"I'll Ride With You" in Aftermath of Aussie Terror Attack: Touching or Misguided?

Great Debates
1

Almost as soon as the terror attack at the cafe in Sydney place, a movement arose in Australia called “I’ll Ride WIth You.” You can read all about it here:

The idea is, ordinary white Australians are going out of their way to let Muslim-looking Australians know that, “We know YOU aren’t responsible, we’re not afraid of YOU, and we want you to know we still like YOU.”

I honestly can’t decide whether this is a sweet, kind gesture worthy of admiration or a repulsive gesture worthy of mockery. I really can see it both ways.

I have Muslim co-workers (mostly Pakistanis) who are great people. I certainly don’t hold them responsible for ANY terror act anywhere in the world. If anyone were threatening them or calling them “terrorist,” I hope I’d come to their defense.

My son has Muslim friends (Iranian-Americans), and if anyone were threatening them or calling them “terrorists” or “towel heads,” I’d be proud if my son stuck up for his friends.

But you know, the “backlash” against Muslims that everyone always seems to fear NEVER COMES!

The hostage situation had barely begun, and still hadn’t been resolved when the “I’ll Ride With You” movement began. There were still hostages being held at gunpoint, some of whom were about to die. THOSE people were the victims! Those were the people who needed our moral support and (for those who believe in it) prayers.

But some well-meaning souls can’t wait until the dead are cold before starting to worry about the “real” victims… the Muslims who might be a little uncomfortable about what happened!

For God’s sake, could you wait a little while and shed some tears for the people who were killed by a Muslim terrorist before you get around to comforting Muslims???

And it isn’t just in Australia that I see this mentality. Here in the USA, no sooner had Nidal Hasan gone on his murder spree than liberal commentators were warning us that, while it was a shame American soldiers had died, it would be a much greater tragedy if innocent Muslims were tarred with the terrorist label.

Yeah… dozens of Americans dead, but the REAL danger is that somebody might have hard feelings toward Islam.

Sorry, but “Islamophobia” is not a greater threat ANYWHERE than actual Muslim terrorists.

2

That’s not how I saw it… some people expressed worry or fear, based on current or past treatment or perception of how they would be treated, and others responded with “I’ll help to try to mitigate your fear”.

That’s it. It was just a nice gesture for some people who felt fear, whether that fear was warranted (and in some cases I’m sure it was), or not.

3

When I was in grad school, I had a classmate who held a lot of interesting opinions. It seemed to me the majority of her rants were focused on how racial/ethnic minorities were all paranoid whiney tittybabies. And she shared the view you expressed above shortly after 9/11, when everyone expressed concerns about anti-Muslim attacks. She thought this was well-intentioned but completely overwrought.

But one day, one of the professors in our department was suddenly put on administrative leave. His crime? He went on a hateful, profanity-laced anti-Muslim tirade apropos of nothing in the middle of his lecture, and he was singling out students who “fit the profile”. Many of the university’s students were Muslims from the Middle East and India, but we also had a lot of students who just “fit the profile” based on countries of origin (a lot of the Coptic Egyptian kids were going by Christian lastnames just to escape the Arab stigma).

My overly opinionated classmate admitted that she was wrong. But I have no doubt that she would have kept on believing Muslims were whiney tittybabies if this hadn’t happened.

4

I don’t know it seems like anti-islamic sentiment due to attacks is a real issue both in the US and Australia.

Sure its not as bad as the terrorism committed by certain Islamic extremists, but that doesn’t mean it should be just brushed off as inconsequential.

Maybe I’m missing your point.

5

I have multiple reports from muslim and ex-muslim facebook acquaintences of mine that #illridewithyou is bringing up serious feels, up to and including tears. To them, this comes as an unalloyed good. It is a positive answer to the social forces that keep them in fear and anxiety (and guilt at feeling fear and anxiety when of course the “real victims” are the victims themselves) (and all kinds of other complex emotions) over stuff like this.

I can’t see the downside.

Well, I can see a downside when some clueless mostly-well-meaning person insists on illridewithyou-ing someone who doesn’t want it. But let’s wait and talk about that when it actually happens. :wink:

6

Here in the US, backlash definitely does happen. And we aren’t very smart about-- mostly we end up lynching Sikhs (oops!).

The thing is, the Bad Guys desperately want this backlash. They want Muslims to be alienated and excluded. They want hate to rage. They want our social problems to take the form of religious problems. Because that’s where they get their power from. Those are the people they recruit. That’s the crop of people who can be radicalized.

Refusing to give in to their bid to start a religious war IS fighting terrorism. It is the resistance.

7

Oh god I’m going to do it aren’t I?

Yes, I’m going to do it. Here goes.

The serious, undeserved fear and anxiousness experienced by hundreds of millions of people, every day, with no clear hope of an end in site, does actually weigh comparably in significance with the serious, undeserved suffering of victims of terrorists attacks and their families and communities. I won’t make a clear quantitative comparison as I think that’s not really appropriate to the topic. But I do think it is certainly true that neither concern in any sense pales before the other. Neither concern deserves to be called “the real” concern.

8

Perfect! Thanks for stating this so clearly.

9

Why can’t we do both? Why can’t we mourn the dead and engage in positive activism to demonstrate our commitment to inclusivity? Not all of us are SWAT teams or trained negotiators but we still want to find ways to make our part of the world a happier place. I doubt anyone personally touched by the deaths of the two hostages feels their grief is somehow trivialized because Curt rode with Fatima to work today.

10

Empathy is not a zero sum game. Expressing concern for muslims who feel ashamed or afraid doesn’t use up all the empathy. There’s still plenty to empathy left for the people who were terrorized or killed. In fact, most people report that the more exercise they give their empathy reserves, the more there is to go around.

11

The backlash against muslins ALWAYS comes, you just don’t see it because you aren’t muslim. Other places are not as bad as America, as this wonderful reaction shows, but there is always a backlash.

12

I’ll take the easy way out and criticize the reporting of this story rather than the trend itself. Firstly, my annoyance that a twitter trend makes the bloody news. Secondly, the self congratulatory angle of the reporting.

13

You know it started very simply.

“Anti-Islamic sentiment has flooded social media in the wake of the Sydney siege, but there is a campaign gathering steam that will restore your faith in humanity.
A Twitter movement, #illridewithyou, has sprouted with everyday Australians offering to ride on buses and trains with Muslims, or give them a lift to work tomorrow, in order to keep them safe.
The grassroots campaign began with this thoughtful tweet from @sirtessa that said: “ If you reg take the #373 bus b/w Coogee/MartinPl, wear religious attire, & don’t feel safe alone: I’ll ride with you. @ me for schedule.”"

So as an act of compassion towards the people she could help, a person tried to make those people feel safe. Actually, it’s better than an act of compassion, it’s an act of trust. In a mutli-cultural society trust is a commodity we could do with more of.

14

I don’t think anyone is saying that’s the REAL danger, just an additional danger that some people can maybe do something about. Most people can’t do anything on a day-to-day basis about Islamic terrorism.

15

Looks to be a great use of social media - far better this than the entire spectrum of debate, reportage and thinking be informed and defined for us.

People like Cheney must hate it.

16

Cite? Lynched Sikhs? Really? I hadn’t heard of that (those) incident(s) in the U.S.

Slee

17

When I first read about this, I thought it would be more helpful if the Muslim-Australians were the ones going out of their way to reassure the ordinary white Aussies that “We aren’t responsible, we condemn those who are terrorists, we just want to be everyday Australians like you”

18

With respect, this makes you part of the problem. It is the expectation that other muslims are obligated to do this which causes the injustice addressed by #illridewithyou in the first place.

For each muslim you encounter, your initial assumption should be “this is an ordinary person who would not in a million years kill people for the sake of ideology.” The reason this should be your initial assumption is the fact that it is almost certainly going to be true, every time. If you are initially assuming something else, you’re part of the problem. If you’re expecting muslims to cater this assumption on your part or this assumption you expect others to hold, then you’re part of the problem.

You’re invited to be part of the solution instead.

19

Murder of Balbir Singh Sodhi

Wisconsin Sikh temple shooting

20

Exactly. The white American terrorist murderers in the cases I cited (but not only they) spoke of “satanic Arabs” and “racial holy war.”

Not a greater threat. The same threat.