{"id":2664,"date":"2015-12-03T14:44:16","date_gmt":"2015-12-03T19:44:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/?p=2664"},"modified":"2015-12-16T21:32:27","modified_gmt":"2015-12-17T02:32:27","slug":"kefaya","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/2015\/12\/kefaya.html","title":{"rendered":"KEFAYA"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id='gallery-1' class='gallery galleryid-2664 gallery-columns-2 gallery-size-medium'><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon portrait'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/2015\/12\/kefaya.html\/nypostcover-pre'><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"225\" height=\"300\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/75\/2015\/12\/nypostcover-pre-225x300.jpg\" class=\"attachment-medium size-medium\" alt=\"\" aria-describedby=\"gallery-1-2665\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<figcaption class='wp-caption-text gallery-caption' id='gallery-1-2665'>\n\t\t\t\tBefore &#8211; emphasis on mission\n\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon portrait'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/2015\/12\/kefaya.html\/nypostcover-post'><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"268\" height=\"300\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/75\/2015\/12\/nypostcover-post-268x300.jpg\" class=\"attachment-medium size-medium\" alt=\"\" aria-describedby=\"gallery-1-2666\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<figcaption class='wp-caption-text gallery-caption' id='gallery-1-2666'>\n\t\t\t\tAfter &#8211; emphasis on Muslim\n\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n<p>In just the past few weeks &#8211; the Laquan McDonald video in Chicago. The Jamar Clark shooting in Minneapolis. The attack on Planned Parenthood in Colorado Springs. The Paris attacks. and now, the San Bernadino massacre. <\/p>\n<p>One thing that the #BlackLivesMatter movement teaches us is that the police are rarely held accountable. The firing of the police superintendent by Mayor Emanuel is the exception that proves the rule. But the root problem here is that racial profiling is persecution. Racist attitudes are empowered by guns and authority, and profiling becomes an expression of racism rather than an instrument of justice. <\/p>\n<p>The Paris attacks fuel domestic Islamophobia, because it feeds a narrative of Muslims as a global single-minded horde of killer robots, never mind that <a href=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/2012\/02\/muslim-informants-prevent-domestic-terror-the-data.html\">Muslim Americans have been indispensable allies<\/a> in the fight against terror. <\/p>\n<p>The differing reaction between the Planned Parenthood shooting and San Bernadino &#8211; in fact, the initial reaction to San Bernadino alone, before and after it was known the perpetrators had Muslim names (see images above of the NY Post cover switcheroo) &#8211; illustrate the way in which compartmentalizing events into &#8220;terrorism&#8221; or &#8220;mass shootings&#8221; harms any effective policy response, or even a well-informed debate, about the role guns have in our society. Tragedies get labeled and sorted, and then dismissed from our attention by the next one, making it impossible to see the broader pattern. That blindness is willfully encouraged by special interest groups like the NRA and the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.americanprogress.org\/issues\/religion\/report\/2015\/02\/11\/106394\/fear-inc-2-0\/\">$50m\/year Islamophobia industry<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>In a way, San Bernadino is the closest we have yet come to having the debate about gun control and liberty within a broader context of not just gun violence but also domestic terrorism. I tried to start that debate earlier, by asking (rhetorically) <a href=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/2015\/10\/why-dont-they-condemn.html\">why gun owners don&#8217;t condemn<\/a> as Muslims are asked to. But a more effective linkage was ironically made by Republican state Representative Tony Dale, who argued against admitting Syrian refugees to Texas because <a href=\"http:\/\/www.salon.com\/2015\/11\/17\/texas_lawmaker_in_nras_pocket_argues_his_state_cant_accept_syrian_refugees_because_its_too_easy_to_purchase_firearms_in_it\/\">it&#8217;s too easy to get guns<\/a> there. <\/p>\n<p>Islamophobia is real, and if left unchecked will erode everyone&#8217;s rights, Muslim and non-Muslim alike, in ways far more insidious than mere gun control laws. If anything scares me\u202c, it&#8217;s how I was numb to the news while I thought San Bernadino was &#8220;just&#8221; an aggrieved white male. Only after it turned out that the shooter had a Muslimy name, did that numbness transmogrify into concern. The issue is not binary. gun control vs terrorism? I reject that false dichotomy. Even if the shooters are Muslim, the argument about guns in society and liberty applies. Its a debate we are told by the right that we cant even have. But I will not be silenced with the Muslim card.<\/p>\n<p>There&#8217;s a great article in Slate that asks <a href=\"http:\/\/www.slate.com\/articles\/news_and_politics\/jurisprudence\/2015\/12\/gun_violence_and_child_labor_are_not_the_price_of_liberty.html\">what price should we pay for liberty<\/a> &#8211; and quotes Justice John Paul Stevens&#8217; dissent to the Supreme Court decision in 2010:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>In evaluating an asserted right to be free from particular gun-control regulations, liberty is on both sides of the equation. Guns may be useful for self-defense, as well as for hunting and sport, but they also have a unique potential to facilitate death and destruction and thereby to destabilize ordered liberty. Your interest in keeping and bearing a certain firearm may diminish my interest in being and feeling safe from armed violence.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>In this, guns are identical to Islamophobia and racial profiling &#8211; they make the wielder feel more safe, but at the expense of our society&#8217;s liberty. And we know what Benjamin Franklin said about safety and liberty. Clearly, as a society that has failed Jamar Clark and Laquan McDonald, we seem to deserve neither. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In just the past few weeks &#8211; the Laquan McDonald video in Chicago. The Jamar Clark shooting in Minneapolis. The attack on Planned Parenthood in Colorado Springs. The Paris attacks. and now, the San Bernadino massacre. One thing that the #BlackLivesMatter movement teaches us is that the police are rarely held accountable. The firing of&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":165,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2664","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nation-building","category-purple-politics"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>KEFAYA - City of Brass<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"KEFAYA - City of Brass\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In just the past few weeks &#8211; the Laquan McDonald video in Chicago. The Jamar Clark shooting in Minneapolis. The attack on Planned Parenthood in Colorado Springs. The Paris attacks. and now, the San Bernadino massacre. One thing that the #BlackLivesMatter movement teaches us is that the police are rarely held accountable. The firing of&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/2015\/12\/kefaya.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"City of Brass\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-12-03T19:44:16+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2015-12-17T02:32:27+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/75\/2015\/12\/nypostcover-pre-225x300.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Aziz Poonawalla\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"KEFAYA - City of Brass","robots":{"index":"noindex","follow":"follow"},"og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"KEFAYA - City of Brass","og_description":"In just the past few weeks &#8211; the Laquan McDonald video in Chicago. The Jamar Clark shooting in Minneapolis. The attack on Planned Parenthood in Colorado Springs. The Paris attacks. and now, the San Bernadino massacre. One thing that the #BlackLivesMatter movement teaches us is that the police are rarely held accountable. The firing of&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/2015\/12\/kefaya.html","og_site_name":"City of Brass","article_published_time":"2015-12-03T19:44:16+00:00","article_modified_time":"2015-12-17T02:32:27+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/75\/2015\/12\/nypostcover-pre-225x300.jpg"}],"author":"Aziz Poonawalla","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/2015\/12\/kefaya.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/2015\/12\/kefaya.html","name":"KEFAYA - City of Brass","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/#website"},"datePublished":"2015-12-03T19:44:16+00:00","dateModified":"2015-12-17T02:32:27+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/#\/schema\/person\/87dfd5533a0222456bb5ad6eaf152fbb"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/2015\/12\/kefaya.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/2015\/12\/kefaya.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/2015\/12\/kefaya.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"KEFAYA"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/","name":"City of Brass","description":"Beliefnet Voices - Aziz Poonawalla","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/#\/schema\/person\/87dfd5533a0222456bb5ad6eaf152fbb","name":"Aziz Poonawalla","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/a95\/a95f814e7f2984c887f3b03aed357433x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/a95\/a95f814e7f2984c887f3b03aed357433x96.jpg","caption":"Aziz Poonawalla"},"description":"Aziz Poonawalla is a member of the Dawoodi Bohra Muslim community, and currently lives in Los Angeles with his wife and two children. City of Brass is his weblog, which was founded in 2002 under the name UNMEDIA. He is a co-founder of the annual Brass Crescent Awards. The name City of Brass refers to the Story of the City of Brass in the Thousand and One Nights, and the poem by Rudyard Kipling of the same name: Here was a people whom, after their works, thou shalt see wept over for their lost dominion; And in this palace is the last information respecting lords collected in the dust. -- Thousand and One Nights, Story of the City of Brass IN A land that the sand overlays, the ways to her gates are untrod, A multitude ended their days whose fates were made splendid by God, Till they grew drunk and were smitten with madness and went to their fall, And of these is a story written: but Allah Alone knoweth all! -- Rudyard Kipling, The City of Brass (1909)"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2664","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/165"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2664"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2664\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2667,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2664\/revisions\/2667"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2664"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2664"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2664"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}