S1: Welcome in San Diego. It's Jade Hindman on today's show , where our community begins to heal after the Islamic Center of San Diego attack. This is KPBS Midday Edition. Connecting our communities through conversation. It's been a little over a week since tragedy unfolded at the Islamic Center of San Diego , when two teenagers fatally shot three people. The shock and mourning to follow is felt across the country today , and we're joined now by two Muslim community leaders who talk about how they're processing last week's events and where healing begins. Khalid Alexander is president of pillars of the community and a professor at San Diego City College. Also with us is Romola Saeed. She is the executive director of the partnership for the Advancement of New Americans , also known as Panah Khalid Ramla. Welcome back to the show.
S2: Thanks for having us.
S3: Thank you so much.
S1: Thanks so much for coming in first.
S3: I think , you know , when you when you don't , no one wakes up expecting to experience a tragedy like this so close to home. Um , so I think we are doing how any community member would do , which is trying to hold those who need holding and trying to provide support where we can , and be positive and show that our kids deserve dignity and beauty and childhood in this moment.
S1: What do you see as the biggest threat to that island ? Mhm.
S2: You know since the , the shootings there's been a lot of coverage in the media. Um , about the horror , about the hatred behind the incident. My biggest concern is that very few of these conversations are bothering to dig into the roots of what led to what happened. So it's easy to. You know , disregard or to to speak , to put. It's easy to embrace the victims of this incident. But it's much more difficult to understand where the hatred , where the maybe more importantly , the pride that these two teenagers who who committed the atrocity atrocity felt , uh , in attempting to take the lives of children and men and women in the mosque. And so I think the biggest threat to us is the failure to actually get to the roots of these causes and just to cover the incidents themselves.
S1: Yeah , it's hard to get to solutions if you can't identify what the problem is and call it for what it is. Exactly. Yeah. You know , um , we have actually seen , you know , people , though , really come together this past week amid the grief and the pain I'm thinking of , of last Friday's memorial where thousands of people prayed for the victims.
S3: I mean , Muslims in this country haven't exactly been welcomed. And though Muslims are inherently American and they are treated with suspicion. And we have an entire government that is funding , you know , funding law enforcement specifically to target this community through surveillance programs , through programs that that frame them as inherently suspect. And we in 2005 , we had a slew of legislation that came out of Congress that was bipartisan with bipartisan support. And one of them that I will never forget , the name , the name included. Um , you know , something something for Foreign Enemies Act. And so it sends a really chilling message to our children and , you know , our kids who are growing up in this country as that they are inherently un-American and they will forever be treated as inherently suspect. And I think when you grow up with a frame like that , it's not surprising. Then , you know , a government that treats you that way would then produce children who cause such harm. Right ? And and let's be clear , the the violence we experience , the terror we experience came from white nationalists , right. Though they don't identify with any specific subgroup. We know that they were , you know , very much connected to a white network of white supremacist , um , ideology , you know , groups. Um , and they , they , their weapons had anti-Muslim sentiment on it. And so this is this is the real threat. Um , and our kids see the , the absurdity in what the government is doing , and they see the , the double standards of , like , how white extremists are treated in this country and not named as the terrorists that they are. Mhm.
S1: Mhm. And you know , Khalid , I want to to come back to what you said about the roots of this atrocity and talk about the very real , very present threat of white supremacy , racism and hatred in all forms. I mean , what does this tragedy reveal to us about the consequences of that hate and intolerance in our communities beyond just San Diego ? Yeah.
S2: Well , I think in order to understand what happened last Monday , you have to understand American history. And I think the community is split into two kind of major groups. One is understanding that what happened on Monday is actually , you know , unfortunately , something that makes them American. Uh , the tragedy that happened at the Islamic Center of San Diego is the same tragedy created by the same background that the tragedy of the bombings in Alabama , the church bombings in Alabama. It comes from the same place that enslaved Africans and brought them here for free labor. It's the same kind of tradition of the genocide of the indigenous folks , and unfortunately , it's something that we continue to live with today. And I think you have others who look at the tragedy and they who don't have an understanding of American history , who don't understanding of the history of black liberation and struggle in this country. And they feel that this is a time to double down on begging people to accept our humanity , to recognize Muslims as human beings. And while that's an understandable feeling , I think what what we can learn from the black liberatory tradition is that nothing , no rights in this country are just given to somebody because of a supposed humanity. It's something that we all have to work together for and that we all have to strive for , not only for our own humanity , but for the humanity of others.
S1: All of that to leads me to this question to you all as knowledge.
S3: We have not heard that the FBI is looking into this as a terror attack , but we , in fact , do know that they were inspired by historical manifestations of narcissism and other forms of racist and racial supremacist violence. And so it should be , uh , by all accounts , it should be.
S1:
S2: Whatever kind of information has came from the police or the FBI has been extremely limited and very frustrating. There are a lot of questions that haven't been answered that begin with the timeline of the mother finding out that her son was on a suicidal mission to when police were notified , and why it was that the schools and the places of worship in the area weren't notified. So unfortunately , the communication around what types of investigations are happening is extremely limited. And so , you know , I don't know how to answer that question unfortunately. Mhm.
S1: Mhm. Kelly , I know that you considered the three victims friends of yours , especially Amin Abdullah , the security guard.
S2: I've known Amin since 1995. He became Muslim maybe two years before I did. I became Muslim in 1995 , and we lived. You know , we grew up essentially in the same mosque together. Mosques in urban areas often become a place of refuge for people who need help or are trying to kind of , like , figure out their way in life. And this mosque in East San Diego was kind of a home for for the two of us. It's , you know , it's almost it's something that we're I think I'm still processing. Um , you know , he also would come and he prayed with us in the morning at our mosque in southeast San Diego. He was a resident , proud resident of southeast San Diego. He used to pray with us in the morning , opened up the doors at 5:00 in the evening. At nine , he would show up , open up the doors and lock up afterwards. So it's a it's a huge loss not only to me but to the entire community. Anybody that knew Amin felt that they had a direct relationship with him , just because of how loving and open he was to to everybody. He came into contact with.
S1: Something that I don't think we've heard enough about is just how deeply rooted in faith and spirituality um , he was and and it was so important to all three men. Can you talk a bit about that ? Yeah.
S2: I mean , all three of them really represented everything that's beautiful about Islam and everything that's beautiful about Muslims. Amin would be the first people. I mean , would be the first people , that first person that he would be the first person to see , that people would see as they attended the mosque. And he would , you know , he would give welcome everybody with salam , which literally means peace. He would welcome people with peace and with a smile. Um. And the word salam when we give somebody salam , that actually comes from the root word , you know , from the same root word as Islam. And so everything about his life , whether it was protecting other people , whether it was welcoming people , whether it was wishing peace on folks or everything about Islam. Abu is who was , you know , way more than the caretaker of the mission. He was the first practicing Muslim family's house that I ever visited. You know , probably the first place that I ate hummus. Um , and even though they were from Syria , even though they had a different culture , and even though there was , you know , on the surface level , very little that we had in common with them. Um , I was friends with his son , and they welcomed me into their house as if I was a part of the family. Brother Nadir , who lived across the street. His wife was my son's kindergarten teacher of Islamic studies. He came running across the street when he heard gunfire. Right. So all of these , all three of these men were extremely brave. There , you know , and they represented something. You know , the entirety , I think , of Islam and something that all of us as Muslims and as non-Muslims should strive to embrace.
S1: I'm so sorry for your loss. Um , you know , how are you drawing on the teachings of Islam right now for for comfort and direction in this moment ? Yeah.
S2: I mean. Having the ability to , you know , pray five times a day in congregation with , with people in the community , I think has been one of the things that has helped , uh , myself personally and many others be able to process the pain and the hurt that's coming along , and to recognize that , you know , even though these three are no longer with us , um , they actually laid out a standard by which we'll be living our lives by how can we protect others ? How can we keep our own communities safe ? Um , and an insistence that even though many of us may not look or dress like , you know , the stereotype of an American , um , that we are equally deserving of our humanity and of our lives , and that we need to be unapologetic in , in our everyday actions.
S1:
S3: So I think that's what I'm taking away. And that's I think what we should all be taking away is like. Like we're here on this earth , you know , death is coming to every single one of us , whether it's today or tomorrow. And I think , you know , the questions we have to ask ourselves is when it comes , will we have lived serving others in supporting community and creating safety and belonging and caring and care for for others ? Or did we , you know , waste it ? Um , and I think that's what I think about is even just these , these children who committed these horrific attacks , um , who committed such terror against the community. There were 17 and 18. And so I think what what we should be learning about their sacrifice , their martyrdom , is that If we all served the way that these three men served them , then maybe we could produce children who who grew up with love and empathy and care for others , because that's what they're seeing every single day.
S1: Indeed , indeed.
S2: Um , I think we have , you know , elected officials and leaders who are really guilty on both sides of the duopoly. You have , you know , whether they're on the right spewing kind of outright hatred towards Muslims or whether they're on the left remaining silent , um , and refusing to kind of defend the Muslims who live in their community , but also overseas. You know , you can't dehumanize Muslims in Gaza and not dehumanize Muslims in the United States. You can't sit there and bomb. Schoolchildren in Iran and not expect for people to take violence out on schoolchildren here. And so I think it's really necessary for everybody , both , you know , in public , but also in private with their family members at any time they hear anything that we have to question those things and we have to begin to stand up for , you know , yes , Muslims , but really anybody that is the victim of hatred , hateful rhetoric.
S1: Ramlal , I'll let you have the final word here.
S3: San Diego , I think , is at a point where we have to take our safety and the safety of our children very , very seriously. And we can't take that safety and our children seriously if we're , you know , if our elected leaders , if our leaders in very important institutions , civic institutions around the county are taking a stance that we , you know , we need to be neutral somehow about this type of violence , right ? We just need to have , you know , we need to go back to a society that actually shamed such acts that made it , you know , impossible for someone to grow up thinking that they can hate women and Muslims and , you know , a litany of , you know , have a litany of hatreds and be normalized , right , and be supported , like , I think the way we support people and the way we show love is to have accountability. And the accountability starts at the highest levels is at the mayor's office. And it's with every single civic institution in town. We don't need more spaces. We're more you know , we talk about civility. We talk about creating spaces for disagreements. But where's the line ? Like , where do we draw the line around stopping hate.
S1: Very , very well said. I've been speaking with Khalid Alexander , president of pillars of the community and professor at San Diego City College , along with Ramla Saeed , executive director of Panah Khalid Ramla. Thank you so very much for this discussion.
S3: Thank you , thank you.
S1: That's our show for today.
S4: I'm your host , Jade Hindman. Thanks for tuning in to Midday Edition. Be sure to have a great day on purpose , everyone.
