Alarming parallels between shooting incidents
Giffords was a victim of extremism that exists even in American politics. Image credit: David Shankbone
The year is less than 20 days old and the world has witnessed two political shootings in two contrasting political nations, one in the supposed pillar of free democracy in the West, and one in the depths of the conflicting East.
Political shootings are nothing new; we’ve experienced the high profile assassinations of the likes of JFK and Benazir Bhutto in America and Pakistan before, but what is startling is the similarity in both of these recent plots.
Both Salman Taseer in Pakistan and Gabrielle Giffords in America were popular politicians. Taseer was the powerful ruler of the Punjab province and senior member of the ruling Pakistan People’s Party, Giffords the ‘rising star’ as a Democrat congresswoman.
Both the shootings in Islamabad and Arizona occurred in broad daylight. Both attackers had no qualms with being caught. Both had been radicalised by content on the internet.
Political commentators stated how the murder of Salman Taseer showed the deep divisions within Pakistani society. The attempted murder of Giffords shows how there is a growing element of radicalisation, albeit smaller, also in American society. Whilst there are those that mourn such a regression back to violence, it seems there are always those that come out in support of it.
Taseer’s killing was centred on his stance on the harsh blasphemy laws in Pakistan. Insulting Islam is seen as a capital offence, and it was Taseer’s more liberal Westernised view that resulted in his killing by his bodyguard, Malik Mumtaz Hussein Qadri.
“We have extremists in our country … We should try and prevent the extremists wherever they are from being able to commit violence”
Hillary Clinton
US Secretary of State
Giffords seems to be the victim of the warped views of a young American, Jared Loughner. Loughner had deep feelings against the American government, and wanted to prove his point by shooting not only a member of that government but, unnecessarily, innocent victims as well.
Qadri had been radicalised by groups of extremists meeting in the Punjab region. The ease in which people can be radicalised in these regions is highly alarming. Over 50,000 radicals in Pakistan marched in support of Taseer’s bodyguard. What is even more disturbing for the Pakistan government is how these radicals were able to become part of a politician’s protection unit.
The cause of such radicalisation is difficult to pinpoint. In America, Bill Clinton voiced his concerns over strong political rhetoric being taken too literally, from Palin’s crosshairs to the burning of the Koran. Many Pakistani experts cannot fathom why others have such a fear of other religions existing in their country.
These may be two isolated incidents – we will never be able to prevent actions by such people. The internet has been shown to be difficult to police, and limiting freedom of speech online is a slippery slope to tread.
What is shameful for these societies is the way that politicians who are attempting to become more liberal have their lives destroyed for their efforts. Obama’s speech after the Arizona events struck a chord with many.
However, the irony is that through the drive to prevent extremism in less stable regions, America has failed to notice and adequately prevent the growing fanaticism in its own backyard.
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As an American studying at York I can say the information presented in this article about the Arizona shooter(Jared Loughner) is what Britian’s would call a load of rubbish.
The Arizona shooter was not radicalized by content on the internet like this article states nor did anyone in the states come out to support his actions which is suggested in the article as well.
The Arizona shooter was someone who was severally mentally unstable and had shown many signs of mental illness in years prior to the shooting. Many troubling pieces of information have been unearthed about this young man and unfortunately it shows that in America we do very little to treat people with mental illnesses.
For the author of this article or anyone curious here is a link to a great American website that provides a lot of good information about the tragic event as well as many noteworthy things happening in the states.
http://gawker.com/search/jared%20loughner/