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March 22, 2019 - Image 4

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Opinion
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
4 — Friday, March 22, 2019

Emma Chang
Joel Danilewitz
Samantha Goldstein
Elena Hubbell
Emily Huhman
Tara Jayaram

Jeremy Kaplan
Sarah Khan
Lucas Maiman
Magdalena Mihaylova
Ellery Rosenzweig
Jason Rowland

Anu Roy-Chaudhury
Alex Satola
Ali Safawi
Ashley Zhang
Sam Weinberger
Erin White

FINNTAN STORER
Managing Editor

Stanford Lipsey Student Publications Building
420 Maynard St.
Ann Arbor, MI 48109
tothedaily@michigandaily.com

Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan since 1890.

MAYA GOLDMAN
Editor in Chief
MAGDALENA MIHAYLOVA
AND JOEL DANILEWITZ
Editorial Page Editors

Unsigned editorials reflect the official position of The Daily’s Editorial Board.
All other signed articles and illustrations represent solely the views of their authors.

EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBERS

T

he deadly attacks on two
New Zealand mosques
that
massacred
more
than 50 people is a gruesome
reminder that far-right terrorism
is a rising threat. In light of the
havoc that shook the world to
its core, we are now mourning
innocent lives that have been lost,
once again carried out by a white
supremacist aiming to extinguish
immigrants — whom they refer to
as the “invaders of the West.”
Just five months ago, in
October 2018, another depraved
white supremacist in Pittsburgh
fired hate-fueled bullets on 11 Jews
at the Tree of Life synagogue. This
extremist violence is becoming
increasingly common and to let
the perpetrators monopolize the
discussion surrounding the vile
level of carnage would be a huge
mistake. It is urgent to analyze
the source of such violence.
The gunman of the New
Zealand terror attack left a
74-page online manifesto, titled
“The
Great
Replacement,”
highlighting xenophobic fantasies
that describe Muslim immigrants
as the “most despised group
of invaders in the West.” The
shooter also said his inspiration
was the Norwegian terrorist
who killed 77 people in 2011 and
shared the same vitriolic agenda:
to eliminate Muslim immigrants.
The extremists’ hateful screed
encapsulates
the
growth
of
Islamophobia.
We
must
recognize
that
vilification
of
the
Muslim
community
has
been
standardized for a long time by
various politicians around the
world. Australian Sen. Fraser
Anning is proof that far-right
extremism can be validated by
those seated in parliament. At
the aftermath of the tragedy, as
Muslims lay dead in mosques,
he released a public statement
justifying the mass murder of
Muslims and replicating the
virulent ideology of the terrorist.
He wrote: “the real cause of
bloodshed
on
New
Zealand
streets today is the immigration
program which allowed Muslim
fanatics to migrate to New
Zealand in the first place.” If we
extend powerful positions to such
racist individuals, it should come
as no surprise when hatred spills
among ordinary citizens.
But Anning is not the only
one who has made blatantly
racist comments. In October
2018, President Donald Trump
tweeted the phrase “unknown
Middle Easterners” to instill
fear regarding the “caravan” of
immigrants from Central America
crossing the southern border. In
an interview in 2016, Trump said,
“I think Islam hates us. … We can’t
allow people coming into this
country who have this hatred for
the United States.” When will we
admit that such attitudes toward
Muslims, who currently comprise
1.1 percent of the American
population, empowers far-right
groups and fosters Islamophobia?
And let’s not dismiss the
complicity of the international
media
for
disproportionately
reporting Muslim terror attacks
with fallacious headlines, like
“Violent
Islam
terror
attack
strikes …” Labelling an entire
religion
as
“violent”
is
an
undoubtedly racist generalization
and frankly deserves criticism for
its gross lack of empiricism. How
can one surmise Islam breeds
violence without examining the
religious texts? While Trump
is quick to blame Muslims for
terrorism, he is much more
lethargic when Muslims are

actually the victims of Islamic
terrorism.
In a study published in
Justice Quarterly, researchers at
Georgia State University and the
University of Alabama found that
terror attacks by Muslims receive
an average of 357 percent more
media coverage than those by
other groups. The team studied
136 terrorist attacks in the U.S.
between 2006 and 2015 using the
Global Terrorism Database and
concluded that 12.5 percent of
these incidents were committed
by Muslims, yet they received half
of all news coverage.
After
the
New
Zealand
shooting, many journalists have
been examining the terrorist’s
manifesto and tracing the genesis
of far-right terrorism back to
the words and actions of right-
wing leaders. But right-wing
supporters
on
YouTube
and
Twitter are rather offended and
suggest the “fake media” always
misconstrues horrific events to
attack right-wing U.S. politics.
Yet, “blame the hammer, not
the hand” is a narrative that has
been instilled by the right wing
themselves ever since the attacks.

We’ve been reading that
ideology
matters,
which
emphasizes the need to study how
non-violent
Islam
supposedly
harvests radicalism and violence.
Conservatives have promoted the
discourse that violence does not
exist in some sort of a vacuum
while largely ignoring statistics
from the FBI that hate crimes
against
American
Muslims
sharply increased after the Sept.
11 attacks. While the media
generally views jihadist attacks
more newsworthy, it is worth
noting that the Anti-Defamation
League, an internation Jewish
non-governmental group, finds
that
“domestic
right-wing
extremism”
was
responsible
for 73.3 percent of extremist-
related killings in the U.S. from
2009 to 2018 whereas “Islamist
extremism” accounted for 23.4
percent.
But
conservatives
such
as
the
incomparable
Ben
Shapiro condemn the media
for “rushing” to express that
radical Islamic terrorism has
no connection to actual Islam.
In a 2017 article, Mr. Shapiro
wrote: “Imagine that a white
supremacist had driven a truck
onto a bike path filled with
minority
innocents.
Imagine
that the white supremacist had
emerged from his truck carrying
aloft a Confederate flag. Imagine
that the media had leapt to
the defense of those flying the
Confederate
flag,
explaining
that only a tiny minority of those
who did so had engaged in any
sort of racist violence. … Hard to
imagine, isn’t it?”
Well Mr. Shapiro, it was
hard to imagine when the media
failed to properly report the fact
that “the FBI and the Homeland
Security warned in a 2017
intelligence bulletin that white
supremacist groups had carried
out more attacks in the U.S. than
any other domestic extremist

over the past 16 years.” So,
logically speaking, why isn’t Ben
Shapiro connecting the recent
New Zealand attack to right-
wing theories as he did with
Islamic terrorism? Where are
his “intelligent” tweets insisting
that “Facts don’t care about your
feelings” now?
Similarly,
in
2014,
Ben
Shapiro released a video to
conclude that terrorists find
“moral, financial and religious
support from those who are
not
terrorists
themselves.”
If we follow his logic, we
could conclude that the war-
mongering far-right gains its
ideological assistance from those
in the right wing who aren’t
terrorists themselves, including
conservative commentators, like
Ben Shapiro. So it’s time for the
right to be consistent with their
own sayings and counter the
“roots” of the surge in far-right
terrorism.
In February 2019, a Coast
Guard
lieutenant
and
self-
described white nationalist was
arrested in Maryland for plotting
to kill a long list of prominent
journalists
and
Democratic
politicians, in an effort to
eliminate leftists in general. So
it’s time for the right to start
re-evaluating what they stand
for and why their ideologies are
increasingly warped to wage
violence against minorities. The
president especially needs to
address this challenge instead
of downplaying the scale of
the threat as “a small group of
people” with “very, very serious
problems.” Every Muslim’s act of
violence is immediately framed
as “violent Islamic terrorism” but
as white males continue to wage
terror, we report the atrocities
as “hate crimes” caused by their
“mental disorders.” This fact is
the biggest double standard of
international politics. It’s time to
change this racist way of dealing
with massacres.
We must understand that
terrorism
is
generated
by
extremism and deconstruct the
deceptive public perception that
terrorism is inherently Islamic.
In reality, right-wing extremism
follows the same model as
Islamic extremism. They are two
sides of the same coin: the ethno-
nationalist clash of civilizations
between the West and the
Muslim world. In my lived
reality, the Muslim community
where I was raised fears Islamic
terrorism as much as they fear
rising
right-wing
terrorism.
In
what
I’ve
personally
witnessed in the three years I
have lived in the U.S., there is
barely any difference between
how a Muslim American acts
compared to how a white
American acts.
People have to stop hating
each other and treating each
other
as
enemies.
Rather,
we must work together in
countering extremist violence of
all kinds. We have to eradicate
fear-mongering
narratives
that only serve to pit groups
against each other. In other
words, politicians and pundits,
especially those on the right
wing, ought to stop propagating
anti-Muslim rhetoric — before
more innocent people lose their
lives. Journalists have been
pushing for policy shifts to
counter domestic terrorism and
so it’s crucial that we all sustain
the momentum.

Ramisa Rob can be reached at

rfrob@umich.edu.

O

n
Friday,
March
15,
one
week
ago
today,
I
participated
in
the
Washtenaw County Climate Strike,
one of more than 2,000 global
climate strikes across more than
125 countries with an estimated 1.4
million people.
It was a day that touched every
part of the emotional spectrum

eliciting
hope,
frustration,
inspiration, anxiety, compassion and
fear.
It was a day that started with
more than 2,500 high schoolers,
college students and community
members walking out of their
classes and obligations to demand
real climate action for a livable
future. These demonstrators stood
in the rain and the cold, clinging to
every word of nationally-known
politicians like Abdul El-Sayed to
12-year-old students from a local
middle school.
The passion of the speakers was
met unbroken and undimmed, even
as the rain started. Demonstrators
held umbrellas right along with
signs reading, “My future is not
for sale, why go to class when the
world is burning?” and “Carbon
neutrality by 2030.”
It was a day that brought the
streets of downtown Ann Arbor
to a halt as hundreds marched
through them.
It was a day that packed the
University of Michigan’s Fleming
Administration
Building
with
protesters
demanding
climate
action and transparency.
And it was a day that ended
with the arrests of 10 individuals,
including two high school students,
who sat peacefully in University
President Mark Schlissel’s office,
asking only for a public and
unfiltered meeting between the
president and his community.
Walking home at 10 p.m. after
the walk-out, rally, march and sit-in,
I realized that above all, it was a day
of stark juxtaposition between the
undeterred passion of everyone
involved in the day-long event and
the refusal of the administration
to grant the simplest of requests.
It was a split between the peaceful
protests of brave individuals and
the escalation to arrests by the
administration. It was divided
between the fury of the generation
who will live their lives in a world
forever altered by climate change

and the disrespect and disinterest
of the generation in power.
At 1:30 p.m., the sit-in began
with the reading of our demands,
which we had reduced to a single
phrase: “a just transition to true
carbon neutrality by 2030.” The
request was ignored — Schlissel
was “out of town,” something
that I found out is not uncommon
when his students are demanding
change.
At 4 p.m., we presented
our
immediate
ask
to
the
administration:
an
agreement
to schedule a public, one hour,
unfiltered,
student-moderated,
open-to-the-press
meeting
between
the
community
and
Schlissel. We agreed to leave if we
got it.
I thought we would be out by
4:15 p.m., but the administration
refused to commit to a meeting.
They even refused to tell us
whether or not Schlissel had been
spoken to.
At 5 p.m., the building closed
and we were threatened with
arrest if we stayed.
At 7:45 p.m., after over six
hours of peacefully sitting-in, a
University police sergeant came in
and threatened arrest to whoever
remained inside the building at 8
p.m.
As about 50 young people filed
out of the office, a contingent of 10
remained, standing silently.
At 8 p.m., the police arrested
them, one by one, including two
high school aged minors, whom
the police detained and illegally
questioned until their parents
arrived.
Not willing to risk arrest, I
walked down the stairs of the
Administration
Building
and
outside into the cold Friday night.
I felt incredibly defeated.
If the University of Michigan
— one of the top, most forward
thinking and leading research
universities in the world — cannot
agree to a one-hour, transparent
meeting to openly discuss its
current climate policies, how will
we ever fix our current climate
crisis?
If the University of Michigan
escalates to arrest when its
students voice their opinion, how
can we inspire action?
My sense of defeat began to
recede, however, as I saw those

who chose not to get arrested
standing in the cold Friday night
air and cheering in support until
every individual was released.
The longer I watched this group
of strangers waiting in solidarity
outside
the
Administration
Building with undimmed and
infinite optimism and compassion,
the more my sense of defeat yielded
to stronger feelings of hope, vigor
and renewed energy.
It
was
inspiring
being
surrounded by those willing to risk
the repercussions of walking out of
class and work, by those willing
to give up their day and night to
sit in the president’s office for six
and a half hours and by those were
willing to put their bodies, their
safety and their futures on the line
to demonstrate their frustration
with the utter inadequacy of the
University’s climate action.
It was inspiring to join a long
history of sit-ins and direct action,
particularly by indigenous people
and people of color.
If you feel defeated, inspired,
invigorated or scared, please reach
out to me and see how you can get
involved. We need everyone.
We are the generation that will
live with the detrimental effects
of climate change. We are the
generation that will have to tell our
kids what coral reefs used to look
like and explain that many of the
animals seen in children’s books
have disappeared. We will be the
generation who will see the already-
existing
systems
of
inequality
exacerbated by climate change.
We are the generation that will see
the cities we’ve grown up in slowly
washed away by the rising seas.
We are also the generation that
will not sit quietly and wait until
this future becomes the present.
We will fight with the compassion,
the perseverance, the solidarity,
the love and the desire that carried
us through this entire day. We will
continue to sit in the president’s
office until we ensure that the
University does its part in creating a
clean and just future for all. Join us.

Time to confront far-right terrorism

Julian Hansen is a member of the

Climate Action Movement at the

University of Michigan, and part of the

organizing team for the Washtenaw

County Climate Strike. He can be

reached at hansju@umich.edu.

RAMISA ROB | COLUMN

A day of juxtapositon

JULIAN HANSEN | OP-ED

ABBIE BERRINGER | COLUMN

Keeping up with politics

Extremists’
hateful screed
encapsulates
the growth of
Islamophobia

H

ow many of you can
name the winner of this
year’s “The Bachelor”?
How many of you are aware who
the
next
“Bachelorette”
will
be? Who can give an in-depth
analysis of the Jordyn Woods
and Tristan Thompson cheating
scandal that has yet again thrust
the Kardashians and their endless
drama to the top of our social media
timelines? I know all of my friends
can answer these three questions,
as well as many questions related to
pop culture and the entertainment
industry. Yet while the world
obsesses over whether Bradley
Cooper and Lady Gaga are falling
in love, we are seemingly asleep
at the wheel when it comes to the
major political issues of the day.
How many of you know who
has announced their candidacies
for a presidential run in 2020?
How many of you can name both
of your state’s senators or the
elected representative from your
district? While many college-aged
youths are plugged into the latest
political scandals or tragedies via
the news on smartphones and via
social media, it seems that other
important aspects of politics are
slipping through the cracks. While
college may be a time when some
become more politically active, it
is also a time of infinite busyness
and distraction. Between the hours
of studying, extracurriculars and
attempting to make time for a social
life, it often seems understandable
to not want to fill one’s few free
hours a week with the latest report
on the more mundane aspects
of politics. But what if much like
showering, eating or sleeping,
keeping up to date on politics was
viewed as an integral part of one’s
weekly routine?
Apathy is a dangerous thing.
Even those of us who do not
find enjoyment or interest in the
political realm have a responsibility
to remain aware and civically
active. This isn’t a new sentiment
either. Most have probably heard
it at one time or another, yet it still
seems to fall on deaf ears. However,

in a world of big government and
globalization, almost every aspect
of our lives is touched by politics
whether we like it or not.
For example, the access of our
search histories and social media
profiles that corporations and the
government have is something that
affects nearly every single one of
us. It is something that, if asked,
I’m sure most would have some
opinion on — but how many of us
remain aware of the government
regulations
surrounding
this
issue? Mark Zuckerberg’s hearing
may have been meme-worthy on
Twitter, but I do not know many
people who actually watched it in
its entirety.
Or what about government
regulations
surrounding
trade,
tariffs and subsidies? While the
mere mention of these words may
make some want to fall asleep, these
issues affect the price of almost
every good available to us daily.
From the prices of our produce
to the price of gas, the way our
government handles international
trade affects us intimately.
There are so many issues
affecting our nation’s people as
well as the rest of the world every
day that most think little about
and may have never even heard
of. Here are just a few examples.
There are currently about 437,500
children in foster care in the U.S.,
living their lives within a broken
system that shifts them from home
to home with minimal protection
from mistreatment and abuse. On
average, 130 Americans die every
day from opioid overdoses, and
the number of yearly opioid deaths
was six times higher in 2017 than
in 1999. The largest agricultural
corporation in the U.S., Monsanto
(which was recently bought out
by Bayer, providing a timely name
change in light of negative press),
was responsible for the creation
of Agent Orange, many genetically
modified seed strains, as well as
the common herbicide Roundup.
Monsanto was recently sued on
a claim that Roundup may have
active chemicals that can be linked

to cancer.
There are endless examples
such as these, some with higher
stakes than others, yet it seems
that only the most clickbait-
worthy,
scandalous
or
tragic
political stories garner any sort
of mainstream media buzz and
catch the eye of the general public.
If I were to ask my friends if they
want our country and world to be
a better place and if they think we
have room to improve, they would
undoubtedly all say yes. Yet how
are we supposed to improve our
world when we are more obsessed
with
immediate
entertainment
value than issues that truly impact
us on a daily basis? It is not enough
to simply say one will plug into
politics when they are older. We
will never again have more time
on our hands to enact substantive
change as activists, intellectuals
and young people full of the sort
of hope and vigor for life that
fades over time. Now is the time
in our lives when we can dedicate
ourselves to enacting change. We
don’t have mortgages, careers or
families yet. We may have classes
and social lives but these are small
fish compared to all that will take
up our time in the near future.
The task may seem daunting, but
it is really as simple as closing out of
the latest article about Kylie Jenner
and opening up a tab to one of this
nation’s many news outlets, most of
which provide at least some level
of free access. Even 15 minutes a
day of research on a new issue that
is affecting our state, country or
world may open your eyes to an
issue that profoundly impacts the
way you view the world or inspires
you to try and enact change. We
will not create a better future for
our children by “Keeping Up with
the Kardashians.” We will create a
better future for them by keeping
up with the world of politics and
current events in a proactive and
responsible fashion.

Abbie Berringer can be reached at

abbierbe@umich.edu.

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