Texas shooting exposes that 'terrorism' label exclusively reserved for Muslims: CAIR

At least three New Jersey mosques received threatening phone calls following attack by Saipov

The days following the recent terror attack in New York City saw accusations and death threats thrown at Muslim communities around the United States, including in the small town of Paterson.

As reported by NorthJersey.com, Muslim leaders are hesitant to apologise for their faith when the same standard is not applied to other groups around the country. “Every time one of these idiots does something they claim to be doing in whatever religion, our community is forced — there's a sense of obligation — that we have to come out and condemn it, which I believe is unfair,” said Salah Mustafa, outreach director at the Islamic Center of Passaic County, a mosque in Paterson. “It’s not as if other communities have to condemn these acts.”



His comments are especially relevant after the recent massacre at a Texan church committed by Patrick Kelley, and the shooting in Las Vegas committed by Stephen Paddock. Neither attacks prompted the media to focus on their religious affiliations. However, the attack by a Muslim in New York led to his immediate classification as a terrorist.

This prompted strong statements from a range of Muslim leaders who made clear that Saipov's actions were inspired by a twisted version of their faith. “If someone is saying 'Allahu Akbar' and doing this in the name of Islam, we have to remind people that the vast majority of Muslims regard this as a perversion of Islam," said James Sues, executive director of the New Jersey chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

The aftermath of Sunday's shooting saw denizens of the internet questioning the reticence of authorities in labeling attacks such as those in Las Vegas as terrorist attacks. “You’d be hard-pressed to tell me those people were not terrorised,” said Sues. “Those people in Las Vegas at that concert were certainly terrorised. The fact they were not called terrorist by everybody — that kind of exposed the fact that 'terrorism' is a word reserved exclusively for Muslims.”



“I hope that day will come soon where we are not forced to stand up and make claims against someone who we have nothing to do with and we reject he or she everything that they have done,” Mustafa said. “We absolutely reject it.”

At least three New Jersey mosques received threatening phone calls following the attack by Saipov, which was followed by a strong statement by Mohammed Ali Chaudry, the head of the New Jersey Interfaith Coalition. In it, the coalition stated that they would "condemn unequivocally and in the strongest possible way the terrorist attack committed in New York."

Chaudry decried the "double standard" at play. “When the shooter is white, 'Oh, it’s a domestic dispute and had nothing to with anything else.' When it’s a Muslim name, it’s automatically terrorism and we start calling them animals,” he said, referring to a comment by President Donald Trump calling Saipov a “degenerate animal.”