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Nursery Gassed at Ohio Mosque, Not a Hate Crime

Pardon my language, but this is straight fucked up. Less than a week after anti-Islam DVDs were distributed by mail and in newspapers all across the Midwest, in Ohio a “chemical irritant” was sprayed through a window of the Islamic Society of Greater Dayton, where 300 people were gathered for a Ramadan prayer service. More succinctly, it was sprayed into the nursery where the babies and children were kept while their parents prayed.

“She told me that the gas was sprayed into the room where the babies and children were being kept while their mothers prayed together their Ramadan prayers. Panicked mothers ran for their babies, crying for their children so they could flee from the gas that was burning their eyes and throats and lungs. She grabbed her youngest in her arms and grabbed the hand of her other daughter, moving with the others to exit the building and the irritating substance there.

“The paramedic said the young one was in shock, and gave her oxygen to help her breathe. The child couldn’t stop sobbing.”

The local paper reports that police have uncovered “no evidence of a hate crime” because no words were exchanged between the attacker and the victim, and whatever gas was sprayed dissipated too quickly to show up on preliminary chemical tests conducted by the police.

I know hypotheticals are presumptive and annoying, but I’d comfortably venture to say that if this happened in the nursery of a Midwestern Episcopal church during Easter, the story would occupy a large corner of all national news coverage for weeks.

Where’s the fucking outrage?

(H/T, H/T)

UPDATE: Cara posted a more comprehensive look at this story at The Curvature.


25 thoughts on Nursery Gassed at Ohio Mosque, Not a Hate Crime

  1. …I’d comfortably venture to say that if this happened in the nursery of a Midwestern Episcopal church during Easter, the story would occupy a large corner of all national news coverage for weeks.

    Or a synagogue during Rosh Hashanah.

  2. It’s fucked up that the event happened, but I’m not sure what the police can do, other than look for more evidence. The girl (apparently) couldn’t describe the men, there wasn’t any physical evidence left behind, and the hazmat people couldn’t find any chemicals. I don’t think the people in the mosque are just making this up, but what do you want the cops to do? Start beating up white racists at random? That worked for Kojak – the first guy you beat up tells you the next person in the chain that leads to the Ultimate Villain – but that was a TV show.

    In real life, just about everyone belongs to a group that, if there’s an attack with no explanation, it COULD be a hate crime. This is an attack with no explanation, and so it COULD be a hate crime, or it could be some teenagers being morons, or it could be a rival mosque being assholes, or it could be someone who had a grudge against that girl in particular, or or or…

    I hope they find whoever did it and throw the book at ’em, however, whatever the reason for the attack was. Spraying chemicals on little kids is not cool.

  3. I should clarify–that DVD “Obsession” wasn’t just distributed in the Midwest; it was inserted in newspapers nationwide, and backed by some prominent national organizations.
    It showed up here in Portland. I wrecked every copy I could find, not that it really helps.

  4. We got “Obsession” here in Raleigh, NC too. My mom canceled the paper over it, though it was the straw that broke the camel’s back.

  5. I would be grateful for a cite to the hate-crime law in effect in Ohio in this case. The statute may be written poorly, i.e. so as to require some verbal expression of hate as opposed to the implied statement of the horrible act itself. Accordingly, the police may be coping with a crap statute written in Columbus.

  6. I thought the same thing, Bruce, but then in the newspaper article linked, it is insinuated that the police were dragging their feet over the weekend, and moreover, that they were trying to determine whether a crime occurred at all, as though members of the mosque planned to interrupt their own services to stage an attack on a bunch of kids. Cara has more on that aspect at the link I put up with the update.

  7. Thanks for this post.

    We definitely need more attention brought to this incident, and I’m still alarmed that the local media isn’t really reporting on it. I’m here in Dayton, and trying to stay on top of what’s happening, but that’s difficult because aside from the Dayton Daily News, I’m not really seeing this in the news. I don’t know what the situation is with the PD, but much of what I’ve read in the paper suggests an ongoing, but quiet, investigation. The most recent article mentions the FBI and the Dept. of Homeland Security in the same vein as the Dayton PD, which leads me to assume that the feds are looking into it as well.

    I’ve posted about this on my livejournal, along with some links for contacting local media outlets. I plan to write some letters this weekend, in the hopes of spurring more reportage.

  8. Lauren — great minds clearly think alike, because we put up our two posts within a half hour of each other. I was thinking “hmm, maybe I should put this up at Feministe too,” hopped over and saw “oh look, Lauren already did it!” It’s a Feministe psychic connection or something.

    In any case, I’m definitely glad that people are writing about this, and to an extent that the two of us happened to get to it at right about the same time!

  9. “…it could be some teenagers being morons…”

    Yeah, um. Even if it’s teenagers doing it, it’s STILL A HATE CRIME.

  10. This certainly is under-covered in the news.

    If it’s not a hate crime.. what would it be? Someone accidentally gased Muslim kids. “I meant to dispose of it properly with bio/hazmat… but I was throwing out my big gulp on the way home and grabbed the wrong cup holder. Hey sh*t happens.”

    Thanks for posting this… after a buddy of mine told me about this (I have been a bit worried since Portland’s CD distribution) and we were waiting to hear of the fallout. Other than a larger number of scared people staring at me on the MAX (our lightrail system) and a guy who ran off the MAX after he saw me reading a chemistry book (hey I’m refreshing for my Microbiology class)… It’s been mostly to same… I haven’t even been threatened yet this week.

    Sigh. Thanks little light… every little bit counts 😉

  11. Sorry, messed up the quotes. this is what I meant to post:

    I know hypotheticals are presumptive and annoying, but I’d comfortably venture to say that if this happened in the nursery of a Midwestern Episcopal church during Easter, the story would occupy a large corner of all national news coverage for weeks.

    You know, a couple of months ago, someone went into a Unitarian church while the children were performing a play and started shooting people. It was in the news for about a day and I don’t believe it was mentioned here at all.

    Just saying.

  12. It was in the news for about a day and I don’t believe it was mentioned here at all.

    Just saying.

    Thing is, Feministe is not the mainstream media — it’s a blog run by a few folks that have day jobs in addition to blogging. It’s a hobby. Now if you’d like to pay us for coverage of all religious news and happenings in the world, we’ll talk. Otherwise, holding Feministe responsible for the national mainstream media’s uneven reporting on religiously-based antagonism (or terrorism, even) is dumb.

  13. Marie:

    It was in the news for about a day and I don’t believe it was mentioned here at all.

    Just saying.

    Unlike the attack at the Mosque, the attack at the church was not only all over the MSM it was all over the blogs – and it was acknowledged as a hate crime (except by the freepers who thought it was crazy that church members didn’t come prepared with their own concealed weapons)

    The additional shock of the attack on the Mosque in comparison to the attack of the Unitarian Church is not only the lack of coverage but also the fact that there has been a concerted effort by the religious right and Faux Fox News to incite people to “act” against all Muslims and, yet, the main stream still seems less than supportive that someone (anyone) would try to harm children solely because they are Muslim.

  14. Thing is, Feministe is not the mainstream media — it’s a blog run by a few folks that have day jobs in addition to blogging. It’s a hobby. Now if you’d like to pay us for coverage of all religious news and happenings in the world, we’ll talk. Otherwise, holding Feministe responsible for the national mainstream media’s uneven reporting on religiously-based antagonism (or terrorism, even) is dumb.

    I was questioning your hypothetical, not your reporting of all religious news. It hasn’t been that long since there was an attack on a church, so it’s a little insensitive to make up a hypothetical about it and then assume that the media would care about it for weeks when they didn’t. Yeah, the mainstream media did actually report on it, which is more than we can say here, but that’s not the point.

    As you said, hypotheticals are presumptive and annoying. Your post would have been better without it.

  15. The additional shock of the attack on the Mosque in comparison to the attack of the Unitarian Church is not only the lack of coverage but also the fact that there has been a concerted effort by the religious right and Faux Fox News to incite people to “act” against all Muslims and, yet, the main stream still seems less than supportive that someone (anyone) would try to harm children solely because they are Muslim.

    I’m not positive the attck of the Unitarian Church you’re talking about is the same one, but several people were shot in a church this summer, and the shooter said he did it because they were liberals, and apparently got the idea from listening to Michael Savage. I don’t know if that technically qualifies as a hate crime, as the gassing of the nursery clearly is.

  16. as an aside about the UU church shooting… many freepers (i might even say MOST freepers) think the UU is almost as bad as a Mosque. they “aren’t Christian” – i was attacked leaving a Unitarian church once because i was at a “gathering of witches!!!”.

    so, just sayin’ about your just sayin’… if it were a fundy BAPTIST church, the MSM would have played it for WEEKS. a “white”, “alternative” church got a whole 36 hours. a “brown” Mosque got nuthin. or almost nuthin anyway.

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