A couple of corrections and alternatives

Submitted by Abed Safah (United States), Aug 3, 2005 at 08:32

While it is undeniably true that modern terrorism is perpetrated largely by Muslims, it is also true that the vast majority of Muslims, over 1 billion, abhor terrorism and all that goes with it.
That doesn't mean that they don't sympathise with Palestinians or Iraqis. It just means that 99 % of the Global Islamic community finds terrorism to be extremely deviant from Islam.

Of course Muslims worldwide are going to support their suffering brothers and sisters throughout the world. That is something most wetern scholars don't understand, so please, allow me to illuminate.

Islam knows no one ethnicity. It is the great equalizer among its adherents. Anyone who has seen a picture of the pilgrimage at Mekkah can tell that. Side by side, you have Arabs, Europeans, Indians, and Asians. Black, white, brown, yellow. It's all the same. And thus, you have Indonesian Muslims sympathizing wholeheartedly with Palestinians, and perhaps even part of Bin Laden's message of clearing the Mulims Holy Land of non- Muslim US Troops.

So while many Muslims support the ends, they certainly DO NOT support the means. Any Islamic Scholar of any real merit and credibility would certainly condemn the killing of innocent civilians. Unfortunately, those voices aren't advertised. You wont hear about them on Fox News, and most likely not even CNN. So the Muslim community is derided for not condemning terrorism, even though they have, and unequivocally.

When it comes to Israel, another justification is used. Since every able bodied adult Israeli has or is serving in the military, some consider all civilians fair game, since essentially every Israeli is part of the national guard to some extent. This reasoning has justified too much violence and outright slaughter of innocents, and is undeniably wrong. However, the ends are, to some extent, right. After all, who can deny the Palestinians the right to Liberty and Freedom from Israeli occupation? While the Israelis have their "Promised Land" reasoning, we had "Manifest Destiny" here in the US, which are basically one and the same, and justify taking land from indigenous populations for use by the "civilized" society.

I'm an American, and I'm a Muslim. I travel in many circles. I was in a predominantly Jewish fraternity in college. I work in a mostly jewish industry. I am also an active part of the American Muslim community. I will tell you without caveats that there are no Moderate Muslims. Period. There are real Muslims, who follow the geniune teachings of Islam, as revealed through the Quraan and the Prophet, Muhammad. The there are those who use the plight of a population along with religious fervor to further their own, non- religeous agenda. And how many people throughout history have taken a faith and twisted and perverted it to make it fit their own world views and justify their actions?

In our present day, hating Islam and bashing it and Muslims is considered the norm. You can only imagine what American Muslims must confront in their everyday lives. If anyone would be sympathetic to that, it should be Jews. They have also confronted that kind of stereotypical hatred and public flogging.

Finally, just a comment about CAIR, which Mr. Pipes has so frequently condemned. CAIR is a civil rights organization, primarily. Their mission is not to defend every accused's innocence. Their goal is to ensure due process and the law are adhered to in every situation. If people are fired from their job because they need a few minutes a day for their prayers, CAIR steps in. When Americans are stopped at the Canadian border and are detained for 6 hours, fingerprinted, and searched, CAIR asks why. Their mission is not to promote terrorism, or extremism, as many ... have posited. They do great work, and can be compared to the ADL. After 9/11, CAIR condemned the attacks, but refused to blame Bin Laden because simply, no one knew who it was. The President didn't mention his name until he 14th, and once it was officially released that he was in fact, the man behind the attacks, CAIR and many other Muslim associations here and throughout the world were quick to condemn him and join in the attempted removal of his organization and ideas from wherever they might have been.

In conclusion, I would ask that you not be so quick to judge based on accusations that are flying around and happen to be the social norm at the time. Kahanists don't represent Judiasm, and terrorists don't represent the Islamic world. Help us Muslims weed out and destroy extremism and religious perversion, instead of fighting both the terrorist ideology and our fellow Americans.

---

Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome but not comments that are scurrilous, off-topic, commercial, disparaging religions, or otherwise inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the "Guidelines for Reader Comments".