If the El Paso shooter had been Muslim

Moustafa Bayoumi

If the El Paso shooter had been a Muslim, the entire Muslim American community would have been blamed for the actions of this one person.

If the El Paso shooter had been a Muslim, the president would be lobbing accusations such as “Islam hates us” in the direction of Muslims and not lecturing the public about video games.

If the El Paso shooter had been a Muslim, we would have a Muslim ban on immigration to the US. More precisely, we would have an expanded Muslim ban on immigration to US.

If the El Paso shooter had been a Muslim, the national security infrastructure would penetrate the Muslim American community. Mosques would be monitored. Informants would be contracted. Spies would be deployed. Rush judgements would soon be reached. Then, years later, the convictions built on bad evidence and on paying informants more than $200,000, would be vacated. That’s what happened in Lodi, California, just last week, when the case against Hamid Hayat, who has been in prison since 2006, collapsed.

If the El Paso shooter had been a Muslim, the gun lobby and its partisans would offer arguments like “blaming guns for terrorist shootings is like blaming airplanes for Sept. 11.”They would argue that more access to guns is needed to protect us from dangerous Muslims.

If the El Paso shooter had been a Muslim, the cable news shows would constantly be asking where we can find “moderate Muslims” and how we can keep terrorists (that is to say, foreign terrorists) away from our peaceful shores.

If the El Paso shooter had been a Muslim, Muslims would immediately denounce the shooter and the shooting, only to be repeatedly asked why they won’t denounce the shooter and the shooting.

If the El Paso shooter had been a Muslim, finding a job if you’re a Muslim would get that much harder.

If the El Paso shooter had been a Muslim, finding a place to live if you’re a Muslim would get that much harder.

If the El Paso shooter had been a Muslim, establishing a place of worship would get that much harder.

If the El Paso shooter had been a Muslim, more mosques around the country would be vandalized or firebombed, and women in hijab would worry even more about being assaulted in public.

If the El Paso shooter had been a Muslim and born in the United States, he or she would still be referred to as an immigrant.

If the El Paso shooter had been a Muslim, Muslims would bear the brunt of blowback on every level, and the state of our civil liberties would suffer.

If the El Paso shooter had been a Muslim, a lot of things would change, though not really for the better. At first, things would get worse for Muslim Americans. But then they’d get worse for everyone.

But the El Paso shooting suspect is not a Muslim, so nothing will change. And that outcome, too, is worse for everyone.

Moustafa Bayoumi is a professor of English at Brooklyn College, City University of New York

Source: The Guardian