Politicize Muslim Murders

On Friday, Fox News host Bill O’Reilly excoriated friends and family of Deah Shaddy Barakat, Yusor Mohammad Abu-Salha, and Razan Mohammad Abu-Salha for politicizing the recent murders of the three young Muslims.

“All decent Americans [should] condemn those who use murder to advance a political agenda or seek vengeance against those with whom they disagree,” said O’Reilly. (Yusor and Razan’s father had said inaccurate media coverage of Muslims was a “triggering” factor. One of Deah’s friends had blamed Fox News and Governor Bobby Jindal of Louisiana by name.)

And yet O’Reilly has engaged in the same behavior he disparaged. On no less than a dozen occasions, he has used the September 2012 murders of four Americans in Benghazi, Libya, to attack those with whom he disagrees. Displaying pictures of the four men killed in a terrorist attack, O’Reilly has shamed and denounced President Obama, Congressional Democrats, the “liberal media,” and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Moreover, he’s done so in explicitly political terms. When he urged Americans to “hold [Clinton] accountable,” he cited her approval rating, pivoted to her likely presidential candidacy, and decried her political resilience.

Clearly, O’Reilly has no problem politicizing the victims of murder—but that’s a good thing. The U.S. government is responsible for protecting Americans, and so every time an American is murdered, our government has failed. As such, all murders are political, and all murders must be politicized. We hold our elected officials accountable with political pressure. When we ask pointed questions, distribute blame, and bind approval ratings to the safety of citizens, we require politicians to make our safety a priority.

But O’Reilly doesn’t believe in holding our government accountable for all murders. When Muslim terrorists killed four white men under a Democratic president, he attacked relentlessly. When a self-professed opponent of “radical Islam” killed three Muslims, O’Reilly defended those who lied about the religion and exhorted the murder of its adherents. He called family and friends begging for an end to the persecution “vile” and “revolting.”

Political concern for the safety of Americans has long been segregated along racial and religious lines. After the tragic mass-shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, CT, liberal and conservative commentators alike observed that its 26, mainly white victims ignited disproportionate political mobilization. Both President Obama and the National Rifle Association’s Wayne LaPierre offered condolences and policy solutions. 54 senators voted for a proposal to expand background checks; opponents had to launch a massive lobbying operation. Those murders continue to motivate discourse, spending, and action years later.

By contrast, hundreds of thousands have marched in the Black Lives Matter movement, but little has changed for people of color. Racism persists in public education, in our colleges, in our economy, and certainly in our criminal legal system. There have been no laws proposed, no lobbying operations jolted into high gear. The death of black teenagers has not commanded serious political change.

Every murder is a failure of the American government, but more often than not only the murders of well-off white people yield the media coverage and political action that all murders deserve.

Seven Congressional committees have investigated the Benghazi terrorist attack. Will Congress investigate the terrorism that killed Deah, Yusor, and Razan? Craig Stephen Hicks, charged with three counts of first-degree murder, hoped Muslims, Jews, and Christians would “exterminate each other.” And yet only one day after the murders, Chapel Hill’s police department and U.S. attorney said the killing was likely motivated by a parking dispute. As in the case of Benghazi, will Congress hunt through 40,000 documents and spend millions of dollars to understand their deaths and prevent similar crimes in the future? Will anyone?

It is easy to understand whose lives matter in America when politicians are held responsible for some deaths but not others. The 26 people killed at Sandy Hook deserved a national debate on gun control. The four killed in Benghazi deserve Congressional hearings and Bill O’Reilly’s outrage. But so do Michael Brown, Eric Garner, and Tamir Rice. So do Deah, Yusor, and Razan.

The U.S. government’s most important duty is to protect all American citizens. The murders of Deah Shaddy Barakat, Yusor Mohammad Abu-Salha, and Razan Mohammad Abu-Salha—like all the 165 hate crimes perpetrated against Muslims in 2013—are failures of the American government, and we must hold our elected officials accountable. When only the murders of well-off whites produce media uproar and political mobilization, only their safety will matter to politicians in any meaningful way. If the murders of Muslims aren’t politicized—because Bill O’Reilly thinks that’s “vile,” because it might really have been about a parking dispute, or because people just don’t care—nothing will change.

Ted G. Waechter ’18, a Crimson editorial writer, lives in Canaday Hall.