Editor's Note: (Dean Obeidallah, a former attorney, is the host of SiriusXM radio's daily program "The Dean Obeidallah Show" and a columnist for The Daily Beast. Follow him @DeanObeidallah. The opinions expressed in this commentary are his own. View more opinion articles on CNN.)
(CNN) "49 killed in terrorist attacks on New Zealand mosques," blared the headline when I turned on my computer this morning.
As I read more about the attack, I was at first filled with heartbreak and disgust.
But then another emotion took hold. Anger. And that anger grew until I literally screamed out loud. I realized this anger stemmed from my frustration over two very specific aspects of being part of the Muslim community in America. The first: the open and for many, seemingly acceptable, demonization of Muslims in recent years. The second: the fact that as quantified by a 2018 study by University of Alabama, terrorist attacks perpetrated between 2006 and 2015 by Muslims receive a stunning 357% more US press coverage than those committed by non-Muslims. That translates into Muslim Americans receiving less coverage when they are the targets of terror plots in the United States.
While ultimately the perpetrators in New Zealand are responsible for their own actions, they don't live in a vacuum. Rather, in our increasingly interconnected world, the words of visible people play a role in fostering fear, hate and even violence.
We have seen the demonization of Muslims by politicians like President Donald Trump, media figures and others -- without any consequence in terms of their electoral prospects or careers. For example, during the 2016 presidential campaign, Trump openly ginned up hate of Muslims by making comments like "Islam hates us," spreading the lie people cheered in New Jersey on 9/11 and calling for "a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States."
And just last Saturday on Fox News, host Jeannie Pirro furthered one of the vilest anti-Muslim tropes that a practicing Muslim cannot be loyal to America. Pirro did this as she attacked Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minnesota) for wearing a hijab and asked, "Is her adherence to this Islamic doctrine indicative of her adherence to Sharia law, which in itself is antithetical to the United States Constitution?" Pirro hasn't even apologized. And while she was rebuked by Fox News, she will nonetheless be back on the air come Saturday.
I'm angry because for years, I and others in my community have practically begged major media outlets to cover the terrorist plots that have targeted American Muslims. If you're thinking right now --"What recent terrorist threats against Muslim Americans?" -- you aren't alone, and that's the problem.
All Americans should know about the three founders "of a new anti-Muslim white supremacist group that called itself the Crusaders" who in January were sentenced to 25 years in prison for their plot to slaughter immigrant Somali Muslims in Kansas. And you should know about the men who were arrested in January for planning to kill Muslims in upstate New York.
Have you heard of the man sentenced in January 2017 to 20 years in prison for plotting a deadly attack to kill American Muslims in New York that included a plan to blow up a mosque with a Molotov cocktail and using military-grade guns as well as a machete to cut the Muslims "to shreds"? I doubt it.
There's also the white supremacist sentenced in December 2016 to 30 years in prison for plotting to kill American Muslims with a machine that would emit deadly radiation. because he wanted to "take his country back." You would think that a man convicted of plotting to use such a weapon in America to kill Muslims would have gotten wall-to-wall coverage. But the case didn't. Of course, if that terrorist were Muslim and plotted to use that very same device to target Americans of other faith groups, you would know about it for sure.
If these incidents and others like them -- plans by these right-wing actors, some being self-professed white supremacists, to kill Muslims in America -- were heavily reported on by major media outlets, who also spent more time describing Muslims as the victims of and not the potential perpetrators of terrorism, would that have prevented the horrific attacks in New Zealand? Maybe, maybe not. There is no way to know.
It could, though, very well have prompted the authorities in New Zealand, as well as worldwide, to take online hate against Muslims and the spread of white supremacist ideology more seriously. From the early reporting, the manifesto of the New Zealand gunman was posted prior to the attack and called for defending "our lands" from "invaders," and used white supremacist buzzwords like "a future for white children."
Today is a day for mourning for the families who have lost loved ones. They should be our focus. But I can't escape the anger I feel watching what we in the Muslim community have long warned is the natural consequence of dangers building beneath the surface -- demonizing Muslims and failing to expose the terrorist threats directed at Muslims. And for the good of our nation and the world, these faults need to change going forward.