A few days ago, in a surly and defiant mood, I decided to post a condemnation of terrorism from Muslims daily. My readers thought I didn’t have any obligation to condemn terrorism. As it turned out, that was a decision I made in haste. I kept it up only for three posts (1, 2, 3) in four days despite encouragement from Aziz and Al-Muhajabah. The reason I stopped was that I got bored and it seemed pointless to repeat year-old statements.
While my plan lasted, I looked at quite a few statements from Muslims, leaders and individuals alike. They ran the gamut from excusing the terrorism because of US foreign policy to disbelief that it could be the work of Muslims to condemning the terrorist acts without mentioning the perpetrators to honest condemnations of terrorism and the terrorists. A number of statements from the leaders were not as unequivocal as I would have liked. Specifically, my complaint was that quite a few of the Muslim leaders did not condemn Osama Bin Laden and Al-Qaeda even while condemning the September 11 terrorist acts. Actually, I did not expect any better. After all, these are undemocratic leaders with worse acts on their resume than not condemning Bin Laden by name.
Well I salute you for doing your own individual part to stand up for your religion and its principles in the face of extremism. I read Dawn daily, and almost daily there is a sensible, well-written, and heart-felt appeal to reason, peace, and morality and against terrorism, by one of the readers. I hope these are the silent majority, but it might be a merely even match (even here).
I wonder if Muslims in the West will have the same experience of other immigrant groups, searching for authenticity, after watching the relative materialism and ennui of their parents. If that’s so, I hope they don’t conflate extremism with authetnic religious and cultural expression.
Thanks, Roach. There are definitely a lot of sensible people in the Muslims world who do not hate the west even though they might not like it.
Children of Muslim immigrants, like all immigrant groups, obviously have issues about their identity etc. According to my observation, they have chosen all kinds of paths for themselves. Some have gone the conservative way, others have completely assimilated into the mainstream culture. However, extremism of the vilent variety is definitely rare.
Just want to mention that many of these statements were issued within the first few days or so, before any kind of evidence had emerged exactly who was behind it.
And without a trial and a chance for both sides to present evidence, the best we can say is “OBL has been accused of these attacks. If he is indeed guilty…” Yes, that sounds wishy-washy and lame, but in America we do live in a system where a person is not proven guilty until he has had a chance to confront his accusers in open court and to bring evidence in his defense, and then a jury has declared him guilty. Before that, all we can say is “alleged”, “suspected”, and “accused”.
I have seen this angle of attack used before, and I think it misses the point. The point is to condemn the interpretation of Islam that leads people to think it’s OK to kill civilians, and to state that Muslims who believe in this interpretation are wrong, not to name some specific names.
Just want to mention that many of these statements were issued within the first few days or so, before any kind of evidence had emerged exactly who was behind it.
True.
And without a trial and a chance for both sides to present evidence, the best we can say is “OBL has been accused of these attacks. If he is indeed guilty…” …
Legally correct, but I am talking politics, not legality. Also, there have plenty of statements from Bin Laden advocating terrorism.
I think the best approach is to target both the methods and the perpetrators. The final decision about Bin Laden’s guilt would be in a court of law (or in war), but that doesn’t mean we can’t condemn him for his actions and statements.
Oh, I agree that OBL definitely supports the killing of civilians, he has said so many times. I will heartily condemn him for that and have done so. In fact, I was coming back here to post something about it, but you beat me to the punch.
I guess I tend to point out the legal aspects because I’m a paralegal-in-training and hope to become a lawyer someday. Call it a professional bias on my part
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