The New Antisemitism In America – OpEd
By Paul Woodward - War in Context
For over a decade, Americans have been told that the threat of terrorism lurks everywhere — that it is the preeminent threat to security across the globe and that, if politicians and other public figures are to be taken seriously, it poses an even greater threat to life on this planet than climate change.
Not surprisingly, this fear-mongering has had an effect and produced what arguably actually poses a greater threat to the citizens of this country: the creation of Americans whose fear of “terrorists” provokes murderous rage.
Realistically, such Americans can probably be assumed to be much more numerous than would-be terrorists in this country. The existence of such individuals does not seem to cause much public concern however, for the simple reason that they only pose a threat to a relatively small minority of Americans: anyone who appears to be Muslim.
The Associated Press reports: A woman from Iraq who was found beaten next to a threatening note saying “go back to your country” has died, and police are investigating the possibility of a hate crime.
Hanif Mohebi, the director of the San Diego chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said Shaima Alawadi was taken off life support Saturday afternoon.
“The family is in shock at the moment. They’re still trying to deal with what happened,” said Mohebi, who met with family members.
Alawadi, a 32-year-old mother of five, had been hospitalized since her 17-year-old daughter found her unconscious in the dining room of the family’s suburban San Diego house on Wednesday, police Lt. Steve Shakowski said.
“A hate crime is one of the possibilities, and we will be looking at that,” Lt. Mark Coit said. “We don’t want to focus on only one issue and miss something else.”
The daughter, Fatima Al Himidi, told KUSI-TV her mother had been beaten on the head repeatedly with a tire iron, and that the note said “go back to your country, you terrorist.”
While Alawadi is widely being described as an Iraqi immigrant, it’s worth noting that having arrived here in 1993, she had spent most of her life and all of her adult life in the United States.
I deplore the attacks on any innocent person no matter of what ethnicity, religion, etc. To be historically correct, however, the term anti-Semitism was devised by Wilhelm Marr in Germany in 1879 and referred specifically to Jews. This connection has continued to the present.