Aliou Niasse, a street vendor selling framed photographs of New York, said that he was the first to spot the car containing the bomb, which pulled up right in front of his cart on the corner of 45th street and Broadway next to the Marriott hotel. “I didn’t see the car pull up or notice the driver because I was busy with customers. But when I looked up I saw that smoke appeared to be coming from the car. This would have been around 6.30pm. “I thought I should call 911, but my English is not very good and I had no credit left on my phone, so I walked over to Lance, who has the T-shirt stall next to mine, and told him. He said we shouldn’t call 911. Immediately he alerted a police officer near by,” said Mr Niasse, who is originally from Senegal and who has been a vendor in Times Square for about eight years.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/...

Sambul Ali-Karamali writes in the Huffington Post what it's like for an American Muslim during times like this:

I woke up this morning to the news that the alleged perpetrator of the NY car bomb was a Pakistani-American man. If he committed this crime -- a contemptible, cowardly one that I wholeheartedly condemn -- then I am glad he was arrested. But I couldn't help but wish he hadn't been Muslim. As an American Muslim myself, whenever I hear of a potential terrorist attack, I cannot help falling into a repetitive litany of "Please let it not be Muslims who did this..." My prevalent feeling when I listen to the news these days is dread. It's somewhat consoling to know that the man who first noticed the smoking Nissan Pathfinder and sought help is also Muslim, a Senegalese immigrant. I wonder if he was, as I am, deeply bewildered and infinitely saddened by the violence that's being associated with Islam.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...

– CNN contributor and Redstate.com blogger Erick Erickson complained that the words “muslim” and “Islam” are “not mentioned” enough in stories about Shahzad. He wrote, “It really is pathetic that you’re more likely to see the words “racist” and “Republican” together in the newspaper these days than “terrorism” and “Islam.” [5/4/2010]

http://www.redstate.com/...

– Hate radio host Neal Boortz tweeted, “OMG! The Times Square Bomber is a Muslim! Shocker! Who would have believed it?” [5/4/2010]

http://twitter.com/...

– The cover of today’s Washington Post-published Express features a black-and-white photo of Shahzad with the sensationalist headline “MADE IN PAKISTAN” [5/5/2010]

http://www.expressnightout.com/...



Will the Fox News Nutwork in particular take time to show the hero is Muslim? Not a chance, because it is the job of Fox to ensure their viewers continue to hate all Muslims and Hispanics. How about CNN? Hear anything on MSNBC?

To his credit, Aliou Niasse, the Muslim man who helped to alert the police about the suspicious truck may be the very person that shows us that not all Muslims are our enemy and that not all Muslims are the face of terror. One might have thought that Timothy McVey or Eric Rudolph or Ted Bundy might have disavowed that fact, but they were all Republicans and caucasion, so they're somewhat excused from making all Republicans the face of terror, given our current Conservative owned media. Given the fact that all three were home grown American terrorists, I never saw FOX or the loud mouthed fools of Conservative radio equate all Republicans with terror, have you?

Im not a Muslim or a Hispanic or an African American or any other minority. I'm an American who can only imagine what it must be like to be one of the aforementioned group of people who certain hate groups in our country continue to scapegoat and marginalize.

Thanks to Think Progress for their assist.

http://thinkprogress.org/...