muslims against muslim terrorists

Here's that old canard again:  Why don't Muslims protest Islamic terrorism?  This time it comes from Camille Paglia, who inserts it while pausing for a regrettably brief gulp of air during a rambling anti-Clinton tirade.  Says Paglia:  "Why have Muslim organizations, very quick to protest insulting cartoons, been mostly silent about the atrocities in Mumbai?"

Uh, Camille?

BBC News, 2008:  "A conference attended by thousands of Muslim clerics, scholars and community leaders in India has endorsed a religious ruling against terrorism."  There were anti-terror sermons, fatwas, and street demonstrations, as well as a tamping down of Eid celebrations in that nation. 

This continues a multi-year tradition of Islamic action against terrorism.  A quick sample:

Xinhua, 2007:  "Over 20,000 Muslims took part in a demonstration in western Germany on Sunday to protest against terrorism and violence in the world."

Reuters/International Herald Tribune, 2005:  "From Amman, the capital, to the remote town of Zarqa, the birthplace of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the leader of Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, thousands of Jordanians took to the streets to vent their fury for a second day over the bombings bombings.  "Al-Zarqawi is rejected by everybody in Zarqa, even by his family members," said Muhammad al-Sharaa."

China Daily, 2006 :  "A Muslim cultural institute in Germany on Monday criticized Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad for disparaging the Holocaust, daring him to visit the Auschwitz concentration camp.  'In this place of horror he can again deny the Holocaust, if he has the courage.'"

Washington Post, 2005:  "An organization of top American Muslim religious scholars plans to issue a formal ruling today condemning terrorism and forbidding Muslims to cooperate with anyone involved in a terrorist act, according to officials of two leading Islamic organizations."

Muslim Council of Britain, 2001,  press release issued within three hours of the 9/11 attacks:"Whoever is responsible for these dreadful, wanton attacks, we condemn them utterly.No cause can justify this carnage. We hope those responsible will swiftly be brought to justice for their unconscionable deeds."

There's more, but you get the point.   The woman in the picture above may disturb our sensibilities in many ways, but the message is clear:  Even the most devout Muslim is capable of opposing terrorism, as the reflection both their own decency and the Quran's injunctions against harming civilians.  We need to acknowledge these Muslims and encourage them, for own own national security.  And we should do it out of a basic sense of fairness, too.

Comments

[Batocchio]

Thank you! Paglia has long epitomized the ignorant, crackpot academician, but some of her dizzy ideas are more harmful than others. She, Ann Althouse and a few bottles of wine would be pretty scary.

[Rafiq]

Thank You,

It feels like we muslims are talking to ourselves in the dark. I guess the 99% majority appear and sound to boring. I feel like the media goes out of its way to find the most crazed person to talk about Islam. Its always some guy on TV i have never heard of in my life who is now a so called Muslim expert. *sighs*

at least someone hears us. :-0