Right, just from the original post it seemed like it was more to do with what she was wearing and how she was acting.
I wouldn't say that being defensive implies sympathy. If anything I'd bet she'll be pretty shaken, not only was there an attack in the city where she lives, but she knows she may also be seen as 'one of the enemy', even at this early stage where the source of the attack is unknown. Who knows, maybe she felt she was being accused, maybe she, as with many of the Muslim community, has been dealing with persecution to some degree for much of the past decade?
+1. If I were a Muslim living in America, I would feel edgy and defensive after an episode like this too. It would be lovely if everyone could be supremely calm, wise, and saintly, but Muslims are human beings too.
I have a good friend who is a Sikh and wears a turban. It's a whole separate religion that has nothing to do with Islam or terrorism. But because of the turban, he's had to deal with some very scary confrontations since 9/11. Luckily none of them resulted in anyone getting hurt.
And I should comment, I
have seen marches and protests by Muslims
against radicalism and terrorism. Under the overwhelming opinion of Muslim schools of thought, a jihad can only be called by a Caliph, and there is no one in the modern Muslim world who is generally accepted to hold that authority. A random self-appointed imam cannot just go and call a jihad by issuing a fatwa. Therefore the actions of groups like Al-Qaeda are illegal under shari'a, and from what I've seen mainstream Muslims have been quite consistent about affirming that.
At any rate, at this point I VERY strongly doubt that the bombing in Boston has anything to do with Al-Qaeda or any such organized terrorist group. Those groups proudly announce their responsibility after such attacks, because the whole point of terrorism is to publicize your struggle. Since no one has announced responsibility, I think it's overwhelmingly likely that we're dealing with a freelancer - possibly inspired by Al-Qaeda without being connected to them, like that guy who went on a shooting rampage at a military base a while ago, or possibly some kind of home-grown neo-nazi or conspiracy theorist or something along the lines of Timothy McVeigh or the Unabomber, or possibly another one of these psychopathic, alienated kids like the ones from Columbine and Newtown.
What bothers me the most, perhaps, is the idea that America has become the kind of country where this is the "new normal," where the threat of mass shootings or random bombings is starting to become a routine part of the world we live in. I remember when the idea of a terrorist attack on US soil was an odd fiction. Now it's a reality - not just once, but a recurring reality.
