By BJ Austin, KERA News
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/kera/local-kera-869700.mp3
Dallas, TX –
As flags fly at half staff for victims of the Fort Hood shooting, the Muslim community in North Texas braces for a possible backlash, and the Dallas Peace Center calls for healing. KERA's BJ Austin reports.
Mustaffa Carroll, with the Council on American Islamic Relations, says the North Texas Muslim community is stunned and stricken by what happened yesterday at Fort Hood: grieving for the lives lost, and fearful of a public backlash because the alleged gunman is Muslim.
Carroll: Our community stands ready to help in any way, shape or form that we can do that. Otherwise, we're just dumfounded. It's like the worst possible thing that could happen.
At the Dallas Peace Center, director, and State Representative Lon Burnam says they're organizing an informal discussion on how to start the healing. He says the hurt is not limited to Central Texas and Fort Hood.
Burnam: People are not more than one or two degrees of separation from this pain, people here in North Texas. With me, it's my District Manager. She's putting her son on a plane back to Iraq today. Don't you know how intense her feelings are right now.
Burnam says it's ironic that the alleged gunman, Army psychiatrist Major Nidal Hasan was tasked with helping other soldiers cope with stress and pain.
Burnam: It is clearly a call to spend as much on mental health as we are spending on weapons.