Two months ago, the world was unfortunately fascinated by the Ft. Hood Army base slayings allegedly committed by Nidal Malik Hassan, and now we once again revisit the realm of Islam and terrorism; added in with another caveat – race – in the case of 23 year-old Nigerian national, Umar Farouk Abdulmuttallab and his face being on the cover of Newsweek.
Umar, who was apprehended on Christmas Day (2009) for allegedly trying to set-off an explosive device in his underwear on Northwest Airlines Flight 253, en route from Amsterdam to Detroit, Michigan, is not what you consider a “typical Muslim, hell-bent radical.” In fact, Mr. Abdulmuttallab comes from a wealthy Nigerian family. However, the most interesting thing about this case is not that Umar’s own father (Umaru Abdul Mutallab) allegedly tried to alert Nigerian and CIA officials about his son’s movements/ideological positions or that the country of Nigeria (the most populous and one of the wealthiest sub-Saharan African nations) itself will now receive some “justified,” as well as undue, scrutiny. On the contrary – the interest is about the so-called “face of terror.”
In examining the reasons why a small group of Muslims may resort to such actions should no longer be restricted to prejudicial assumptions – i.e. “its them Arabs…” Or, “those Black Muslims.” Those simple, dismissive generalizations don’t do justice to analyzing why individuals or organizations believe such violent actions are called for. And when the media sensationalizes terrorist activity by creating these “faces” of phenomena or ideology that many Americans do not fully understand, it engages in its own practice of racial/ethnic profiling – never really getting to the heart of the problem.
“Why would a young man coming from a moderate and financially well-off Muslim family want to commit such a heinous act” is the question that should be asked. This is something serious to ponder because Umar Farouk is not the first of its kind. Osama bin Laden comes from a wealthy Saudi family, and many suspected and convicted terrorists are highly educated. But I guess it’s so much easier to “Willie Horton” the religion of Islam.
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