NEWS

By Anthea Butler June 18, 2015

Anthea Butler is an associate professor of religion and Africana studies at the University of Pennsylvania.

Media pundits have already started to use the “mental illness” narrative to characterize suspected shooter Dylann Roof. Why not call him a suspected terrorist?  (Facebook account of Dylann Roof)

Police are investigating the fatal shooting of nine African Americans at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, S.C., as a hate crime committed by a white man. Unfortunately, it’s not a unique event in American history. Black churches have long been targets of white supremacists who burned and bombed them in an effort to terrorize the black communities those churches anchored. One of the most egregious terrorist acts in U.S. history was committed against a black church in Birmingham, Ala., in 1963. Four girls were killed when members of the Ku Klux Klan bombed the 16th Street Baptist Church, a tragedy that ignited the civil rights movement.

But listen to major media outlets, and you won’t hear the word “terrorism” used in coverage of Wednesday’s shooting. You haven’t heard the white, male suspect, 21-year-old Dylann Roof, described as “a possible terrorist” by mainstream news organizations (though some, including The Washington Post, have covered the growing debate about this discrepancy). And if coverage of other recent shootings by white men is any indication, he never will be. Instead, the go-to explanation for his alleged actions will be mental illness. He will be humanized and called sick, a victim of mistreatment or inadequate mental health resources. 


That narrative has formed quickly for Roof. Soon after his arrest Thursday, former FBI special agent Jonathan Gilliam appeared on CNN, saying that Roof probably “has some mental issues” and didn’t know he had done anything wrong. That is the power of whiteness in America.

U.S. media outlets practice a different policy when covering crimes involving African Americans or Muslims. As suspects, they are quickly characterized as terrorists and thugs (if not always explicitly using the terms), motivated purely by evil intent instead of external injustices. While white suspects are lone wolves — Charleston Mayor Joseph Riley has emphasized that this shooting was an act of just “one hateful person” — violence by black and Muslim people is systemic, demanding response and action from all who share their race or religion. Even black victims are vilified. Their lives are combed for any infraction or hint of justification for the murders or attacks that befall them: Trayvon Martin was wearing a hoodie, which was “as much responsible for [his] death as George

Zimmerman,” Fox News’s Geraldo Rivera concluded. Michael Brown stole cigars, and Eric Garner sold loosie cigarettes — “epically bad decisions” that New York Post columnist Bob McManus, and many others, used to somehow justify their deaths. And when Dajerria Becton, a black teenager who committed no crime, was tackled and held down by a police officer at a pool party in McKinney, Tex., Fox News host Megyn Kelly described her as “no saint either.”

[Jon Stewart’s blistering monologue about race, terrorism and gun violence in America]

Murder suspect Dylann Roof and his alleged manifesto

Play Video1:34

In public discussions, black children often morph into potentially menacing adults after they’ve been victimized, while white mass shooters are portrayed as children, even if they’re well into their 20s. Media reports and police statements repeatedly referred to Tamir Rice, a 12-year-old boy shot by police in Cleveland while playing with a toy gun last year, as a “young man.” But James Holmes, who was 25 when he shot dozens at an Aurora, Colo., movie theater, was frequently defined by his youth in media profiles, which described him as “a normal kid,” a “typical American kid” and “a smart kid.”

Roof is getting the same treatment. In an interview with CNN on Thursday, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) insisted that the 21-year-old is just “one of these whacked-out kids.” Since Roof’s arrest on nine counts of murder, the Wall Street Journal and other major news outlets have called him “a loner” in headlines.

But it will be difficult to hold to this corrosive, racist media narrative when reporting on the Charleston shooting. Those who were killed were simply participating in a Wednesday night Bible study. And the shooter’s choice of Emanuel AME was most likely deliberate, given the church’s storied history. It was the first African Methodist Episcopal church in the South, founded in 1818 by a group of men including Morris Brown, a prominent pastor, and Denmark Vesey, who would go on to lead a large, yet failed, slave revolt in Charleston. The church was targeted early on by fearful whites because it was built with money from anti-slavery societies in the North. In 1822, church members were investigated for involvement in planning Vesey’s slave revolt, and the building was burned to the ground in retribution.

[How people convince themselves the Confederate flag represents freedom, not slavery]
In that context, it’s clear that killing the pastor and members of this church was a deliberate act of hate. Mayor Riley noted that “the only reason that someone could walk into a church and shoot people praying is out of hate.” But we need to take it a step further. There was a message of intimidation behind this shooting, an act that mirrors a history of terrorism against black institutions involved in promoting civil and human rights. The hesitation by some in the media to label the white, male killer a terrorist is telling.


In the rapidly forming news narrative, the fact that black churches and mosques historically have been the targets of racial violence in America should not be overlooked. While the 1963 Birmingham church bombing is the most historic, there also was a series of church burnings in the 1990s.

Recognition of the terror those and similar acts impose on communities seems to have been forgotten post-Sept. 11, 2001. The subsequent Islamophobia that has gripped sectors of the media and politics suggests that “terrorism” applies only in cases in which the suspects are darker-skinned.

[It’s up to white people to fight white racism]
This time, I hope journalists will ask questions that get to the root of racially motivated violence in America. Where did this man learn to hate black people so much? Did he have an allegiance to the Confederate flag that continues to fly over the South Carolina capitol? Was he influenced by the right-wing media’s endless portrayals of black Americans as lazy and violent?

I hope the coverage won’t fall back on the typical narrative ascribed to white, male shooters: lone, disturbed or mentally ill young men failed by society. This was not an act of just “one hateful person.” It was a manifestation of the racial hatred and white supremacy that continue to pervade our society, 50 years after the Birmingham bombing galvanized the civil rights movement.

That systemic prejudice is evident in the Confederate flag that remains at the statehouse because white “tradition” is more important than a history of racial terrorism against black people. It is evident in the assault rifles that white “patriots” were able to parade around outside a mosque in Arizona, while a black man was killed by police for picking up a rifle for sale in an Ohio Wal-Mart. It is evident in the tea party rallying call to “take back our country,” words mirrored by the Charleston shooter as he killed nine black Americans.


The Charleston shooting is a result of an ingrained culture of racism and a history of terrorism in America. It should be covered as such. On Friday, Department of Justice spokeswoman Emily Pierce acknowledged that the Charleston shooting “was undoubtedly designed to strike fear and terror into this community” (though terrorism is not among the nine murder charges brought against Roof, so far). And now that Roof has admitted to killing those people to start a “race war,” we should be calling him what he is: a terrorist.

Shooting at historic African American church in South Carolina

More from PostEverything:

Islamic scholars agree on a shared lunar calendar for Muslim world

The International Hijri Calendar Union Congress wrapped up Monday in
Istanbul, hopefully marking the end of a long-standing conflict dividing
the world's Muslims. Scholars from across the globe convening for an
event hosted by Turkey's state-run Presidency of Religious Affairs (DİB)
agreed to adopt a single Islamic lunar calendar. The landmark move is
particularly important regarding the observance of religious holidays
and especially concerns the fasting month of Ramadan which begins next
week, as Muslims will hopefully celebrate the sacred festivals on the
same day.

Speaking to Daily Sabah on the sidelines, DİB President Mehmet Görmez
said the meeting has put an end to "a 60-year-old debate."

Islamic scholars agree on a shared lunar calendar for Muslim world
Muslim scholars met in Istanbul and agreed on a single calendar.
Speaking to Daily Sabah's Mehmet Çelik (R), DİB head Mehmet Görmez said
it was "a right decision."

The event, started on Saturday, follows years of research by a Science
Board composed of scholars and scientists from Turkey, Qatar, Jordan,
the United States, European and several Muslim countries.

Scholars from Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, United Arab Emirates, Morocco and
nearly 50 countries attended the landmark congress which hosted a
similar event in 1979, only to see an agreement to reach a unified
calendar fell apart in the following years.

Görmez said preparation for the congress started three years ago, with
the formation of a commission of scholars in astronomy and fiqh (Islamic
jurisprudence) to discuss different ideas on the issue in the Islamic
world on an international level. "The commission paved the way for this
congress to be a meeting where a solid decision is made, rather than it
to remain an event where the issue is merely discussed. We had two
proposals in the end, a dual calendar system or a single calendar," he
said, referring to a separate calendar for the western hemisphere or
specifically, for Muslims in North and South America. "A dual calendar
would not end the problems and we focused on a single calendar which
Muslims in every part of the world can observe, so that Ramadan can
start on the same day. We put it up for a vote and the majority of
scholars agreed on it," he said. Along with senior scholars from Turkey,
the congress hosted Professor Ali Mohuddin al-Qurra Daghi from Qatar, an
expert on Islamic jurisprudence, Mohammed Shawkat Awda, a prominent
astronomer from the United Arab Emirates, and other renowned scholars.
The congress' decision will now be referred to the Organization of
Islamic Cooperation (OIC), the group of 57 Muslim-majority countries,
for official adoption in the Muslim world.

Görmez said a few countries might have difficulty adopting the new
calendar, but the OIC may be influential in worldwide adoption of the
calendar. "This is an ongoing process, but God willing, we hope to put
an end to this debate," he said. Görmez said that Muslims are now a
globally ubiquitous community, with a presence in almost all countries,
necessitating a unified calendar. "It has been a real challenge,
especially in countries where Muslims are a minority. It led to a divide
even among the congregation of small mosques, with one group of Muslims
observing the religious days on one date, while others observed it on
another date. There have been even differences on observation amid the
members of same families. This will put an end to it," he said. For
Muslim minorities, especially those in the West, a single calendar means
securing a right for observing a religious holiday. "Minorities fought
for decades to earn their right to observe their own religious holidays,
and they finally gained it. But a new problem arose as the states they
lived in asked them to designate an exact date for religious holidays.
The single calendar will end Muslims' challenge on this issue as well,"
Görmez stated.

When to observe religious holidays and prayer times has been an issue of
debate among Muslim scholars for years. This is especially the case for
the observation of Kurban Bayram, known as Eid al-Adha in Arabic or the
Festival of Sacrifice, and the culmination of the annual hajj
pilgrimage. Differences stem from various scholarly interpretations of
Islamic law regarding the sighting of the new moon on which the date is
based. Specific acts of worship such as fasting may be considered
invalid if observed at different times.

Görmez said there has been a misconception or disregard for scientific
facts in the Islamic world. "In this day and age, when people can travel
to the moon and observe the movements of sun and moon second by second,
in this age of major scientific developments, it was wrong to disregard
these developments and insist on observing the new moon with the naked
eye by climbing

up mountains. God and the prophet tell us to acquire knowledge and use
it." He said that although the problem was not solved in its entirety at
the moment, the agreement was at least a first step and as the DİB, they
were pleased to see scholars from around the world agree with them on "a
right decision" for calendar unity.

* Contributed by Mehmet Çelik

  THE KNIVES ARE OUT! FORTY REMOVED FROM 
POLICE OFFICER'S BODY

Sky News21 August 2016

Doctors have removed 40 knives from a policeman's stomach after he developed a taste for swallowing blades.

Surjeet Singh from Amritsar in northern India complained to medical experts that had been suffering from severe stomach aches and a low appetite.

They initially thought he had developed a tumour but a biopsy revealed metal inside his body.

Mr Singh suffered from a disorder that gave him an urge to swallow knives, according to surgeon Jitendra Malhotra.

The patient said he developed the habit while he recovered from a traffic accident in Chandigarh.

He said: "I could not walk properly after that. I used to sit idle and started swallowing down knives. It pained a little."

Mr Singh thought he had swallowed 28 knives but doctors actually found 40 after a five-hour long operation.

The surgeon said: "As soon as we placed the camera inside, we saw some metallic material on our screen. In those metallic materials, there were shards of blades and woods which were very rare and surreal.

"I had never seen anything like this in my 20 years of practice. We thought they were knives and retrospectively asked the patient and he said he has this urge to swallow knives.

"The patient said that he had swallowed 28 knives but we removed 40.

"To check that there were no more knives left and to ensure that the patient does not come up with the same problem again, we conducted a metallic scan of the whole body including the stomach.

"We found that we had removed all the knives from the stomach. The surgery was a success."

Mr Singh is now in a stable condition following the procedure.