Muslim mourners hold candles and a sign reading ‘Prayers and Love’ during a candlelight vigil for mass shooting victims in San Bernardino, California, USA, 03 December 2015. EPA
The questions about the California shooting that wouldn’t go away. Why would a happily married, young couple with a 6-month old baby throw it all away? There were 355 shootings this year alone and only two of them involved alleged Muslims. So what’s really going? I am heartbroken and confused!
ABIDA RAHMANI
[dropcap]O[/dropcap]n December 2nd at midday as I turned on the TV, CNN was flashing a footage of San Bernardino shooting. The incident took place in a Christmas party held at a mentally challenged community center. It was announced that 15 people had died, many injured and the shooters escaped. It was horrific, who could have done that? Hope not Muslims. It clearly mentioned three shooters. Later on, they confirmed 14 dead and 21 injured.
Two days earlier there was a shooting incident at the planned parenthood in Colorado Springs where three people got killed and many other injured. The shooter, an opponent of the abortion was caught immediately. He was a bearded Christian guy, lone wolf. No terrorism was involved, police declared.
The two suspects from the mass shooting in San Bernardino, California an undated Student ID card photo from California State University, Fullerton, shows Syed Farook and a photo released by the FBI on shows a picture of Tashfeen Malik. — AFP
The shooting incidents are everyday affair in this country. At schools, colleges, universities, and other facilities. There is no gun control. Shooters, hunters and gun lovers even those investigated by FBI as terrorists can buy guns. This commodity is easily available. The Sandy hook killer mom had six guns.
I called my friend who lives closer in another town. While staying with her a couple of years ago. We both would take Metro Link train to Los Angels. On our way the train would pass through San Bernardino and Riverside.
The news of 14 innocents killed in the town was horrific.
The news was pouring in as the evening approached. The names of the ‘suspected’ killers got announced. They got killed in a Police shootout in an SUV at a certain distance from the crime scene after four hours.
Totally shocked and puzzled to learn about the names of the shooters. The ‘suspected’ couple was Muslim and of Pakistani origins. The husband Rizwan Farook was born, raised and educated in the US. He had quite a lucrative job as a food inspector. He married Tashfeen Malik, a Pakistani in Masjid al-Haram, Makkah. The marriage was arranged through a matrimonial website. The couple was happily married with 6-month old daughter.
Everyone in the neighborhood, in mosques and in family remembers Farook as a nice, cordial, friendly gentleman. The next door neighbor who shared a backyard fence with the couple said they were living a ‘happy and normal life’. Farook always seemed to work on cars and sometimes would leave his garage door open.
It was reported by the police that he was in that party where some argument went with someone. He went home, left the daughter with his mother, put on assault suits and came to kill and injure so many and eventually got killed. Police recovered a huge amount of explosives from their garage. (The same garage whose door he sometimes would left open, according to next door neighbor’s statement)
Two days later, FBI found links with ISIS. President Obama delivered a condolence statement on this tragedy and emphasized gun control. Senator Hillary Clinton gave quite a balanced statement. She said,”the American Muslim community is as heartbroken as other Americans are with this horrific tragedy.” She too emphasized gun control.
Donald Trump ‘s rants have been based on Islamophobia and Muslim-bashing. He went to the extent of demanding that Muslims’ entry be banned in the United States. The media has been bashing “radical Islam” all along with a pre-supposed notion that those who fully practice Islam are “radicalized.”
We hope and pray that justice prevails in the end. There are about 6 millions Muslims belonging to different geographical and racial backgrounds in USA. They are the backbone of the American economy. They are an essential yarn in the fabric of the American society. Their religious practices are for their own solace, to maintain their relationship with God, to keep their offspring on the straight path and to get successful in the hereafter. No real Muslim believes in taking innocent lives.
There have been 355 active shootings in the United states this year alone, with only two involving ‘alleged’ Muslim shooters.
I’m just heartbroken, puzzled, frustrated and confused.
Abida Rahmani is a Pakistani American writer and interpreter