MSNBC host Contessa Brewer appeared on the liberal Stephanie Miller radio
show on Tuesday and lamented the fact that the person arrested for the attempted
Times
Square bombing is a Pakistani American. She complained, "I get
frustrated...
There was part of me that was hoping this was not going to be
anybody with ties to any kind of Islamic country." [Audio available
here.]
Brewer continued, "...There are a lot of people who want to use
terrorist intent to justify writing off people who believe in a certain way or
come from certain countries or whose skin color is a certain way. I mean they
use it as justification for really outdated bigotry."
The News live host didn't explain which ethnicity or religion she
had
been hoping the bomber would have been affiliated with. She did defensively
mention members of a Michigan militia group arrested in March and asserted that
they were "from far different backgrounds than what this guy is coming from."
Attempting to understand the mind set of Faisal Shahzad, Brewer speculated,
"Were there failed family ties? Did he have a strong community network here in
the United States? Did he feel isolated?" She opined that these types of
terrorists are "guys who are, I don't know, isolated in some ways from their
families."
This isn't the first time journalists have worried about the effect of Muslim
extremists being responsible for terrorist acts. On November 7, 2009, Newsweek
editor
Evan
Thomas worried:
EVAN THOMAS: I cringe that he's a Muslim. I mean, because it inflames all the
fears. I think he's probably just a nut case. But with that label attached to
him, it will get the right wing going and it just -- I mean these things are
tragic, but that makes it much worse.
A partial transcript of Brewer's appearance on the Stephanie Miller show can
be found below:
CONTESSA BREWER: I mean the thing is that- and I get frustrated and there
was part of me that was hoping this was not going to be anybody with ties to any
kind of Islamic country because there are a lot of people who want to use terrorist intent to justify writing off people who believe in a certain way or
come from certain countries or whose skin color is a certain way. I mean they
use it as justification for really outdated bigotry. And so there was part
of me was really hoping this would not be the case that here would be somebody
who is not the defined. I mean he’s accused, he’s arrested you know I don’t want
to convict him before it’s time to do so. He’s the guy authorities say is
involved. But that being said, I mean, we know even in recent history you have
the Hutaree militia from Michigan who have plans to, let’s face it, create
terror. That’s what they were planning to do and they were doing so from far
different backgrounds then what this guy is coming from. So, the threat is not
just coming from people who decide that America is the place to be and you know
come here and want to become citizens. And obviously this guy did.
09:11
BREWER: What’s interesting is you know we’re seeing within the boundaries of
the United States it’s the people that they’re arresting seem to be you know-
these loners, in some ways. I mean, the underwear bomber had obviously been
sent. There was a network behind him. But, they’re guys who are, I don’t know,
isolated some ways from their families. It will be interesting when we hear what
is the background of Faisal Shahzad as we are, you know, of course our NBC crews
are on that and looking onto more background there. We’ll find out more. Were
there failed family ties? Did he have a strong community network here in the
United States? Did he feel isolated?
—Scott Whitlock is a news analyst for the Media Research Center. Click here to follow him on
Twitter.