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Notes -
New Year, Same Old Culture War
At least 10 killed in New Orleans after driver ‘intentionally’ rams into crowd on Bourbon Street (CNN)
Apparently, "FBI Special Agent Aletha Duncan said the Bourbon Street attack is 'not a terrorist attack' in comments delivered after the mayor spoke." But then, later:
New Orleans mayor declares 'terrorist attack' on Bourbon Street, FBI confirms investigation (Fox)
Coulter's Law appears to be in force. As a reminder:
And indeed, this was a shooter, who died in a gunfight with cops... but so far it appears the ten deaths and dozens of injuries were vehicular, not firearm-related. Over on 8
chankun (warning: images of death) it's claimed that "FBI Director Kash Patel states killer was 'Middle Eastern Descent'" but I don't see a link to direct evidence of that. I will be interested to learn whether it is a disinformation thing, or whether 8chankun is just better at reporting news than multiple multi-million dollar corporate news media outlets. Can a failed shooting preceded by successful vehicular homicide be used as ammunition (hah) in Second Amendment debates? Probably! Apparently at least one "explosive device" was also found?There is something to be said for "wait and see," and indeed I expect to hear much more about this attack in the near future (unless, of course, we simply don't). Though clearly Special Agent Aletha Duncan did not seem to think there was any reason to "wait and see" when declaring, contra the mayor, that this was not a terrorist attack.
In unrelated news, Stocks just did something they haven’t done in nearly three decades--and in case you are unimpressed with CNN's clickbait headline,
Everything old is new again.
I went into the shop this morning and rolled my eyes when the front page of the Irish Independent referred to the perpetrator as a "Texas man". But later in the sub-heading he was mentioned by name. The online version of the article even refers to him as an "Islamic State-inspired killer". Perhaps, in Irish journalism, nature is healing?
I guess, to be fair, he really is a Texas man rather than someone from Saudi Arabia with thin ties to Texas. Details are still emerging, but this is an African-American born in Beaumont that served in the US military and was later converted to Islamist ideology. He is probably also a literal crazy guy. I'm as quick to blame Islam as just about anyone and I'll certainly do so again here, but it isn't misleading to refer to him as a Texas man as long as you also include the ISIS information alongside it.
Exactly what I was getting at. The average Irish person, upon hearing "Texas man", thinks "white, God-fearing GOP voter, probably living on a ranch which contains a small arsenal of firearms". Upon hearing "Texas man commits terrorist attack", the average Irish person would probably assume that such a person committed a Dylann Roof or Timothy McVeigh copycat crime. Mentioning him by name later in the sub-heading immediately disambiguates this (I'm not saying it's impossible that a white man might convert to Islam and change his name to "Shamsud-Din Jabbar", but such a sequence of events certainly sounds unlikely), and emphasising that his attack was inspired by ISIS disambiguates it further still.
Such honesty and forthrightness is to be commended from the Independent, considering that they published an entire article about the stabbing in Dublin in November 2023 without once naming the assailant or mentioning anything about his ethnic background.
I wonder if there's some kind of geographic component to Coulter's law: maybe Irish journalists are willing to specify the ethnicities of criminals who commit crimes in far away countries, but are reluctant to do so when it happens at home (or in neighbouring nations). Or perhaps not: the New York Times is no less cagey when reporting on the Dublin riots, refusing to name the perpetrator and continually referring to "unconfirmed" reports that he's Algerian (by which they mean "unconfirmed at the time the riots unfolded" - by the time this article went to press it had been conclusively established that the perpetrator was Algerian).
Uh, does the tendency for African Americans to convert to Islam, is that widely known in Ireland? Like the phrase ‘Texas born shamsud Al-din’ makes me think of a local black convert, very possibly having spent time in prison, almost certainly with ties to antisemitic black nationalism. Does an Irishmen get the same impression?
I find it very hard to imagine an Irish person hearing the name "Shamsud-Din Jabbar" and picturing a white man. Trying to put myself in the shoes of an Irishman less terminally online than me, I imagine such a person, upon hearing his name, would assume he was a first- or second-generation immigrant from the middle East or North Africa, and would probably not assume he was a black convert. I've had to explain the concept of "Yakub" several times in the past year, and without exception, no Irish person I've encountered was familiar with it or the Nation of Islam. (Funnily enough, I did once find a discarded Black Hebrew Israelite flyer on the largest street in Dublin.)
Second gen MENA immigrant sounds not implausible to an American but I suppose the weird interplay between Islamic and black culture that makes it not my default assumption is less known about overseas- by all appearances this guy was an actual Muslim and not part of some weird heretical cult.
Yes, I think many if not most Irish people are wholly ignorant of the role Islam plays in black American culture. To the extent that they are aware of the role of religion in the culture, it's limited to black gospel churches and so on.
Funnily enough, I'm reminded of a joke in an Irish sitcom which riffed on this. Dan and Becs was a short-lived sitcom about a young Dublin couple: Dan, an aspiring writer-director who works for the national broadcaster; and Becs (Rebecca), an aspiring actress/model. At one point Dan tells Becs about a concept he's come up with for a film revolving around a female Islamic suicide bomber. When Becs asks if she can have the lead, Dan tells her he thinks the role calls for a MENA actress. Becs is outraged, and says something to the effect of "Who says an actor has to be the same race as the character they're playing? Will Smith played a Muslim!" (A joke that instantly dates the show to the late 2000s: Becs is exactly the kind of spoilt privileged middle-class Anglophone girl who, if the show had come out eight years later, would have been horrified at the concept of a white actor playing a non-white character).
I think for a lot of Irish people in particular (and Western people in general), when they hear "Muslim" they immediately think "MENA". I've encountered many people who seem genuinely flabbergasted upon learning that there are plenty of Muslims who aren't MENA (Indonesia, Chechnya, Bosnia etc.), and plenty of MENA people who aren't Muslim (and not just apostates but e.g. Palestinian Christians).
I mean ‘Muslim=Arab’ is pretty ingrained in western culture, but I think most Americans are well aware that Arab Christians(or ‘middle Eastern Christians’ if they’re still in the old country) are a thing- most Americans would stereotype them as either hardworking small business owners(if they’re in the US) or oppressed foreigners we don’t do enough to help(if they’re in the Middle East).
The idea of not-Arab Muslims isn’t anyone’s assumption but it doesn’t surprise anyone here- people know lots of black Africans are Muslim, Pakistanis are just like Indians but Muslim, the more in the know might be aware Indonesians are, etc.
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