I have a few items today which seem to call for the efforts of the Greek Furies (Erinyes) to come and deal with them. As a reminder, though no one really knows how many there were supposed to be, the three names we have are Alecto, Megaera, and Tisiphone. These roughly translate as "unceasing," "grudging," and "vengeful destruction."
I try not to feature occurrences that are too new (like, say, yesterday) or which have received a lot of publicity – there are plenty out there under the radar more in need of the Furies' attention. In this first item, the fact of it being under the radar actually IS the story.
On Friday, July 22, Germany was rocked by news of a terrible event – a young man shot multiple people outside a shopping center in Munich. It became clear that the shooter, Ali David Sonboly, had Iranian ancestry; no one in the media hesitated to link him with Islam. He was styled as "German-Iranian," and rumors spread that he had shouted "Allahu Akbat" before shooting (spoiler: he didn't.) Right-wing politicians did their best to use the shooting to spread hatred and fear against Muslims, migrants, and refugees.
But once the dust cleared, the inident changed into a "classic shooting rampage" instead of an "act of terror," and quietly disappeared from news feeds. Why? He was not a Muslim, but a right wing extremist. It wasn't the West he hated, but Turks and Arabs. His hero was Anders Breivik who, five years to the day earlier, had killed 77 people in Norway. His other hero was Hitler, with whom he considered it "an honor" to share a birthday. Seven of his nine victims were Muslims or of Muslim background.
Sonboly's racist ideology was spawned in Central Asia, all right, but it was anything but Muslim. Iran, Afghanistan, and Tajikistan all consider themselves to be the cradle of the Aryan people (who lived 3,000-4,000 years ago and scientifically have little to do with the historical, or maybe I should say pre-historical Aryans.) "Iran" actually means "land of the Aryans," and when Iran changed its name from Persia in 1935, both Afghanstan and Tajikistan responded with variations on "Who do you think you are?!!?"
German authorities mostly do not hesitate to link every rampage with Islam, but when right-wing terrorism takes place, they do their best to obscure the roots of the crime. This week, Bavaria's Interior Minister, Joachim Herrmann, insisted that Sonboly “probably had no links with right-wing networks.” And shortly after the massacre, Bavarian government and police officials claimed that there was no political motivation behind the massacre, claiming Sonboly had chosen his victims at random. According to this logic, a mass killer must shout “Allahu Akbar” in the midst of his murder spree for his political motives to be acknowledged. Everything else, no matter how clearly influenced by rightist ideology, is just a classic shooting rampage.
As long as right wing terrorism continues to be trivialized as isolated "rampages," and not treated as terrorism from the right, we in the west will make no progress toward suppressing terrorism at all. Germany is by no means alone in this; it happens in the United States constantly. Another case of decisions made on "facts" insteat of on facts are mostly very poor decisions. Well, Bavaria is quite beautiful, Tisiphone. Stop in to look at Neuschwanstein while you are educating Bavarian government officials.
I also have a couple of incidents related to rape culture, possibly appropriate in a week when a Presidential candidate and his number one son have said or implied that "strong women" do not get sexually harassed. Yeah, right.
The situation in this story from Utah (but which could have happened anywhere) seems to me to illustrate just how extensively complaints of rape are routinely dismissed. "In the most recent account, four women who reported that they had been raped by the same man were ignored by the Utah State University’s Title IX office, and by the police detectives investigating the complaints in Logan, Utah."
Had not reporter Alex Stuckey of the Salt Lake Tribune dug into this, no one but the victims (and the rapist) would even know the rapes had occurred.
Reporter Alex Stuckey of the Salt Lake Tribune conducted an in-depth investigation of a pattern of alleged rapes committed by an unnamed assailant. The first assault was reported in January of 2015; the fourth in December. The male student continued remained on campus until spring of 2016, when he graduated.
The four women did not know one another, and they all filed separate reports. Three of the women were Utah State students and reported the assaults to their school. Title IX, the federal statute passed in 1972 that mandates equal treatment of the sexes in education, requires that “schools must take action if there is a potential continuing threat to students.”
In stories that echo the disturbing details recounted in Jon Krakauer’s book, Missoula, which documented a spate of rapes in the Montana college town, police seemed more interested in helping preserve the reputation of the alleged rapist than in helping the women prosecute the man who had hurt them.
Click through for additional details of the attacks and the sham "investigations" conducted, if you haven't been nauseated enough by the brief summary I quote. The prosecutor claims to be looking at the case more closely. Alecto, maybe you can hold her feet to the fire.
Just in case anyone thinks the above story doesn't address sexual crime against strong women, this third story should lay all doubt to rest on that point. It's had more exposure than the other two, as far as I can find (and I'm already late), so I'll be brief.
A prominent feminist writer and columnist said she is being forced to abandon social media after receiving rape and death threats against her 5-year-old daughter.
On Twitter, Jessica Valenti wrote: “This morning I woke up to a rape and death threat directed at my 5 year old daughter. That this is part of my work life is unacceptable.”
You know, after you've said that, what do you say? Jessica goes on with several more tweets elaborating on the facts of this situation, and what an impossible position it puts her in. I expect anyone here could have come up with every point. Unacceptable? Yes. Of course. But Facebook, Twitter, and law enforcement all seem to accept it just fine. Megaera, everyone else already has an assignment. But you are going to need reinforcements.
The Furies and I will be back.
Cross posted to Care2 at http://www.care2.com/news/member/101612212/4003531
3 Responses to “Everyday Erinyes”
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Breivik has funding from US Republican Supply-side pseudo-Crristians to streas their propaganda and sew hatred among Norweigans, specifically, the Koch funded AFP. I wonder if thyis creep has Republican connections too,
Republicans love to blame the victim.
Thanks JD
AN: Very disturbing to anyone who reads this article, that he raped these women, and is walking free, while the woman is traumatized and feels violated for the rest of her life! No assistance, or counseling, or medical help or the woman, but the guy gets away with it. Kind of reminds me of how the women in the military must 'deal' with this same (like) situations, and the CC does nothing about it, except brush it under the carpet. Pathetic and sad. It MUST change!
AN2: Who is their right mind goes after a child with threats like this? Yes, the police need to be more actively involved, and make this kind of vile hostility a crime. So very heartbreaking.
Bring it on, Ladies, and bring your reinforcements to kick A – – !!!!
Thank you, Joanne for this post.
Thank you so much for posting the correct background to Ali David Sonboly, Joanne. The German press, that is the right-wing Murdoch-like press, was quick to tie him to Islam terrorism, but other German media were far more reticent in their coverage until more was known. That the links were so easily and off-handedly made in Bavaria will not surprise any European who's a little familiar with German politics, as that state has traditionally been one of the most right-wing states in the country. As is sadly true for so many countries/states, extreme right-wing sympathies there have only thinly been veiled and with the rise in populism and all to real Da'esh attacks the extreme right-wing geni has come out of its bottle. It's beyond ironic that this is exacly what prompted Neo-nNzi Sonboly to randomly kill (mostly Muslim) people, only to be branded as an Islamic terrorist by the right-wing media in Bavaria and to be taken on by right-wing media everywhere because it suits their rhetoric.
The story of four identical rape cases ignored by Utah State University AND sidetracked by Logan police is truly nauseating. Not only should the prosecutor get the rapist behind bars as soon as possible, but Alecto must make sure that the officials of the University's Title IX office and the investigating detectives are held accountable too.
A sickening death and rape threat to a five year old daughter and Facebook, Twitter and law enforcement are fine with it? And the mother, dependent on social media for her work, has to abandon their use because of it, turning the world up-side-down again. Please turn it back the way it should be, Megaera, and make haste!