It’s been a tough semester to be a Hoosier.
Between the deaths of three IU students, the removal of Alpha Tau Omega fraternity from campus, many other sexual assault cases on campus and at least one reported robbery, it appears there is an epidemic of crime culture here at IU.
Now a potential hate crime could be added to that list.
A 19-year-old IU student named Triceten Bickford was arrested on charges of strangulation, battery, minor possession and consumption of alcohol, intimidation and public intoxication for allegedly assaulting a Muslim woman at Sofra Café near Walnut Street on Saturday night.
The IDS previously reported Bickford yelled the phrase “white power” before trying to strangle the woman, who was an immigrant from Turkey. His blood alcohol level was found to be more than twice the legal limit in Indiana.
I am disgusted by Bickford’s actions. However, I am also upset at how such petulant Islamophobia could have developed within this person’s ethical code to begin with.
In the United States, the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment guarantees two things: freedom from religion and freedom for religion.
The federal government cannot establish religious authority (granting citizens freedom from religion), yet individual citizens can practice their own religious beliefs (giving citizens freedom for religion).
What the Establishment Clause does not establish is a right to physically attack others for their beliefs.
I’m not sure if Bickford is religious or not, but I’d like him to try an exercise. It was first introduced in the book “To Kill a Mockingbird,” so if he has a high school reading level, he can hopefully understand it.
A character named Atticus Finch said in the book that “you never really know a man until you stand in his shoes and walk around in them.”
I’d like you to try that, Mr. Bickford. Imagine you’re the Muslim woman at the café.
Both as an immigrant, and as a practicing member of the Islamic faith, you’re constantly surrounded by strangers.
You might not have much in common with the people around you. You might get looks from people on the street for wearing a head scarf. People might wonder why you speak in an unfamiliar accent.
Regardless of your personal identity, you are still an American.
You vote, you pay taxes and you send your children to school. You are a part of our nation’s tradition of welcoming all to be a part of our mythical melting pot.
Yet you are targeted because you are different. Even though you have the most fundamental aspect of our nation in common with everyone around you — a commitment to America — you are assaulted for being different.
“They’re making me out to be a monster. I’m just a normal person,” you were quoted as saying by WTHR.
How dare you say this when your actions prove otherwise?
ttfitzpa@indiana.edu
@tfitzwrites
