It’s not over. Although the second suspect of the Boston bombing has been captured and the first suspect is dead, we have a long way to go to recover from this most recent tragedy properly. The 19-year-old second suspect was found bloodied, hiding in a boat after an exhausting and intense manhunt. It is great he was captured, but now the hard work begins, such as determining the brothers’ primary motivations for the bombing.
It is very difficult for anyone to comprehend what could motivate such an extreme act. Many people are convinced the bombing was motivated by an extremist-Islamic agenda because Tamerlan Tsarnaev, the older brother, posted a religious video on YouTube dedicated to a prophecy that has previously been used by Islamic extremists. I, for one, am extremely concerned about the impact this is going to have on Muslims in the United States, given the negative stereotypes they already carry. Islamic-Americans are already victims of social stigma following the terrorist attacks of 9/11. The identity of the Tsarnaev brothers as Muslim and from Chechnya, a volatile region of Russia, prompted Fox News contributor Eric Rush to tweet “Yes, they’re evil [referring to Muslims]. Let’s kill them all.” Rush later claimed he was being sarcastic, which I highly doubt considering he has written opinion columns titled “Yes, Islam is an enemy” and followed his highly offensive “let’s kill them all” tweet with another bigoted tweet, “It’s nice to see all the Islamist apologists standing up for those who would waste them in a heartbeat.”
These kinds of racist remarks have absolutely no place in the aftermath of this event. The period after this bombing needs to create an atmosphere of cultural unity in the U.S. so we, as a society, can heal. Yes, the bombers were Chechnyan Muslims, but they were also naturalized Americans. It is dangerous for us to count their race and religion toward their motivations. But of course, some immediately dove into these dangerous misattributions. Upon learning the bombers were Muslims, some Americans immediately attributed the bomber’s homicidal motivations to their ethnicity and religion. Though their religion and nationality could have contributed to their motivations, we cannot be sure these attributes contributed to the bomber’s violent actions without proper investigation into their lives. The younger Tsnarnaev brother, who is currently in critical condition and has not yet been read his Miranda rights, has been described as “a true angel.” The older brother, now deceased, claimed he didn’t understand Americans on a social network site, but also talked about the things he liked about America, the ability to be successful being one of them. As a society desperate for answers—and maybe the next scapegoat—we are too quick to jump to conclusions. These conclusions tend to be based on appearance. If they were white, we would have immediately jumped to the mental illness assumption, or the “they weren’t loved enough as children” and wanted attention assumption. The fact is, no matter your nationality and religion, there could be, and probably are, many unknown motivations for committing crimes. Also, these incorrect and irresponsible assumptions are often wiped away as more information is revealed; however, sometimes the original misinformation disseminated by the media is never totally removed from the public’s understanding of an event. The incorrect information that spread after the Columbine school shootings still affects public opinion. It is insulting to the Muslim community as a whole to make assumptions on the bombers’ motives based solely on their religion.
Unfortunately, some innocent Islamic-Americans have been the victims of retributive violence after the Boston bombings. According to an article by Farhana Khera, a mother in Malden, Mass., who was wearing a traditional Islamic head covering, was punched in the shoulder by a man shouting anti-Muslim slurs at her while blaming Muslims for the Boston bombings. A man in New York was beaten after the bombings because he was supposedly mistaken for being Arab, and he believes the attacks were a result of the scapegoating following the Boston bombing. This is absolutely unacceptable and dangerous for America. Peter Krause, who is a political science professor at Boston College, warned that with the few details we have of the young bombers’ lives, there could be several motivations for their actions. “They are from Chechnya, but you could be American, Japanese, whatever, and it doesn’t mean what you do is based on your nationality. They could be committing this for personal reasons or political reasons,” he said.
Last week provided tragedy after tragedy for America. In rough times like these, we need to come together as a nation. We cannot let the nationality and religion of the suspected bombers strengthen the existing negative social stigma on Islamic-Americans. Everyone came together during the bombings to help each other: race, gender and political affiliation aside. That was the true image of America. That was the true and ideal image of what America should be. Rather than letting this “terrorist” attack separate us further, it will be crucial that all Americans, regardless of our religion, ethnicity or nationality come together in strength.
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