Narrow Portrayal of "Islamic" Reaction to Katrina Can Only Add to American-Islamic Maelstrom

"World reacts with sympathy, shock", reads the headline of this Chicago Sun Times article that details the resounding chorus of sympathy, empathy and prayers from the international community to the devastation and misery wreaked by Katrina. The Pope, European and Chinese leaders and even South-East Asians effected by the January '05 tsunami were all mentioned as conveying their utmost sympathy and condolences.

In contrast to the global goodwill however, the article goes on to mention that, "Islamic extremists rejoiced in America's misfortune, giving the storm a military rank and declaring in Internet chatter that "Private" Katrina had joined the global jihad, or holy war. With "God's help," they declared, oil prices would hit $100 a barrel this year." The Drudge Report, an online muckracker, posted a similarly-minded link that translated a statement by a Kuwaiti minister who equated the winds of Katrina to the mighty hand of Allah that would smite the unrighteous and evil American empire.

I don't the deny the statesments of these smug extremists or their assisine associations of a natural phenomenon to the hand of God, but I was troubled that their blurbs were the only reactions of the Arab world mentioned in our media. There was no mention of how, akin to other world leaders, the Kings of Morocco and Jordan as well as the Kuwaiti Emir (to name a few) had expressed their sincere and heartfelt sorrow and solidarity with the United States. Looking up these vignettes of support of took me a good 30 minutes, a chunk of time that most Americans cannot afford or are disinclined to use for such ends. So, in the split-seconds of headline and byline scanning that news savvy netizens are accustomed to, the association of "Islamic" and "extremism" and "anti-Americanism" is yet again recirculated without a counterbalancing description of the moderate voices of Muslim and Arab leadership and people.