stochastic terror

This is an editorial recently published in The Alabama Reflector. I'm reminded of the armed right-wing nut who recently tried to attack Democratic candidate for Senate in Ohio, Dr. Amy Acton. Fortunately he was stopped before he could do any harm. The kind of rhetoric that Britt and Tuberville have been using to describe El-Sayed in Michigan (and Democrats in general, for that matter...uh, Communism anyone?) incites their base to do something like a physical attack. Stochastic terrorism. Trump practices that. A lot. In my opinion, Britt and Tuberville (and Trump) know what they are doing, which makes it even more evil and insidious.

Katie Britt and Tommy Tuberville’s rhetoric about Abdul El-Sayed is dangerous

ALLISON BERKOWITZ

I was troubled to recently read comments by Alabama U.S. Sens. Katie Britt and Tommy Tuberville about Abdul El-Sayed, the Democratic nominee for a U.S. Senate seat in Michigan, and his supporters. Britt called him a “terrorist sympathizer” and a “jihadist sympathizer” on television. Sen. Tuberville went a step further and posted online that Dr. El-Sayed is a “terrorist” and a “radical Islamist.” These are inflammatory accusations leveled at a physician and public servant who has spent his career trying to make the lives of Americans better.

I have been a fan of Dr. El-Sayed for years, reading his books (“Healing Politics” and “Medicare for All”) and listening to his podcast (“America Dissected.”) He is a family man who went into public health after seeing how broken our health care system is. El-Sayed became an avid advocate for better and more affordable access to health care for Americans. His campaign for the U.S. Senate is centered on “Medicare for All” and reducing corporate influence in government, ideas reflecting what many Alabamians want, too.

Disagreeing with his positions on health care or foreign policy is fair in a democracy. For example, I don’t expect that our U.S. senators will wake up tomorrow supporting universal health care or agreeing with serious criticisms of Israel. But calling him a “jihadist” is not a policy criticism. It uses language that has real, potentially fatal consequences.

That difference matters, especially here in Alabama. We have a small but vibrant Islamic community made up of people who are as American as anyone else and who already navigate suspicion they did nothing to earn. When U.S. senators use words like “jihadist” and “terrorist” to describe a Muslim candidate, it doesn’t stay confined to one race in Michigan. It reinforces the idea that all Muslim Americans are inherently suspect. It puts ordinary Muslim Alabamians at greater risk of harassment or worse. 

We have seen how demonizing language aimed at a public figure, or a type of people more broadly, can translate into real hostility, even violence, towards a whole group of private citizens. For example, anti-Muslim hate crimes went up significantly in the lead-up to the 2016 election when Islamophobia was so prevalent at the national level. What’s to say there couldn’t be similar consequences here in Alabama in 2026 due to our senators’ words and attitudes? 

Additionally, I’d ask the senators to consider how their language mischaracterizes El-Sayed supporters like myself who simply see the country differently than they do. Sen. Britt said that El-Sayed’s supporters “hate America.” Sen. Tuberville’s rhetoric had a similar tone, only more extreme. As James Baldwin put it, loving this country more than any other in the world is exactly why he insisted on the right to criticize it perpetually. When elected officials frame the deeply American act of dissent as evidence that someone “hates America,” it suggests either a troubling misunderstanding of civics and American history or a desire to exploit that misunderstanding in others. 

I don’t expect Sens. Britt and Tuberville to agree with El-Sayed’s politics, and I don’t expect every Alabamian to either. But I do expect the senators representing our state to debate ideas rather than brand their opponents as terrorists. That shouldn’t be controversial. It should be the bare minimum.

ALLISON BERKOWITZ

“Allison Berkowitz is an active legislative advocate focused on social and economic justice. Her professional interests center on political and policy practice, as well as self-care for social workers.”