Shaima Al-Awadi, an Iraqi mother of five, died March 24 after being attacked and brutally beaten with a tire iron in her own home. She was found by her 17-year-old daughter, who also found a note next to her that read, “Go back to your country, you terrorist.” Prior to this attack, Alawadi had found another threatening note of a similarly racist and bigoted nature. Police say they are investigating this as a “possible hate crime.” What else could it be?
Authorities have not yet found the person or persons responsible for this killing, but ultimately the system of racist demonization and imperialist war is to blame.
Shaima Al-Awadi was targeted for murder not because of anything she did but because of who she was. She was Arab and Muslim, originally from Iraq, a country that has been targeted for destruction by the U.S. government for the last two decades.
Despite the fact that Iraq has never made any attacks or threats against the U.S., the U.S. government has thoroughly and systematically demonized Iraq and all of the people who live there, as a necessary step in gaining the American public’s support for war and sanctions. There has not been any justification for the 2003 invasion of Iraq that has not been disproven, in fact. Bush lied about weapons of mass destruction. No Iraqis were involved in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. The government has relied solely on drumming up ignorance and racism to keep the people complicit in its war.
The racist hysteria that painted all Muslims and Arabs as terrorists reached a fever pitch following 9/11. It came from the government and from the ruling class and has been endlessly promoted by the mainstream media. It was used to justify the initial invasion of Afghanistan. Bush used the language of religious war when describing “our enemies” overseas.
Are the people of Afghanistan really “our” enemies? Last year, a study came out that showed that 96 percent of fighting-aged men in Afghanistan had never even heard of the 9/11 attacks.
The ANSWER Coalition (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism) was launched shortly after 9/11 precisely in response to this racist war drive. We saw that it was necessary to build a mass movement against the war drive and against the racist demonization of Muslim and Arab people.
The truth is that the people of the United States have more in common with the people of Iraq and the Arab world than we do with our own government, which seeks to dominate them. Working people, regardless of where we are from, mostly just want to go to work, raise our children, be safe in our own homes and live in peace. In contrast, the ruling class of the United States wants complete military and economic domination of the Arab world and unfettered access to their markets and vast oil wealth. And they will not hesitate to use and promote violence in their drive to get it. It was this systematic demonization, it was the racism and bigotry that they have created and propagated, that killed Shaima Al-Awadi just as sure as the gruesome beating carried out that day.
Fatima Al Himidi, Shaima’s daughter, bravely responded to the note left at the scene of her mother’s killing by saying, “We’re not the terrorist, you are,” to whoever is responsible for her mother’s death. She is right. Her mother was a victim of the racist terror unleashed by the war makers.
The only way to combat this terror is by building a movement against racism and in solidarity with the people of the world who are targeted by our government for demonization and attack. We must defend the Arab and Muslim community here at home against racism and bigotry. We must stand with them against the politicians, the media and racist organizations like the Tea Party who promote the kind of hate that killed Shaima Al-Awadi.
We must fight to end the wars that feed off of hate, ignorance and fear. We must end the system, capitalism, that feeds off of these wars. And always when we are struggling, in our communities and around the country, we must remember that an injury to one is an injury to all—racism and bigotry hurts the entire working class. Let us join together and fight against racism and against the system of war and racism that killed Shaima Al-Awadi.
