To PCMadness: Good point

Submitted by Nabil Ahmad (United States), Aug 30, 2006 at 09:31

You make some good points.

Muslims in your town were not forced to move to your country. They came to your country on their own free will. It is their duty to reach out to their neighbors as Muslims and to be an example through kindness, generosity, honesty and overall good citizenship. Withdrawing into closed, tightly-knit social cocoons is not something that I support at all, and is something that I see as a sign of arrogance, ignorance and insecurity. My family did not behave in this manner when I was growing up.

I'm not altogether opposed to "profiling" and actually do support it in certain cases, as distasteful as it may be to my sensibilities. I could get into all kinds of trouble by saying some of the things that I could say here with the rabidly politically correct crowd, but the problems that Muslims and other "minority" groups face here in the West with regard to social integration has little or nothing to do with "discrimination" on the basis of race and/or religion and everything to do with culture and attitudes. I reconciled being a Muslim with living and working in the USA among Americans quite a few years ago and wouldn't have it any other way, as long as God allows me. At the same time, I attend Friday prayers at my local mosque, but my prayers are only for God and not for the local imam.

You are right when you say that Muslims in the West need to be willing to integrate into civil society and take the initiative when it comes to rooting out potential terrorists from within their communities. It is unfortunate that many Muslims, even those here in the West, see Westerners as "corrupt and immoral", and this concept has been driven home not only by ignorant, hate-filled mullahs but also by the Hollywood types, who are in no way representative of the West. I see the West as countries where the individual rights and liberties and the rule of law are strongly upheld, and these are the cornerstones of any civilized society. Such concepts are not alien to Islam, and have actually been championed in Islam as well. It is unfortunate that such concepts are looked on as "un-Islamic" by the mullahs and by their followers.

If Muslims living in the West fail to integrate and root out the terrorists living among them, they will not only be failing in their civic duties as citizens but also as Muslims. And if that happens to be the case, we probably deserve to be profiled. I don't mind it, as long as it allows me to fly in safety and not have to wait in long lines because of some silly politically-correct rule that says that we need to profile everyone in order to make it "fair".

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