At a time when Aljazeera’s homepage constantly details Syria’s violent crackdown on protestors, the BBC proclaims the same and then some in Libya and Afghanistan, the New York Times discusses the latest in murder and mayhem, and the Peace Studies course address the militant tendencies of the United States, it is easy to overlook some of the important domestic structural violence that continues to play such a huge (albeit, almost invisible) role in our daily lives.
Last month, the Chronicle released an article written by a professor entitled “My Student, the ‘Terrorist.'” The article quickly outlines the case of structural violence against our own Muslim communities, and is enough to enrage even the most apathetic reader. The student, a “devout Muslim and outspoken political activist” was arrested and detained under awful conditions because he allowed an acquaintance to couch surf with him for two weeks. The acquaintance, another Muslim, happened to be connected to Al Qaeda in some obscure way and was subsequently caught. His arrest resulted in the arrest of the subject of the Chronicle’s article, Syed Fahad Hashmi. The article does the story more justice than I could ever do (which is a bit of an oxymoron because this is a story of no justice), and I would highly recommend the read.
As a college student with great experience couch surfing both domestically and internationally, the fact that Fahad was arrested for the courtesy of providing an acquaintance with a brief place to sleep is frightening. The argument here is not whether or not Fahad was actually connected to Al Qaeda, rather, it is whether or not Americans can trust Muslims.
Somehow, in the midst of fear, terror, democracy, tyranny of the majority, a pledge for further security, bigger government, and legislation, the most vulnerable among us are losing their basic civil rights, guaranteed to us by our cherished Constitution. We have committed structural violence against a slew of peoples by transforming our adage “innocent until proven guilty” into “guilty until proven a White Anglo-Saxon Christian Patriot.” It is my hope that we as Americans can learn to think for ourselves without the help of our fearmongering media and begin to trust our Muslim brothers in a country founded on the idea all people are equal, and all people are equally capable of peace.
Although long, it is definitely worth the read:
http://chronicle.com/article/My-Student-the-Terrorist/126937/