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The terrorism investigation rather dampens Steven Salaita’s hypothesis that it was America which taught Farook to be violent. Writing in Salon Salaita says: “Syed Farooq is an American: Let’s stop the Muslim vs. Christian debate and take a look at ourselves. His terrible deed does not spring from an unknowable foreign culture. It is violence endemic to the United States.” It’s as American as kebab and apple pie. The article continues:
It might make you feel better about your place in the American racial hierarchy. It might alleviate your majoritarian anxieties. It might reaffirm the superiority of your faith. It might make patriotism easier to accept.
It doesn’t, however, help you better understand this world and it certainly won’t keep food on your table. In fact, it deprives everybody of intellectual and economic sustenance.
The new evidence is unlikely to change any opinions. The evidence was there all along. It was just that nobody wanted to see it. Jake Tapper says the Feds knew Farook had been in communication with Islamic radicals. His neighbors became suspicious after observing a number of Middle Eastern looking men coming and going into his house but remained silent because they did not want to
profile.
The NYT article lists some of the alarm bells that should have rung, but didn’t:
Law enforcement officials said the F.B.I. had uncovered evidence that Mr. Farook was in contact over several years with extremists domestically and abroad, including at least one person in the United States who was investigated for suspected terrorism by federal authorities in recent years. The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.
Mr. Salaita is right. Bias is the problem. Whose is another matter. But there’s no question about its efficacy as a blindfold; it’s the kind of industrial strength bias which takes decades of negative feedback to remove.
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