Setups behind bullying of Muslims

There has been a recent rash of bullying of Arab business owners as well as influential heads in the Muslim community by the legal system of our country. It's random, it's unpredictable, and it's far from just. Such stories were always rampant in places like Chicago and cities in Florida and Texas in the post 9-11 world.

Recently a very close family friend and a family well known in the Islamic community was paid a visit by government representatives. The timing and nature of this visit was such that it meant to intimidate and instill fear and panic. I don't want to go into details, but the whole ordeal and aftermath have been quite disturbing and have left people distrustful and nervous. This single incident is one of the most unfortunate events in my community I can remember during my time here that doesn't involve murder or other tragic death. It's definitely been the talk of the town, in a concerned and angry kind of way. Out of respect, folks cancelled their Eid parties and put their 3azayim on hold.

In the following couple of days an expensive lawyer was hired. One thing that has been learned and is the reason for the thick unease in the air is that this was the work of insiders. The family was set up by associates....other Muslims in the community and likely people from our very circle.

How could anyone be so........................I don't even have the right word in my vocabulary. There are lots of possible motives, but I still can't think of anything good enough to cause one to stoop to such lows. If you were in trouble whether justified or not, would you be willing to play the legal system's game and bring others down for some kind of pardon? Is that pure selfish callousness or simply desperation? I would say the former. Could a bitter disagreement lead someone to want to bring about the most crippling of revenges?

These weren't people that made enemies, they're rather simple and humble folks. I think in times like these it's important that people be well aware of their legal rights. The government gets away with creating scapegoats and random singling out folks to pick on because they count on people being ignorant and scared. So knowledge is truly power!