The Real Backlash: Homegrown Terrorists Just Wanted to Kill Jews
 

from Jonathan Tobin

http://www.commentarymagazine.com/20...-to-kill-jews/

If you happened to listen to National Public Radio’s Talk of the Nation show this past Wednesday, you were enlightened about an aspect of the killing of Osama bin Laden that perhaps you hadn’t thought about. According to Wajahat Ali of the Center for American Progress, bin Laden’s death was feeding one of the country’s most serious problems: Islamophobia. From the perspective of those whose job it is to feed the media’s obsession with the existence of a mythical backlash against Americans Muslims since 9/11, the end of Al Qaeda’s leader was just another source of prejudice that, in this telling, would be focused on Pakistani-Americans. The problem with this argument is that violence against Muslims in this country, though deplorable, is rare. As national statistics have shown for a decade, hate crimes against Muslims have remained few and are actually dwarfed by the number of instances of violence against Jews. The notion of a post 9/11 backlash against Muslims, though promoted constantly in the national media, is still more myth than reality.