''What we are in danger of is overreaction. The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, both responses to 9/11, have created more terrorism than any other single cause.''
Two events in the last month have raised the terror alert to red: the killing of 13 soldiers and police at Ford Hood, apparently by a Muslim psychiatrist, and the decision to try high-level 9/11 suspects in a civilian criminal court in New York City.
However, these events are being manipulated by the right wing to bang the alarm bells ever louder. From House Republican leader John Boehner and Republican Representative Peter Hoekstra of Michigan to former Bush speechwriter Michael Gerson and blogger Michelle Malkin, many on the right are grandstanding on both events with such force that it is cultivating terror in the American public.
Consider the tragedy at Fort Hood. Major Nidal Malik Hasan is suspected of killing more than a dozen in a shooting rampage. Many are insisting that the Obama administration call this an act of terrorism, and several politicians have called for restrictions or bans on Muslims in the military, or worse.
What these demands impart to the rest of us, of course, is that Muslims in uniform - any uniform - are not trustworthy, that all are guilty until proven innocent. If a police officer who pulls you over for speeding has a name like “Ahmed’’ or “Mohammed,’’ watch out. One might even assume that any Muslim, not just one in uniform, is a threat.
This is the kind of attitude that sows terror. Consider the 9/11 trial in this same light. Several GOP congressmen have suggested that the presence of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and the other defendants brought from Guantanamo will encourage Al Qaeda to kidnap the judge’s daughter or the bailiff’s cousin; that New York City itself could be under siege; that the terrorists will use this “show trial’’ as a platform, and so on.