I don’t want to give far-right conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer any ideas.
But I do wonder if she’ll soon proclaim that Nick Reiner was wearing a keffiyeh and a “Free Palestine” T-shirt when he allegedly killed his actor-director father, Rob Reiner, and photographer mother, Michele Singer Reiner, in the couple’s Los Angeles home.
Loomer cranked up the lies and vitriolic takes following the deadly stabbings and equally horrific mass shootings that took place at Brown University and Australia’s Bondi Beach a week ago.
She called Rob Reiner a “loser” and endorsed President Donald Trump’s unhinged assessment that the beloved Hollywood figure was murdered for his “Trump Derangement Syndrome.”
And while Loomer has been shying away from revealing her fiance’s identity after Trump blurted out news of her engagement, she and other MAGA loyalists didn’t think twice about spreading rumors that the Brown University shooter was a Muslim and shared a picture of a Palestinian student days before the suspect Claudio Neves Valente — neither a Muslim nor a Palestinian — was found dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Loomer is still sticking with the Muslim perpetrator angle and brushing off that one of the two Brown University students who died was a Muslim. Oh, well. When Loomer lets that go, she can fixate on the Portugueseness of Neves Valente — also a suspect in the slaying of a Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor.
Loomer and other extremists are eager to keep pointing fingers at Muslims in the wake of the Bondi Beach massacre that claimed the lives of 15 people, including a 10-year-old girl, a Holocaust survivor and a rabbi.
Once Australian law enforcement officials disclosed that the father and son duo behind the antisemitic assault were “inspired” by the Islamic State group, Loomer, along with several conservative lawmakers, amplified the calls to deport Muslims from the United States.
One would think the headlines about the Muslim Syrian immigrant disarming the younger alleged shooter would give Islamophobes pause. But bigots’ brains don’t work that way. To save themselves from the indignity of crediting a Muslim for saving Jewish lives, Loomer and company have insisted the hero in the Hanukkah massacre is a Maronite Christian, in spite of Ahmed al-Ahmed’s relatives’ confirmation of his Islamic faith.
Al-Ahmed, who is recuperating from the gunshot wounds he suffered in the mass shooting, deserves praise for his bravery. I only wish the al-Ahmeds of the world were treated with the same respect on a daily basis.
A lot of us Muslims are fed up with being spoken to or elevated solely in the context of violence and radicalization.
During a presidential debate with then Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton in 2016, Trump said of Muslims, “When they see hatred going on, they have to report it.”
That’s pretty rich coming from a man who, if he took his own advice, would have to tell on himself every time he opens his mouth, deports Black and Brown immigrants and adds their homelands to the list of countries on his xenophobic travel ban.
Sorry, Pantsuit Nation. Clinton wasn’t any better when she tried to come to Muslims’ defense in the decade-old debate.
“We need American Muslims to be part of our eyes and ears on our front lines…I’ve met with a lot of them, and I’ve heard how important it is for them to feel that they are wanted and included and part of our country, part of our homeland security,” Clinton said, reducing Muslims to dutiful “Star Wars” droids.
These days, Clinton is busy chastising millennials and Gen Zers for speaking out against Israel’s bombardment of Gaza following Hamas’ deadly Oct. 7 attack.
The former secretary of state apparently didn’t mention Loomer and similar influencers when she spoke at the Israel Hayom Summit in New York City earlier this month. But she blamed pro-Palestinian TikTok clips for what she says misinforms the “usual suspects” and “a lot of young Jewish Americans who don’t know the history and don’t understand.”
I’m sure Clinton’s elders said the same thing about her when she raised objections to the Vietnam War.
Some pundits and politicians have linked criticism of Israel’s military operations to the bloodshed at Bondi Beach. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu went as far as to say that Australia’s recognition of a Palestinian state last fall also contributed to the slaughter.
We have yet to learn more details about the accused gunmen’s motives. But it is disingenuous not to acknowledge that most opponents of Israel’s killing of over 70,000 Palestinians are also sickened by the Bondi Beach shootings.
Clinton can keep harping on about how Palestinian rights advocates don’t understand the Middle East while leading experts and human rights organizations keep concluding Israel is committing a genocide in Gaza.
What Clinton and many others can’t understand — or accept — is a growing, diverse population that sees the world like the tobacco shop owner who sprang into action when he heard gunfire and saw victims covered in blood.
They, as al-Ahmed’s father said of his courageous son, don’t think “about the background of the people” they are trying to save.
Rummana Hussain is a columnist and leads the opinion coverage at the Sun-Times.