Sadly, this pattern of looking to attribute motivation to the characteristics of a particular ethnic / religious group goes waaaaay back [Thanks Saheli]. While today’s attack in Virginia is the worst ever school shooting incident in US history, it is not the worst ever school killing. That bloody honor belongs to an incident almost 80 years ago, involving a suicide bomber and victims in elementary school:
The Bath School disaster was a series of bombings in Bath Township, Michigan, USA, on May 18, 1927, which killed 45 people and injured 58. Most of the victims were children in second to sixth grades attending the Bath Consolidated School. The bombings constituted the deadliest act of mass murder in a school in U.S. history. [Link]
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p>The killer planned his attack very carefully for at least a year. Hundreds of pounds of explosive denoted but luckily enough an additional 500 pounds of explosive did not, thus limiting the damage. The terrorist filled his vehicle full of shrapnel and then detonated it, with himself inside, killing the school superintendent and some of the rescuers who had started to gather.
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p>The killer was a school board member who blamed his financial problems on taxes levied to pay for the new school. The KKK spun this in a religious direction, saying that Catholics were opposed to paying for secular schools since it was against their religious beliefs. They provided multiple quotes from Catholic authorities strongly opposing “Protestant or godless schools” as evidence that Catholics thought that public schools were a tool of Satan (I give only two):
These forty-five lives were sacrificed to satisfy the lust of a shrewd mind, poisoned by intolerant, religious dogma. It is a self-evident fact that the Roman Catholic church, from the moment of birth, assumes the self-appointed duty of shaping and developing the mind of the Catholic born child… as the following quotations will show:
“We don’t want to be taxed for Protestant or godless schools. Let the Public School system go to where it came from – the Devil.” – Freeman’s Journal. (Catholic).
“The children of the Public Schools turn out … well versed in the schemes of deviltry… Catholics stand before the country as the enemies of the Public Schools” [Link]
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p>Sound like a familiar tactic? They also produced quotes arguing that according to Catholic doctrine, the children at school were heretics and gave a quote from a priest in New York where he said:
“Heretics should be put to death and that if the Catholic church was strong enough, the Catholic people would hinder even by death, the spread of such error among the people.” [Link]
You see how the game is played? Nobody would believe it about white Catholics today, but they would believe it about brown Muslims. Same game, different players, and people just keep falling for it again and again.
Um Ennis, but Muslims DID actually attack the US for religious/political reasons. So that kind of kills your attempt to find moral equivalence.
Gazsi
At least the KKK correctly identified the religion of the killer. In this case their lineal descendants have fabricated a Pakistani Muslim killer out of whole cloth, with virtually no evidence that either (a) the killer is brown and (b) that this was anything more than the actions of a lone psycho.
I don’t see moral equivalence in the post. It is just saying that people tend to stereotype and that it is a time honored tradition.
Also some Muslims attacked US, not all. It is different from saying Japanese attacked US in WWII.
If you take the easy route of sampling only one one piece of data and attribute its characteristics to the over all data then the error rate regarding such conclusions can be very high.
I have received a statement from the Muslim Students Association at Virginia Tech.
Wait a minute. I hope you meant to say “It is no different from saying Japanese attacked US in WW-II.”
In the hysteria following the Pearl Harbor attack, by some Japanese, tens of thousands of people of Japanese-origin living in California, Oregon and Washington, most of whom were US citizens, were forcibly relocated in ‘internment camps’. It is widely considered one of the worst examples of wholescale ethnic stereotyping in modern US history. Read about it here.
word, bro
Pearl Harbor was bombed by a sovereign power, Japan. By “the Japanese” I think he meant the nation of Japan, not each individual Japanese. Al Qaeda is not a nation, clearly. Thus 9/11 and Pearl Habour are indeed very different. Though your point about the treatment of Japanese in the US is surely important to keep in mind today.
Sobering post, Ennis, but fitting and nicely done.
According to Schlussel’s blog, the “Asian” shooter is of Chinese descent.
Well…at least the news hasn’t blame gangsta rap for this…at least, not yet.
I’m sure somebody will make a connection between Pearl Harbor and the shootings today. Chinese, Japanese, all same …
Oh yes, of course, this is why I love this place. Everyone known that muslims have never killed on behalf of their religion, none of their prophets have done so, none of their religious books say to kill people for their religion, none of the religious figures have called for some sort of holy war against the western world and non-muslims. In fact, whether in Hindu Bali, Thailand, India, Russia, Israel, Spain, London, NYC muslims have never blown up night clubs, hacked up school teachers, attacked temples with AKs, blown up a school full of kids, a bus full of kids, blown up commuter trains, or more subway trains (repeatedly), or flown planes into buildings.
Besides, everyone knows that when a group of bigoted murderers criticize a religious group they do not like in 1927, it means that criticism of all religious groups everywhere, even if the arguments are legitimate and sound, must also be bigoted. Duh!
Good logic man! Nothing like good old-fashioned moral relativism to make assholes feel better about themselves. I know it would make be feel better.
nice to see ‘moral relativism’ make an entrance.
there’s nothing relative about recognizing a pattern of singling out the convenient immigrant target for public censure and official punishment.
the troll’s reciting the litany of Muslim abuses that most conservative commentators hold dear. I wonder if they’ll come up with any new material? Surely, some muslim somewhere has threatened bloody war against this country–and if one does so, surely he/she has the resources to act on this impulse. Just like those well-equipped jihadis in Miami or that incredibly clever (in an evil way) Pakistani would-be-jihadi who was so competent, he allowed himself to be suckered into a plot hatched by government agent.
In response to 10:
You’re correct to point out that Muslim terrorists cite Islam as their inspiration whereas in the case of the Bath School disaster, that rationale was imposed post hoc by a third party (the KKK, to boot). But the post is not about terrorism, there’s a subtle but important distinction. Ennis brings us a story where post hoc speculation takes a racist, bigoted tone. As of yet, there is little to no evidence as to what drove the gunman to his actions in the Va. Tech massacre, but certain bloggers have taken to speculation in step with the KKK tactics in 1929 — ascribing motivations that just were/are not there. The unfortunate fact that many terrorists claim Islam as their cause is not determinative on the facts at hand, nor to this post. It is the pattern of taking advantage of tragedy to push bigotry that this post decries. I see no moral relativism in this point. Ennis is very straightforward with his disdain for such propagandistic publishings — whether in a KKK newsletter in 1929 or a blog in 2007. Would you really tell us he’s wrong?
espressa,
Actully, “moral relativism” is quite obvious within the post. Ennis is equating the criticism of Catholics by the KKK as analogous to criticism of, or at the very least suspicion towards “brown Muslims”. The KKK is a bigoted group, where violence and intolerance are their defining characteristics, and it was this intolerance that was behind their comments on the Bath bombings. So when Ennis would like us to believe that there is no difference between the KKK being “critical” of Catholics and others being critical of Islam today, where it is to be understood that it is a bigotry similar to that of the KKK that fuels such criticism. In fact he even explictly says that for him, it is quite the same thing: “Same game, different players”, “same racist script”, his response (#9). It really is no different then whenever something blows up, everyone is concerned about “backlash against Muslims” than the event itself.
Also, I would say that the post does indeed deal with terrorism. Blowing up a school for political purposes (eg. taxes, funding etc.) is indeed terrorism. Furthermore, I only mentioned the litany of terrorist attacks because Ennis implys that because the KKK’s criticism of Catholicism was unfounded, surely Muslims too are unjustly blamed, no? Well, no.
While I know that not all Muslims are terrorists and blah, blah, blah, because otherwise we would be living in a Hobbesian nightmare, it can not be denied that the terrorist acts can be linked to Islam. This is from the fact the terrorists can cite extensive religious, legal, philosophical scholarship. I do not mean to say that they are all learned scholars or anything, but rather that this is not an ad-hoc phenomenon.
But then that was not even my main point, as it actully was that contrary to what Ennis says, this whole thing is most certainly not hysteria, but rather that is a sense of legitimacy to this, where the institution that is called Islam is linked to such an activity.
Mass-murders are a rorschach test. Gun control advocates see them as justifying their views. Concealed-weapon advocates see the same. And anti-Muslim bigots see them as vindicating their fears.
FakeBrownPeopleSuck Ennis is equating the criticism of Catholics by the KKK as analogous to criticism of, or at the very least suspicion towards “brown Muslims”.
Ennis is correct. YOu may call it “maroal relativism”, “idiotairanism”, “people-I-don’t-like-are-stupidism”, or any other silly nickname. But the idea that bigoted people see every tragedy as justifying their bigotry is about right.
The media seems to be harping on the fact that the shooter was foreign-born (i.e. South Korean). I have no idea why that’s even relevant, but it will provide fodder to anyone whot thinks foreigners are the root cause of all evil in the US.
But the idea that bigoted people see every tragedy as justifying their bigotry is about right.
Exactly.
sigh
FBPS — Again, you’re not wrong about the background facts, but you’re confusing them with the central point of the post. The subject of the post is not criticism or terrorism, the post is about how bigotry takes advantage of these things to push its own objective. The KKK’s newsletter was not criticism, it was propaganda. Same with the blog in question: she isn’t simply ‘critical’ of Islam, she’s an asshole. What is the author’s conclusion here? 14. that bigoted people see every tragedy as justifying their bigotry
Ok, some guy whose radio show is carried locally just said that he hopes the South Korean government will issue an apology or at least a statement of condolence.
Cho lived in America since he was a kid. Should Centreville, VA apologize to Blacksburg, VA? Should D.C. apologize to me for Katrina, the flood and national bungling? Should America apologize to OKC for McVeigh’s handiwork? WTLivingF?
Here’s an apology: “Spud, I’m so sorry you have poop for brains. Now get off my planet!” (Yes, I’m angry.)
FBPS: just because someone claims their actions are Islamically justified does not make it so. Further, such claims do not represent a legitimate link with, tie to or endorsement of Islam. When a Muslim commits a heinous act and claims Islamic justification, guess what? He or she is wrong in doing both. Their actions are horrible and their claims have no merit.
Gazsi, nice try at using a talking points buzzword, but too bad you misapplied it.
Ismail Ax is now a top 10 search on technorati. Conservative blogs have discovered some complicated theological allusion to Islam in the phrase.