownership for any act done by a member of their group.

We do not assign blame to the other sub-categories to which Hasan belonged; males, the Army, the officer corps, Texans, religious believers, right or left-hande­rs...becau­se we understand this individual's actions are not representative of the whole. But those with an agenda that finds it easier to gain power by making that the case for Muslims are happy to promote that misperception, as well as many who will cheer them own because that is their view too.

How soon will it be before someone suggests that Muslims wear a yellow star and crescent to identify themselves, and if it came to that (meaning rational people could not sway the masses), how many would voluntarily wear them in a show of solidarity for our peaceful Muslim neighbors?

I am an atheist btw so the only real "ecumenicalism" that interests me is our shared humanity. I hope no one would deny that followers of Islam are human beings.

[OldSchoolLiberal]

You are conflating an ethnic group with a belief system.

Of course if my Muslim neighbors were forced to wear a star and crescent as a sign of their ethnicity simply for being born Muslim I would wear one to. Such a thing would be pure evil.

However, since Hasan was apparently enamored with aspects within a belief system that may or may not according to internal struggles in that faith, sanction the killing of non believers, it is perfectly rational to want to investigate this as a belief system. Especially since there has been an unbroken string of such attacks (really for the last 1,400 years) but on Western soil for the last 8. This is the third action against the military with such flavor, by the way.

When a nazi shoots yelling heil hitler I am going to want him investigated as a nazi and to ferret out any network he may belong to. same with islamists.

[LanceThruster]

Btw, OldSchool.­..no "conflation" involved.

Sikhism (...) arose (...) in the Punjab region of India. Sikhs (disciple or "learner of truth"), like JEWS are distinguished both as a religion and as an ethnic group. Though in principle universalistic and open to converts regardless of background, Sikhism has been identified primarily with Punjabi people, events and culture.

(from: http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/index.cfm?PgNm=TCE&Params=A1ARTA0007391 )