Fort Hood & The Holocaust: How Scare Tactics Incite Violence

This Torah was rescued from a burning synagogue during the oppression of the Jews in Nazi Germany.

Yesterday was a sick day for me--a day of rest, a self-instituted sabbath of sorts. Coincidentally, it was also my birthday, which I share with famed astronomer and guide of the Cosmos Carl Sagan. It was also the anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. These three momentous occasions, all on November 9--what a treat, aside from my illness, of course.

That said, November 9 has always carried a somber tone for me. It's the anniversary of the start of Kristallnacht or the "Night of Shattered Glass"--a three day pogrom which took place in Germany and Austria. Many consider it to be the official start of the Holocaust, which infamously stole the lives of six million innocent Jews amongst teems of other blameless victims. Kristallnacht's harrowing moniker refers to the broken glass of synagogues, homes and Jewish places of business that were accosted by various Nazi forces. Most significantly, this date also marks the beginning of the roundups which eventually brought millions to their deaths in the concentration and later, death camps.As I lay, succumbed to illness, pondering the plight of my forefathers, I scoured the Internet for stories: what I came upon scared me. Many sites were filled with reports on the Fort Hood tragedy from a few days ago, which saw a soldier, on the brink of deployment, open fire on several of his counterparts,  wounding several and killing too many. This soldier also happened to be Muslim. (I suppose to an extent, he might not just have "happened" to be Muslim, as there is evidence surfacing that he had some connection to terrorist groups.) As a result, the reactionary media are raising questions as to whether or not Muslim soldiers and Muslim-Americans need be scrutinized extra carefully as "Islamic Extremism" isn't something that went away with our former president abdicating his oft-misused power.

This case may very well peel back to show that in his unstable condition, the shooter in the Fort Hood incident did, in fact, commit an act that one could classify as terrorism--or he was simply a lone, disturbed individual. I would venture to say that either could be the case--obviously the ongoing investigation will shed light on the answer to that question. That said, it's important to quell the specter of prejudice and xenophobia before the two begin rearing their ugly heads back into the political debate in such a vicious way. To read such hate-inciting scare tactics boiling beneath the surface of political and media mouthpieces rings scary for me; lest one forget that Hitler rose to power on the back of prejudice and xenophobia, following a massive, politically motivated attack. Granted, I don't forsee the Obama administration rounding up Muslim-Americans and transporting them to internment camps, but such rhetoric is the sort that could certainly fuel reactions and, sadly, actions on the part of private individuals against the purveyors of one of the world's most followed faiths.

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Photo courtesy of rubberpaw/Creative Commons