Saturday, December 5, 2015

How should we deal with San Bernardino Shooting?

Let us be clear about one thing. San Bernardino shooting is not an isolated incident. Some Muslim individuals and groups, in the past, have indulged in violent acts to terrorize people. There is no guarantee that such individuals and groups would not act in the future. The community of Muslims comprises some 1.6 billion or more people who speak different languages, come from different ethnic groups, live in different geographic zones and follow different sects with their own interpretation of the Quran and Islam. No two Muslim groups or sects have identical ideas. Moreover, there is no single authority that speaks on behalf of Islam and Muslims. So no one individual or group can speak on behalf of all Muslims or Islam and no single entity can control the behavior of all Muslims.
After all, if in a country like ours of some 320 million people, we cannot control the behavior of those who indulge in gun violence despite our commitment to law and order and a well-defined justice system, how can we guarantee that 1.6 billion Muslims with vast differences in their understanding of Islam would behave in a controlled manner.
For instance, if we use broader criteria to include incidents with at least four fatalities and injuries caused by gunfire, than in 2015 alone at least 355 such incidents took place. We cannot control the behavior of some 31 percent fellow Americans who have guns in their households.
So how should we deal with a situation like this because these acts of random violence are not likely to come to an end soon? We are not a united community and we cannot expect all of our organizations and groups to come together to develop a unified response. But we as average citizens can do a lot to help ourselves.
At each city level, we should try to identify our community members and help them develop a network of communication. This would help us identify how many of us are there in a particular locality and where do we live and what type of work we do. We do not need an elaborate organization to create this network. One or two individuals can volunteer to do that.
Once we have this information, through the internet or smartphones, we should create a group of the local community only. This forum is necessary to communicate with each other so that we can bring up any issue or incident that may be detrimental to all of us. For instance, if we find that a student from our community faced harassment in her or her school because of religious identity, we can bring it up to the group.
Once we have this information, we can inform the local authorities, including the police, the elected officials or the concerned agencies about it. They would most certainly take appropriate actions. If they fail to do that, we can always go to FBI civil rights unit or to the local media or other agencies to raise the issue.
Simultaneously, we should also try to become part of neighborhood watch groups. We should volunteer with local elementary and middle and high schools, We should volunteer with the local library, nonprofit groups, and city hall as well as police. They are always looking for volunteers.
Additionally, we should try to familiarize with our neighbors. We should introduce ourselves to them, invite them to our homes if we can, smile and say hello to them when we see them, and exchange gifts if can with them on our festivals.
We should also keep ourselves informed of the events taking place in our city. Through city-based newspapers, we should inform the community at large of some of our programs and activities that we organize for the people at large.
These are some of the things that we can do at the city level and we do not need any expertise to do such things. Initially, we would not be able to gather all who live in a city, but we can start with whatever families we can bring into the network.
Only, when we become part of our neighborhood, we will be able to change the perception of our community. Only then we would be able to help the average citizens overcome their fear about us. Only then we would be able to establish our trust. Otherwise, we would remain stranger in a land where our children and grandchildren are going to earn their livelihood and work. These are extraordinary times and extraordinary times require extraordinary steps to overcome the difficulties. We all are capable of doing all that is described above. Let us do it.

1 comment:

  1. Thank you Dr. Aslam Abdullah. I agree with you. For my part, I must do more. From the last thirty six years have been sending Christmas cards to my at least 9 neighbors Christian neighbors, and mail to many others.. To one of my neighbor I gave a book entitled, "More in common than you Think" by Mr. Baker( I will have to find my copy of the book before I give the right title and full name. sorry. I will do it later). I am part of the neighborhood watch. This book is about Islam and Christianity and the commanality among these religions.

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