You guessed it: her primary concern, like everyone else’s, is guarding against that ever-threatening phantom, an “anti-Muslim backlash.”
An Islamic jihadist murders thirteen Americans, and American officials rush to declare that they will do everything in their power to protect…Muslims. What’s wrong with this picture?
“Fort Hood killer ‘does not represent Muslims’: American security chief,” by Daniel Bardsley for The National, November 9 (thanks to all who sent this in):
ABU DHABI // The killing of 13 people by a Muslim psychiatrist at an American army base must not lead to the victimisation of Muslim Americans, the US secretary of homeland security has said.
On a visit to the capital, Janet Napolitano said grassroots efforts were vital to preserving relations between Muslim Americans and the wider community after Friday’s shootings at Fort Hood in Texas.
“We object to, and do not believe, that anti-Muslim sentiment should emanate from this,” she said. “This was an individual who does not represent the Muslim faith.”
I wonder how Napolitano would answer Anwar al-Awlaki.
Describing the killings as “a terrible tragedy”, Ms Napolitano said a civil rights and civil liberties directorate in her department aimed to “prevent everybody being painted with a broad brush”.
She could have said something like this: “Describing the killings as ‘a terrible massacre’, Ms Napolitano said she aimed to “prevent such jihad attacks from ever happening again on American soil'”.
“That work is ongoing and is part and parcel of how we view security,” she said. “One of the things we’ll do is make sure that we’re reaching out to the state and local authorities within the US, because they often have better outreach to members of the Muslim community than we do.” Ms Napolitano was speaking to female students at Zayed University, and took part in a private question-and-answer session with them.
She said her visit to the UAE was part of the “outreach” programme to the Muslim community by the US administration, one that included the June speech in Cairo by the US president, Barack Obama….