The Blame Islam Game

[safar]

THE BLAME ISLAM GAME
By Parvez Ahmed
WORD COUNT: 556

[Parvez Ahmed, Ph.D., is board chairman of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation's largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy group. He may be contacted at: pahmed@cairfl.org. For a photo of Parvez Ahmed, go to: http://cair.com/default.asp?Page=Board&person=Parvez ]

When asked whether the recent bus and subway bomb blasts were acts of Islamic terror, London Police Commissioner Sir Ian Blair responded that the culprits were certainly not "Islamic terrorists" because Islam and terrorism do not go together.

He was echoing the sentiments of Prime Minister Tony Blair who earlier said, "The vast and overwhelming majority of Muslims both here and abroad are decent and law abiding people who abhor this kind of terrorism every bit as much as we do."

During a private meeting with American Muslims, British Ambassador to the U.S., Sir David Manning was emphatic in distancing the London terror bombings from Islam, which he described as a faith of "peace, reconciliation and tolerance."

Despite this sentiment, it is quite common to see terrorism committed by Muslims be referred to as "Islamic terrorism." Yet efforts to find an alternative to this false assertion have often proven inconclusive.

As author Karen Armstrong recently noted in the Guardian newspaper, "Incorrect statements about Islam have convinced too many in the Muslim world that the West is an implacable enemy." She also pointed out that acts of terrorism by the Irish Republican Army are not referred to as "Catholic terrorism."

This week marks the 10th anniversary of the massacre of 8,000 Bosnian Muslims in Srebrenica. That act of barbarism was never attributed to any religion, despite the religious roots of the conflict.

Columnist Thomas Friedman recently promoted another damaging stereotype by writing in the New York Times, "the Muslim village has been derelict in condemning the madness of jihadist attacks....To this day - to this day - no major Muslim cleric or religious body has ever issued a fatwa condemning Osama bin Laden."

Juan Cole, a professor of history at University of Michigan, debunks this myth by cataloging numerous condemnations from prominent Muslim religious figures who have not only called the "jihad" of Osama bin Laden un-Islamic but also pointed out Islam's emphatic rejection of terrorism.

Following the bombings in London, every major Muslim group in America and abroad issued clear condemnations, dissociating the barbarism of a few from the peaceful practices of the mainstream majority.

"We join Americans of all faiths, and all people of conscience worldwide, in condemning these barbaric crimes that can never be justified or excused," declared the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR).

"Attacking civilians who are going about their daily business is a criminal act that violates Islamic principles, and must be condemned by all Muslims," was the response from the Islamic Society of North America, one of America's largest Muslim groups.

Misperception about Islam's position against terrorism is making an already jittery American public even more suspicious. More importantly, it is also preventing meaningful dialogue between American Muslims and policy makers. Lack of dialogue also leads to very little discussion about the "underlying issues" of terrorism, which Tony Blair asserted must be dealt with if terrorism is to be eradicated.

However, this important step cannot be achieved so long as the American public remains misinformed about Islam in general and Muslim positions related to terrorism in particular. Only when the blame game stops can meaningful dialogue begin.

American Muslims should rightfully undertake the mission of building bridges of understanding between America and the Muslim world. This can happen when mainstream American Muslim groups are constructively engaged by policy and opinion makers.

[Boogski]

Originally posted by safar
[b]THE BLAME ISLAM GAME
By Parvez Ahmed
WORD COUNT: 556


...Columnist Thomas Friedman recently promoted another damaging stereotype by writing in the New York Times, "the Muslim village has been derelict in condemning the madness of jihadist attacks....To this day - to this day - no major Muslim cleric or religious body has ever issued a fatwa condemning Osama bin Laden."

Juan Cole, a professor of history at University of Michigan, debunks this myth by cataloging numerous condemnations from prominent Muslim religious figures who have not only called the "jihad" of Osama bin Laden un-Islamic but also pointed out Islam's emphatic rejection of terrorism.

Ok. Where's the Fatwa? WHERE?!!

Thomas Friedman told the truth.

[safar]

Originally posted by Boogski
Ok. Where's the Fatwa? WHERE?!!

Thomas Friedman told the truth.

[/b]

Tom Friedman is a liar.

Here is from juancole.com.

A "fatwa" is simply a considered opinion of a Muslim jurisconsult. Such opinions are numerous. First of all, almost all the major Shiite Grand Ayatollahs have condemned Bin Laden and al-Qaeda. You could say that is easy, since Shiites don't generally like Wahhabis. But they are the leaders of 120 million Muslims (some ten percent of the 1.2 billion). So that is one. Tracking these things down is time-consuming, but this should do:
Ayatollah Muhammad Husain Fadlallah of Lebanon condemns Osama Bin Laden.

So then what about the Sunni world? The leading moral authority for Sunnis is the rector or Grand Imam of the al-Azhar Seminary/ University in Cairo, Egypt. Al-Azhar is perhaps the world's oldest continuous university and has been since the time of Saladin a major center of Sunni religious authority. The current incumbent is Shaikh Muhammad Sayyid Tantawi. So what about Tantawi and Bin Laden?

Grand Imam of Al-Azhar seminary, Shaikh Muhammad Sayyid Tantawi, condemns Osamah Bin Laden. And:

The Grand Imam of al-Azhar Seminary, Shaikh Muhammad Sayyid Tantawi, condemns Osamah Bin Laden.

What about Pakistan? Admittedly, it has some clerics who are fans of Bin Laden, or at least who would avoid condemning him. But the allegation Friedman is making is that no major cleric has condemned him. Try this: Prominent Pakistani Cleric Tahir ul Qadri condemns Bin Laden.

I don't personally care for Yusuf al-Qaradawi. He is an old-time Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood preacher who fled to Qatar and now has a perch at al-Jazeera. But he does have some virtues. He is enormously popular among Muslim fundamentalists. And, he absolutely despises Bin Laden and al-Qaeda. Al-Qaradawi has repeatedly condemned the latter. He even gave a fatwa that it was a duty of Muslims to fight alongside the US in Afghanistan against al-Qaeda! See also:
Yusuf al-Qaradawi condemns al-Qaeda.

There are also substantial Muslim communities in Europe with leaderships that have explicitly condemned Bin Laden. E.g.:

Spanish Muslim Clerical authorities Issue Fatwa against Osamah Bin Laden. There are on the order of 250,000 Muslims in Spain.

High Mufti of Russian Muslims calls for Extradition of Bin Laden. The Russian Muslim community is about 20 million strong, or 15 percent of Russia's 143 million population, and is growing rapidly, so that in a century Russia may be 50 percent Muslim. So this is not a pro forma thing here.

A good round-up on this sort of issue has been put up by al-Muhajabah.

Also when will hear the condmenation of killing of 10s of thousands of Muslim civilians by military bombings by Bush and Blair??

Just two weeks ago 17 civlians in Afghanistan were killed by a bomb dropped on them. Were they any less humans than those who died in London?

Also lets wait to see who was really responsible for the London bombs. Who knows maybe Phony Tony's MI5 or your lovely Mossad.

Safar

[voltaires_priest]

Funnily enough, comments like "couldn't have been a Muslim, must have been Mossad" (and btw at least have the balls to say "the Jews" if that's what you mean) are the sort of things that give rise to the very sensationalist stories that you've been complaining about.

The police have tracked down the suspects. Time to get real and stop pretending that extremism doesn't exist. In doing so, you're just forming a mirror image of the right-wingers who want to demonise all Muslims.


V

[safar]

VP, You being a moderator should have at least the decency not to make up statements I never made.

I said "lets wait and see who is responsible", not that it couldn't have been a Muslim. Right after Sept 11 a Pakistani American who had gone for an interview at WTC was first implicated in the terrorist act. Later on it was realized he was one of the victim. It could have been a "Muslim" or it could have done by any other intelligence agency like MI5, Mossad. And like right wingers I am not demonizing all jews because Mossad regularly commits acts of terrorism? or all Westerners because they have killed Millions of people.

Originally posted by voltaires_priest
Funnily enough, comments like "couldn't have been a Muslim, must have been Mossad" (and btw at least have the balls to say "the Jews" if that's what you mean) are the sort of things that give rise to the very sensationalist stories that you've been complaining about.

The police have tracked down the suspects. Time to get real and stop pretending that extremism doesn't exist. In doing so, you're just forming a mirror image of the right-wingers who want to demonise all Muslims.

V

[voltaires_priest]

Who do you think committed the 9/11 attacks (indulge me here)?


V

[safar]

The main point of the article was simple. You don't blame a religion or a community for the acts of a few.

Because Mossad commits acts of terror you don't blame all the jews.

Because IRA commits acts of terror you don't characterize it as Catholic terrorism.

Because Serbs killed Muslims in Bosnia it is not called Christian Orthodox terrorism.

Because Russians killed Millions of Ukranians by an engineered famine you don't call it Russian terrorism

Because Americans killed 3 million Vietnamese during the Vietnam it is not called American terrorism.

Just as when Binladen killed people on Sept 11 it should not be referred to as Islamic terrorism.

And if we do find that some Muslims were responsible for the London bombs it should not be characterized as Islamic terrorism as it has already been referred to by the mass media.

Originally posted by voltaires_priest
Who do you think committed the 9/11 attacks (indulge me here)?


V