By Linah Mohammad/se news editor
On Feb. 11, three Muslim students were shot dead, execution-style, in North Carolina, allegedly over a parking spot.
Three days later, a Muslim gunman attacked a cafe and a synagogue in Copenhagen, killing one civilian and injuring three policemen.
The latter was considered a terrorist attack, but the first wasn’t. However, that is not the issue of the controversy.
The controversy is that the media calls out Muslims merely for the fact of being Muslim.
When it is a Muslim who executes attacks, he’s automatically labeled a terrorist.
The media coverage for almost everything is biased.
Turn the TV on and just watch the news. When the mass shooting at the Dark Knight movie premiere happened, the shooter’s religion was not depicted. In fact, the media said, “a young adult male.”
However, after the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing, the media’s coverage said, “two Muslim brothers.”
Again, the latter was considered a terrorist attack, but the first wasn’t.
History is full of such incidents. And if nobody says anything or stands up, they will continue to happen.
Inside Edition used the three students to set up a segment on how to find parking at the mall. And more often than not, cartoons show Muslims as subhuman and animalistic.
Such insensitivity to people’s culture and religion in the media dehumanizes and degrades them, thus making it easier to just “get rid of them.”
How come Craig Hicks, the man charged with shooting the three Muslim students, is not labeled a terrorist?
But then, what is terrorism? Is it Muslims against the world? Or is it simply terrorizing?
The term “terrorist” is a very cloudy, blurred term. Everyone should be aware the next time they hear it being used arbitrarily.
