Shots In The Dark: Muslims Ride the Subway

Friday, October 07, 2005

Muslims Ride the Subway

Something truly sad about Muslim terrorism is how it affects one's perceptions of Muslims all around you.

I mention this because New York mayor Michael Bloomberg has announced that a credible threat has been made against the NYC subway, and everyone's a little edgy.

I had to ride the subway myself this morning, and as I sat down with my Times and my iPod, I didn't really realize that the car I was in was largely, and unusually, empty. Then I looked a few seats to my right and saw two young Arab men sitting together, one of whom had a black cloth wrapped around his head and a small backpack on his lap, the other of whom had a newspaper open to a story about the terrorism threat.

I couldn't help it; part of me just thought, you should watch these guys. And: maybe you should move. Because after all, if one of them has a bomb, watching them isn't going to help you much.

I didn't move, and I tried not to stare at them—the poor guys were clearly aware that I and everyone else on the car were very aware of their presence. When they got off at 96th Street, I saw a woman on the platform jerk her head in alarm and watch them as they walked all the way down the platform.

It's a crummy feeling, to stare at someone and wonder if he's a terrorist, especially in a city where diversity is our pride. It's got to be an even worse feeling to be the one stared at. I wonder if the terrorists ever think about this...or care, if they do.

¶ 10:25 AM

Comments:

Perhaps this says more about your latent racism than the effect of Muslim terrorism. When Bush or Bloomberg warn about the possibility of Terrorist attacks, and encourage us to be vigilant, it always seems to be baseless scare tactic. What does it mean for the public to be vigilant anyhow?

When I see Muslims with headscarves I think what courage it must take to dress that way in today's terrorist obsessed racist america. When I see the police I think of the NYPD sodmizing a hatian man with a night-stick a few years back, the Rodny King beatings, or the beating yesterday of a 64 year old black man in New Orleans by four white officers.

In particular, the British police shooting innocent civilians in the head for the crime of riding the subway should make us think about where danger to the public comes from, those armed men searching your bag at the turnstile, or those two muslim boys on the train with you.

# posted by Anonymous : 4:52 AM

As you may know, I've written elsewhere about the outrage of the shooting of the Brazilian man in London, and I wrote about it so fervently, and so early, that I took a lot of grief from people on the web who accused me of being soft on terrorism.

I don't think I have any latent racism about Arabs...but I do think that one consequence of terrorism is to promote largely irrational fears of all Muslims, and that saddens me, as it is, of course, wildly unfair. As unfair, I might add, as blaming all police for the Rodney King or Abner Louima incidents.

# posted by richard : 12:31 PM

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