Because I Live in South Nashville
I want to say that I’m sorry some horrible people vandalized the Al-Farooq Mosque in South Nashville.
I don’t know whether the people who spray painted “Muslims go home” on the building were incited by local news station Channel 5′s report asking “Is a [different] Local Muslim Community Tied to Terrorism?” That piece has been described as a “sensationalized two-night report about a crackpot organization’s unfounded accusations of terrorist ties against a Middle Tennessee Muslim community.” Aunt B called it when she pointed out that it was irresponsible to stir fear for ratings in a sensationalist way that might encourage anti-Muslim violence, noting “Mosques in this state get burnt down for less and Channel 5 is hyping that these folks might be terrorists?”
It’s not exactly health-related, but it is easy walking distance from my house.
I am very distressed that this happened. I used to live in Nashville (Antioch). This just gives Nashvillians a bad name.
This is terrorism and the actors should be punished as such.
Ann
This is really disturbing. Especially since it’s right around the corner from us. I do take comfort in that the outcry from people denouncing this horrible act seems to be louder than the spray paint itself, if that makes sense.
What bothers me the most about these reports, is that they are never called acts of terrorism. The word terrorism is something that we reserve for the Muslim faith and yet since 9/11 the attacks against mosques have continued to increase. Just recently in Hamilton, Ontario, the largest Mosque in that city was burned to the ground. Thankfully this happened at night because the mosque also doubled as a school. Politicians were quick to try to frame this as an isolated incident as though we have not socialized invested in demonizing Muslims.
The media is quick to constantly trigger fair regarding Muslims and yet we are lead to believe that this people that commit violence against Muslims are fine. If you are throwing Molotov Cocktails or writing hate speech on Mosques, there is definitely something wrong with you and you are not fit to be associating the with rest of society. Terrorism happens at home as well, and it occurs every time someone decides to deface, or burn a mosque.
Renee, you’re right – although one did call it a hate crime, most news reports here just called it “vandalism” as though it were along the same lines of some kids bashing a random mailbox.