Why You Should Be Worried When A Somali Is Labelled A Terrorist

Niaje.com (blog site)
by Margaret Letiyan
Tuesday May 6, 2014

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As a country we should be very afraid when a Somali is labelled a terrorist simply for being Somali. This is because we are setting a precedent that we may never fully recover from. We’ve heard of xenophobic attacks in South Africa and racial segregation in other parts of the world. Fact is, Xenophobia does not just spring up, it starts with what seems like a justifiable cause or reason but gradually grows into a monster that can’t be tamed.

The Holocaust which I think goes down in history as the worst case of racial profiling and intolerance was a gradual process that took 12 years from 1933-1945. The seed of intolerance was planted when the Nazis started blaming the Jews for all of German’s ills but the end result was the killing of Jews en masse in the infamous gas chambers.

Closer home, the war in CAR and South Sudan may have been fueled by politics but what is feeding them is racial and religious intolerance and the notion that one tribe or religion is superior than the other. I am not saying we are headed there, but the seeds are being planted slowly but surely. If you have been observant and listened to conversations around you especially after the Thika road bomb attacks, then alarm bells must have gone off in your head at the directions we are headed as a country.

It has been reported that people alighted from public transport bus when a person looking like a Somali boarded it while at the same time, some matatushave also been reported to have refused Somalis look alike to board them. The irony is nobody has been arrested for the bomb attacks so far, so in truth, the terrorists are faceless and without a race. Therefore, for us to turn and blame our Somali brothers for the attacks is not only cowardly but distasteful.

Yes we have a reason to be wary of the terrorist and I agree we have to be vigilant, but let us not forget that terror does not have a face and allowing fear to guide us will lead us to an even darker place than where we are at. By racially profiling Kenyans as terrorists or by keeping quiet when others do, we are being no better than the Nazis in their time. Let us not sink low to level of the terrorists. I think it’s time for Kenyans to stand up for Kenyans if ever we hope to win this war against terror.

Margaret Letiyan is Orations Manager at Niaje. Avid reader of anything in print and a mother to a beautiful baby girl Naino

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