ahmadzafire response appears sincere but is still absurd.

Submitted by PCMani (United States), Nov 28, 2009 at 15:51

Dear Editor, ahmadzafire's letter to you appears to be sincere but it is still mis-guided. I will counter some of his claims:

-- He cites many instances of violence by people who happened to be Christians (he cites some animal rights activists, KKK, and others).

Drawing analogies between Islamic terrorists and KKK, animal rights activists etc. is absurd. The day Muslims start killing to protect animals, will be a happy day in the history of our planet. Also, while Islamic terrorists kill specifically to establish or defend political entities branded under the Islamic banners, protagonists of the causes cited by ahmadzafire are not fighting to establish Christian political entities.

-- ahmadzafire draws examples of violent acts dating from 1910 to 1995 to "establish" that non-muslims also kill.

Need I say anything? To find equivalent examples of Islamist violence, any one calendar-month is enough. While 9/11 should have been a rallying cry for non-violence in Islamic societies, in actuality it acted as a license to kill more.

-- ahmadzafire quotes from Bible indicating that Bible also recommends killing.

Oneone already responded -- most followers of Bible have locked those passages of Bible that recommend killing of people for their beliefs or harmless actions in the drawers of their desks. Quranic passges should also not be taken literally. Quran's recommendation to not make friends with Jews and Christians might have been justified in the context extremely local in time and region but it should not be treated as a universal truth advocated by God himself. Similarly all other injunction that do not make sense.

ahmadzafire quotes some press releases from Islamic organizations ciriticizing Islamist's acts of violence.

In this age of electronic publishing, a press releases are cheap. They are not worthless but they are cheap nevertheless. If you go through the Indian media, and pick the articles written by non-muslim authors and speeches given by non-muslim politicians criticising the demolition of an ancient mosque by Hindu extremists, you can fill thousands and thousands of pages. And this cristicism is not sporadic. It has occured in a sustained fashion for more than ten years and is still going on. Show me an Islamic country where a muslim politician makes a stand against Islamist violece the basis of his election menifesto and wins and I will show you a peaceful Islamic country loved by all. Such a country does not exist. I would like muslims to go beyond press releases. How about a one million muslim march in Dhaka, Islamiabad, Ankara, Damascus, or Jerusalem as a call for non-violence?

ahmadzafire says that moderate muslims have two wars to fight -- one against fundamentalists and the other against non-muslims who oppose Islam due to the acts of the fundamentalists.

I applaud ahmadzafire for saying that. If ahmadzafire (and other Muslims) do not shy away from the Islamist's act of violence, the problem will eventually be solved.

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