By Sheher Bano Hussain
LOS ANGELES: With the investigation still unfolding, an endless debate has started on San Bernardino shooting at a center for people with developmental disabilities.
Besides the direct victims of the unfortunate incident, which killed 14 people and left 22 injured, most of whom were county employees, the Muslims living across the United States of America, have come under direct criticism from the US nationals.
According to the latest news printed in Los Angeles Times on Jan 15, 2016, “The FBI’s top investigator in the San Bernardino terrorist attack said Friday that the husband and wife who shot and killed 14 people on Dec. 2 intended to detonate an explosive device inside the room, though the exact timetable of the plot remains unclear.”
David Bowdich, the assistant director in charge of the FBI’s Los Angeles field office, said Friday that investigators now believe that Syed Rizwan Farook and his wife, Tashfeen Malik, attempted to detonate a pipe bomb hidden inside a bag at the Inland Regional Center.
What investigators still don’t know is whether they planned to detonate the bomb first and then open fire on first responders, or to detonate the device as paramedics and police descended on the facility to tend to gunshot victims.”
While the investigations and deep probe into the incident is still underway, the suspected couple involved in the shooting, Syed Rizwan Farook and Tashfeen Malik, who are accused of opening fire at a holiday party in Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino on Dec. 2, have put at risk the security of other fellow Muslims living in the country.
Muslims living in the US, individually and collectively, are trying to tell the people of the world at large that they are as peaceful citizens as any other US national and the terrorism has got nothing to do with their identity as being Muslims.
The insecurity of the overseas Pakistanis living in the US has been further fuelled by the Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump’s anti-Muslim statement in which he proposed a ban on Muslims entering the country.
Though the Council on American-Islamic Relations, the nation’s largest Muslim civil liberties, has categorically opposed this move. Ibrahim Hooper, the group’s spokesperson, in his recent statement had termed Trump’s Islamophobic rhetoric as “tacit permission to that minority of bigots out there to go after Muslims.”
He has further said that “The mainstreaming of anti-Muslim hate is the problem, and Donald Trump has really brought it to the mainstream.” Similarly, people like Hillary Clinton has said she wanted “people to feel safe” in public after the San Bernardino shooting.
This is an undeniable fact that terrorism has no religion, and accusing or abusing people, on the basis of their religion, belies and hurts the very spirit of the freedom of living in the most powerful democracy of the world.
Recently, Anila Ali, President of the American Muslim Women’s Empowerment Council (AMWEC) in Irvine, visited Karachi. This is the only Pakistani organization invited to The White House on Countering Violent Extremism in February 2015
In her statement here in Karachi, she expressed her deepest sorrow and grief over the San Barnadino killings. “It is with grieving hearts that the AMWEC expresses deepest sympathies for the innocent victims of the tragic and senseless massacre in San Bernardino”.
She added that the AMWEC board, which included Pakistani American women on its board, was also troubled to learn that a female of Pakistani decent has been identified as one of the killers in this incident. “We, like other Americans cannot comprehend the level of evil behind this plan – the incident has left us paralyzed in grief for the victims and incensed at the heartless nature of this crime”.
The AMWEC board comprises Pakistani women in leadership and civic engagement. They work closely with Law enforcement to counter extremism and now with the San Bernardino case.
After the incident, Pakistani women from AMWEC presented a letter of solidarity and sympathy to the victims at the city hall of San Bernardino along with the Consul General of Pakistan.
She further said that on April 12, 2015, they stood with law enforcement and passed a resolution to create a community of Muslim women that will stand against violent extremism and become the first line of defense against radicalization. “We acknowledge we have work to do and with growing backlash, our work will be difficult. But we are Americans; we are resilient and we are strong”.
She said that they urge all Pakistani women to speak up and unite as Americans, against the claws of radicalization, hatred, and bigotry that have infiltrated their homeland.
“No excuse or justification is acceptable any longer and we resent statements that put blame on American foreign policy as they marginalize Muslims and will fuel backlash. There can be no excuse or justification for this heinous act of terror. At this particular time, our Pakistani American hearts bleed with the victims of terrorism in San Bernardino,” she opined.
