All the details have yet to be revealed, but as of now, this is being labeled as an ugly hate crime. The Christian Science Monitor suggests that it occurred because of the anti-Muslim sentiment that is circulating the USA. Do you agree with them?
... at least five members of the school's football team were accused of attacking three Palestinian students. According to court documents, the players allegedly beat the students with feet, fists, and brass knuckles, while calling them "terrorists" and racial epithets.
This coming week, the FBI and local prosecutors will begin interviewing football players. They'll also interview the three alleged victims.
Five of the football players have already been charged with assault and battery, as well as "ethnic intimidation," North Carolina's formal name for its hate-crimes law. The FBI is also investigating whether the Palestinian students' civil rights were violated.
Hmm ... It's interesting how the jocks have been charged with ethnic intimidation before they or the victims have been interviewed. There must be some eyewitness testimony by onlookers to indicate that the football players committed a hate crime for charges already to be made.
National hate-crime experts contend the fact that such an alleged attack could take place at a school like Guilford – voted by Newsweek as the "hottest for social conscience" in 2006 – is a reflection of how deeply distrust of Islam now permeates the United States. For data, they point to polls, such as one done by CBS last April. It found that 45 percent of Americans now have a negative view of Islam – more than 9 percentage points higher than in the tense months following the 9/11 attacks. And a Washington Post poll found that the number of Americans who believe Islam stokes violence has more than doubled – from 14 percent in January 2002 to 33 percent in March 2006.
"What we have here is a climate where Islamaphobia is not only considered mainstream, it's considered patriotic by some, and that's something that makes these kinds of attacks even more despicable," says Brian Levin, director of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at the University of California at San Bernadino.
He's right. Hate crimes often are represented by nationalist ideologies, and is often known as xenophobia.
The only facts not in dispute surrounding the events of that late Saturday night at Guilford are that a fight occurred, racial slurs were thrown as well as fists, and people were hurt. The three Palestinian students, one of whom was a visitor from North Carolina State University, all sustained concussions and contusions. One also has a broken jaw, another a broken nose. And a third has back injuries. All have been released from the hospital.
"At the end of the day, we believe the facts will show they were attacked by a group of individuals, and it was an unprovoked attack," says Seth Cohen, a lawyer who is representing the Palestinian students.
The father of one of the football players, who was arrested and charged, released a picture to the media that showed his son had a bruise shaped like a belt buckle on his back. He says that is proof the football players were not the only culpable ones. In a statement released to the media last Friday, he wrote: "When all of the facts are revealed, we believe that those who are sensationalizing this story will be rightly embarrassed...."
What else would you expect the dad to say? Then again, a case at another North Carolina university has proved to have problems with evidence.
I think what is somewhat disturbing about this story, beyond the regular disgust we should all have toward hate crimes, is that it occurred somewhere that has traditionally be very friendly toward Palestinians. Hate crimes are message crimes -- meant to tell an entire community that they are not safe because they are identified with those that are despised. Well, the perps did what they wanted. The message was received.
"If it had happened at any other college, I'd be standing on the corner raising [a ruckus]," says Isa Abuzuaiter, chairman of the Board of the Islamic Center of the Triad, which represents the estimated 10,000 Muslims in the Greensboro area. "But it's Guilford, and so we really don't know what to do."
Let's see what the evidence shows. Regardless though, let's hope the entire community comes together to show that American patriotism is about providing a safe haven for all our minorities, not about targeting random individuals for hate-motivated violence depending upon the current political climate.