Muslims Shouldn’t Have To Condemn San Bernardino Shooting

American Muslim groups rushed to condemn Wednesday’smass shooting“very religious” Muslim

Authorities said the attackers were Syed Rizwan Farook, 28, and Tashfeen Malik, 27

It’s not completely clear why the couple attacked the Inland Regional Center

But in a now-familiar progression, American Muslim groups were forced to distance their religion from the violent attack almost immediately. At a press conference

Muzammil Siddiqi, the religious director of the Islamic Society of Orange County, added that the killings ran counter to the teachings of Islam. “We have condemned all violence everywhere because human life is precious,” he said. Siddiqi also voiced his support for a thorough investigation of the “people and motives” behind the shooting.

CAIR’s National Communications Director Ibrahim Hooper told The Huffington Post that the group felt compelled to hold the conference so they could “get ahead of the curve on this story,

“The nation is very quick to generalize the criminal actions of individuals to an entire faith community,” he said, which is the “unfortunate circumstance we’re in in the post-9/11 era.”

Also speaking at the Wednesday event was Farhan Khan, Farook’s brother-in-law

Farook’s father told the New York Daily News

CAIR’s Ayloush told CNN in an interview

Hooper said the family came to the group in order to “speak out to express grief and shock,” and CAIR merely facilitated that.

But the fact that Farook’s family had to speak out against his crime the very day it happened underscores the Islamophobic tendencies of the mediadistance themselves

This collective responsibility is almost never projected on the communities of Christian, particularly white, maleRobert Deardescribed as a “gentle loner”evangelical Christian background

After last month’s terrorist attacks in Paris, which were perpetrated by several Muslims, there was an uptick in Islamophobic incidents acts of solidarityKentucky mosquepersonally fielded a number of hate calls.

Aslam Abdullah, a Muslim scholar based in San Bernardino, said the coming fallout toward and targeting of Muslims would be similar to what happened after previous attacks by Islamic extremists, like those in Paris and on 9/11. “Now Islam and Muslims are on trial again,” he told the LA Times

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