- In both cases, there definitely seems to be a strong disproportionate link. Yes, there are innocent and/or unarmed white people killed by police. Yes, there are non-Muslim terrorists. But neither of those changes the fact that black men are far more likely to be the victim of police shootings and terrorist attacks are far more likely to be committed by Muslims.
- In both cases, the "bad actors" are a tiny minority of the whole. The overwhelming majority of police officers never shot anyone. The overwhelming majority of Muslims would have nothing to do with terrorism.
- Nevertheless, in both cases, there is an awful lot of "I don't approve of this, but...." excuse making.
- In both cases, there is backlash against innocent people wrongly associated with the original injustice, be it anti-Muslim backlash or anti-police backlash. And some people get more concerned about the backlash than the initial injustice. And some people pull out "I don't approve of this backlash, but...."
There are, of course, some significant differences.
- With police shootings, there's SOME element of error. I don't think any cop sets out saying "I'm going to kill an innocent black man today." Terrorist attacks are deliberate.
- I think police should be held to a much higher standard than the average man on the street. It's unfair to expect perfection, but we're a long way from perfection.
- There is a much more established institutional framework around the police than there is around Islam. There are police authorities who can choose who to make police and fire those who aren't living up to standard. There's no real parallel by which "Muslim authorities" could formally expel a "bad Muslim" (like, say a Catholic could be formally excommunicated). And even if they were to do so, it's not like it would really impact their ability to carry out a terrorist attack.
There seem to be some real cultural problems both in law enforcement and in Islam, and while in neither case do you want to tar everyone with the same brush, it seems they could both do with being less defensive and really looking inward to try to fix things. At the same time, a) I'm neither a cop nor a Muslim, so it's pretty easy for me to say they should get their house in order, but b) I have no idea what that would mean in any specific way.
