On Tuesday, a 29-year-old man drove a truck down a bicycle lane near the World Trade Center in New York City, killing eight people and injuring a dozen others.
The suspect - identified as Sayfullo Habibullaevic Saipov from Uzbekistan - reportedly shouted "Allahu Akbar" as he plowed through the crowd, waving a pellet gun and a paintball gun.
Investigators discovered handwritten notes in Arabic near the truck pledging allegiance to the so-called Islamic state (or Daesh), according to the New York Times.
Despite the fact that investigators have yet to discover a direct link between Saipov and IS, the incident is currently being investigated as a terrorist attack.
This, it seems is the result of the use of the Islamic phrase "Allahu Akbar" - which is Arabic for "God is great." A lazy judgment greatly advanced by Western media outlets in the wake of every attack committed by non-whites.
But Muslims and Muslim allies on Twitter aren't having it, highlighting instead the correct and often benign use of the phrase.
"Muslims say this everyday in prayer"
"Allahu Akbar is quite literally the term law enforcement agencies use to determine whether something is terrorism"
"It's a terrorist [attack] because a madman killed people"
"The obsession with 'Allahu Akbar" misses [the] story and ignores [the] actual problem"
It's just a benign Islamic phrase
"Muslims utter #AllahuAkbar 111 times in 5 daily prayers"
Can you pronounce 'Allahu Akbar'?
"We cannot criminalize 'God is Great'"
"I say it like 20 times a day"
"Terrorists hijack language and faith"
Fun fact:
"My question: ‘Allahu Akbar’ automatically = TERROR, shooting 600 in Vegas doesn’t?"
In October, 64-year-old Stephen Paddock opened fire on a crowd of 22,000 people during a Las Vegas festival, killing at least 58 people and injuring more than 500 others.
The horrific incident was described as the worst mass shooting in modern American history - but, it >wasn't called terrorism.
Investigators even started suggesting that the shooter suffered from psychological issues, as Muslims began questioning why the "lone wolf" shooter wasn't labeled a "terrorist."
Was it because he didn't say "Allahu Akbar"? Was it because he wasn't Muslim?
'Allahu Akbar' has been used by non-Muslims as a 'scare' before
In September, nine Belgian men were kicked out of a Ryanair flight after shouting "Allahu Akbar" to cause a false bomb scare.
Following the incident, all passengers were evacuated from the plane.
It's a shame that the Islamic phrase, which is used by millions of Muslims around the world every single day, has turned into a checklist item when identifying terrorism.
"Only in America can whiteness prevent the man who conducted the deadliest mass shooting in American history from being called a terrorist," as Shaun King, an American civil rights activist, once put it.