West’s double standard

The West’s double standard, disadvantageous to Arabs and Muslims, is in operation once again.

Western-dominated international media are giving prime coverage to last weekend’s shootings of two in Copenhagen by a Danish Muslim, while ignoring the execution of three Muslims in the southern US state of North Carolina by a self-proclaimed US atheist.

While world leaders condemned the Copenhagen killings, it took US President Barack Obama four days to comment on the North Carolina murders. He remained mum until Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan castigated him over his “silence”.

When Obama did comment, it was in a written statement saying: “No one in the [US] should ever be targeted because of who they are, what they look like, or how they worship.”

The Danish case has been dubbed Muslim “terrorism” while the US authorities are still investigating whether the February 10 North Carolina shootings constitute a “hate crime” or were a result of a parking dispute.

As all three US victims were of Palestinian origin, the Palestinian Authority has called for participation by Palestinian officers in the US investigation of the crime.

The Palestinian Foreign Ministry dubbed the perpetrator, Craig Stephen Hicks, “an American extremist and hateful racist”, castigated the growth of racism and extremism in the US and called this development “a direct threat to the lives of hundreds of thousands of [US] citizens who follow the Islamic faith”.

While the majority of hate crimes in the US are perpetrated against blacks, gays and Jews, the number against Muslims increased by 50 per cent in 2011, at a time the globally celebrated Arab Spring was in full flood.

Figures are apparently not available for later years.

No mention of “terrorism” has been made in the US case even though Hicks had repeatedly worn or carried a weapon when complaining to his victims about cars parked in places he had appropriated for his own vehicles.

Deah Shaddi Barakat, 23, whose family emigrated to the US from Syria, his wife Jordanian-born Yusor Muhammad Abu Salha, 21, and her sister Razan, 19, were, reportedly, intimidated by his behaviour but did not believe that he would shoot them. Other residents in the apartment complex revealed Hicks was armed when he castigated them over parking and noise.

A meeting was held to discuss what to do about Hicks. Unfortunately, nothing seems to have been done. He should have been reported to the complex management or the police.

Intimidation over relatively trivial matters by a person packing a gun is a moderately serious form of “terrorism” that should not be tolerated because the weapon could always be discharged, particularly by an unstable person.

Hicks, 46, has been indicted on charges of first-degree murder. His lawyer is likely to plead diminished responsibility.

Hicks was a man obsessed with guns and two parking places he regarded as his own, although they were not specifically reserved for his flat.

An unemployed auto parts dealer, Hicks had an arsenal of a dozen firearms in his home and even posted a photograph of one of his pistols on the Internet.

He owned six rifles, four handguns, two shotguns and a Bushmaster AR-15 assault carbine and had stored boxes of ammunition and primed magazines. Enough arms and ammunition to launch a small war.

Neighbours and his ex-wife testified that he was extremely short tempered. He also declared himself a militant “anti-theist” and, apparently, showed disapproval of the Abu Salha women because they wore headscarves and dressed conservatively.

The shootings took place during a chill in relations between the US Muslim community and the non-Muslim majority.

There were several causes of strains. The rise of Daesh in Syria and Iraq, its recruitment of US Muslims and the brutal killings of US citizens.

These events took place against the background of the longstanding hostile portrayal of Muslims and Arabs in US media and film about which numerous books and articles have been written.

The shootings followed the release of Clint Eastwood’s film “American Sniper” about the murderous career and shooting death of sniper Chris Kyle who dismissed his Iraqi victims as “bad guys” and “savages” and killed scores without hesitation.

The film has been celebrated by US rightwingers as the gospel truth about the US war in Iraq which has led to the rise of Daesh.

The Chapel Hill killings took place after Duke University, in Durham, North Carolina, not far from the site of the shootings, dropped a plan to permit the Friday call to prayer from the university’s clock tower due to threats and complaints.

Finally, the North Carolina incident coincided with reports that US aid worker Kayla Mueller had been killed in Syria while in the custody of Daesh.

It is not known if Hicks had known of her death, confirmed by the US authorities on the day of the killings.

In another White House statement, Obama vowed to hunt down the culprits but he personally paid televised tribute to her and telephoned her parents to condole them.

The shootings also adhered to the traditional pattern of US multiple murders. According to this pattern, a frustrated, angry or disturbed individual or individuals open fire either on people blamed for their state of mind or randomly in a public place. The shooters often kill themselves or are slain by the police.

Of course, the real problem is the easy availability of guns in the US.

People like Hicks, cannot only buy and possess weapons but also secure permits to carry concealed weapons.

Hicks did not bother with concealment, but openly carried both handguns, shotguns and rifles when confronting neighbours over their, allegedly, “bad” behaviour.

Guns and grievances are a deadly combination that the US gun lobby refuses to recognise while blocking the regulation of the millions of weapons in the hands of US citizens.