Commentary: Don't ask me to condemn terrorism just because I'm Muslim

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As an American Muslim, I am consistently and aggressively asked — by media figures, religious leaders, politicians and Internet trolls — to condemn terrorism to prove my patriotism.
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I emphatically refuse.
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Make no mistake: The terror imposed by those who sympathize with Daesh (an Arabic acronym for the Islamic State militant group), al-Qaida, Boko Haram, al-Shabab and other groups is just as foreign to me as the terror advanced by mostly white men at the alarming rate of one mass killing every two weeks in this country.
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Therefore, just as I have never been asked to condemn Dylann Roof’s attack on parishioners of a historic black church in South Carolina, Robert Dear’s attack on a Planned Parenthood facility, the murder of 20 children at Sandy Hook Elementary School, or the slaughter of moviegoers in Colorado or Louisiana, I will not be bullied into condemning terror perpetrated by psychopaths who misrepresent and distort Islam for their deranged purposes.
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chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/commentary/ct-muslim-refuses-to-condemn-terrorism-20151229-story.html
 
shrug I’m Episcopalian and I’m quite willing to denounce all terrorism at all times, and you’d really have to do some searching to find a terrorist act perpetrated by an Episcopalian. I would condemn it because it’s the right thing to do, not because of insistence from others.

BTW, Here’s a non pay-walled version of this editorial.
 
Looks like she is condemning Muslim terrorism as well as any other kind of terrorism. Well-reasoned article.
 
Completely agree with his sentiment. Why, by default, associate his religion with terrorist groups. 🤷
 
pepipop said:
Completely agree with his sentiment. Why, by default, associate his religion with terrorist groups. 🤷
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Because a lot of terrorism currently being conducted claim to act in the name of Islam. Now I know that most Muslims are not terrorists but a lot of terrorists are Muslim.

Now people can deploy the “tu quoque” defense but just because other groups have used terrorism does not justify terrorism on the part of Muslims.

We should all speak out against terrorism.
 
I really don’t agree with this to the surprise of many. Truth is there a huge fraction of extremist Muslims and the silence of the many peaceful Muslims.benefits the extremist. There is a wonderful article.written by Emanuel Tanay, a Jewish survivor of.concentration camps.in.WW II who went very eloquently about how the silence if the peaceful people fuels the radicals (too bad I have it Spanish otherwise I would post it here). He said that in the early Nazi Germany thruthfully, most Germans only wanted to be in.peace and they did not want they Jewish neighbors and friends, but their silence allowed the Nazi radicals to grow quickly and rake over and within the blink.of an.eye, the Nazis were able.to build.killing camps thanks.to the silence of the peaceful Germans. Same happened.in China, same in Russia.

There us a Spanish saying that says “Silence grants to the outspoken side” and it is so true. If you are Muslim and all.you want is to remain in peace but keep.silence as to the actions of the radicals, you are giving them strengths to grow and indirectly allowing their wrongful actions.
 
On the surface I thought the article was understandable if it is just a discussion regarding religious bias or bigotry but I am not so sure that is the case any longer. My understanding is that a Muslim is a follower of Islam and the majority of Muslims desire to live in peace. The opportunity to live in peace seems to be disrupted by the minority radicals committing heinous acts and the reaction of non-muslims to those events. This is what I am getting from things like this article and MSM.

My confusion arises when I see things like the CIA World Factbook (see link below) that shows most majority Muslim countries as having Islam as all or a part of their legal system. This leads me to believe that Islam is not just a religion but also a political system. If it is a political system is the religious aspect now underminded? Am I mistaken? If not, can this political system really coexist with another national political system such as the one here in America (broken or not)?

cia.gov/library/publications/resources/the-world-factbook/wfbExt/region_mde.html
 
Steve_P said:
On the surface I thought the article was understandable if it is just a discussion regarding religious bias or bigotry but I am not so sure that is the case any longer. My understanding is that a Muslim is a follower of Islam and the majority of Muslims desire to live in peace. The opportunity to live in peace seems to be disrupted by the minority radicals committing heinous acts and the reaction of non-muslims to those events. This is what I am getting from things like this article and MSM.

My confusion arises when I see things like the CIA World Factbook (see link below) that shows most majority Muslim countries as having Islam as all or a part of their legal system. This leads me to believe that Islam is not just a religion but also a political system. If it is a political system is the religious aspect now underminded? Am I mistaken? If not, can this political system really coexist with another national political system such as the one here in America (broken or not)?

cia.gov/library/publications/resources/the-world-factbook/wfbExt/region_mde.html
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Yes, Islam is also a political system.
 
pepipop said:
Completely agree with his sentiment. Why, by default, associate his religion with terrorist groups. 🤷
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Maybe because the terrorists are Islamic. What, if you are a terrorist you are not Islamic, not doing things Islamic forefathers have not done ? Don’t get me wrong, the writer is just as much Islamic as the terrorists and has sentiments also found in Islamic forefathers. It is definitely a conundrum found deep in Islam, and with good reason. Unfortunately, the writer only partially addresses this though being a shining example of it.

Blessings

PS-Take a look at the classic movie Ben Hur. The movie begins during 15th century with a group of Islamic leaders arguing amongst themselves. One is pushing for jihad, for war, and threatens to even kill the other leaders , who seem to love the arts and sciences, and a peace that cultivates such things. Same old same old. Both sides say they interpret Koran and Islamic ‘tradition’ properly. Both sides have shining examples of success.
 
St_Francis said:
Maybe because the religion itself teaches conquest and forced conversion?
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And all good Muslims believe in a future world wide Islamic rule. The only difference is some push for it now, and others prefer to wait for a better timing or conditions (for successful outcome or ‘winning’).

Blessings
 
benhur said:
Maybe because the terrorists are Islamic. What, if you are a terrorist you are not Islamic, not doing things Islamic forefathers have not done ? Don’t get me wrong, the writer is just as much Islamic as the terrorists and has sentiments also found in Islamic forefathers. It is definitely a conundrum found deep in Islam, and with good reason. Unfortunately, the writer only partially addresses this though being a shining example of it.

Blessings

PS-Take a look at the classic movie Ben Hur. The movie begins during 15th century with a group of Islamic leaders arguing amongst themselves. One is pushing for jihad, for war, and threatens to even kill the other leaders , who seem to love the arts and sciences, and a peace that cultivates such things. Same old same old. Both sides say they interpret Koran and Islamic ‘tradition’ properly. Both sides have shining examples of success.
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There are a lot of domestic terrorists in the U.S. who are no Muslims. Should all Christians have to apologize for the actions of Robert Lewis Dear? Should all atheists apologize, and state the obvious, that they are against murder because of the actions of Craig Stephen Hicks?
 
Origen52 said:
There are a lot of domestic terrorists in the U.S. who are no Muslims. Should all Christians have to apologize for the actions of Robert Lewis Dear? Should all atheists apologize, and state the obvious, that they are against murder because of the actions of Craig Stephen Hicks?
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The issue here is that Christianity.nowhere contains the violent language of the Qur’an. There is a branch of Islam.That interprets the language of the Qur’an with a judeo Christian view that the circumstances and that wasn’t what it meant, but there is specific language in the Qur’an that speaks about war and imposing religion on others through force and that says that you have to kill. Nowhere Christianity teaches that you should.be killing and forcing religion through evil.means. So why Christians need to apologize for something that is not taught specifically? Our religion doesn’t teach that but there are nuts that do wrong things so we apologize for the nuts?

Qur’an does state those things which is why there are so many radicals. Then it is the job of those Muslims with interpret the Qur’an in a judeo Christian way to stop the radicals.

Having said that, I agree that we all need to speak against wrong actions committed in the name of religion, but there is a huge difference between Christianity and Islam.
 
Origen52 said:
There are a lot of domestic terrorists in the U.S. who are no Muslims. Should all Christians have to apologize for the actions of Robert Lewis Dear? Should all atheists apologize, and state the obvious, that they are against murder because of the actions of Craig Stephen Hicks?
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Hi O,
quickly .Big difference between a “Christian” doing evil or improper ‘warring’ and a Muslim. Scripture is clear on our proper role today and have Jesus as our example. Koran is clear that peace and jihadism are both appropriate and their founder gave both examples. Jihadists are good Muslims as are peaceful ones. See the problem, and how it differs from other “ways” ? But if you prefer, “let every man be a liar, only God is good”

Blessings
 
I totally disagree with this guy. It’s just not that hard to get yourself on the record, and quite useful. Here’s what I wrote after the Planned Parenthood killing in Colorado Springs:
I’m a white Christian right-wing gun-owning male. I oppose abortion in almost every case. I oppose PP (or any other entity that performs abortions) receiving government funds, of any kind, in any amount, whether or not those funds are directly used for abortion work or not.
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Here’s what I think about the recent PP killing:
  • It is a horrible thing. I utterly denounce the killing.
  • If I had been there and had the ability, I would have tried to stop the killer.
  • If I knew the guy and had seen red flags, I would have reported them, or otherwise tried to stop the killer.
  • No really, I utterly reject the killer’s use of deadly violence. He is not one of me. His actions are totally inappropriate. It’s the opposite of what Jesus wants from His disciples. I utterly reject, without condition, the use of violence or terrorism on law-abiding people, even if they are practicing what I believe to be legal killing of innocent children.
  • If you want to see the kind of Christian I support, think of Officer Swasey, one of the three victims that day. When not on the job as a cop, he was a co-pastor at his church, a homeschooling daddy, and pro-life. He didn’t seem to hesitate a single second to put himself in harms way to stop the killer in the Planned Parenthood building, and he paid for his attempts to save pro-abortion people with his life.
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I don’t thnk I want to get sucked into this thread, but let me say something that should be obvious: there’s bad rhetoric on both the left and the right. It’s possible to be completely sick of the Obama-Clinton “religion of peace” stuff and equally sick of the Donald’s, well whatever you want to call it.
 
Peter_J said:
I don’t thnk I want to get sucked into this thread, but let me say something that should be obvious: there’s bad rhetoric on both the left and the right. It’s possible to be completely sick of the Obama-Clinton “religion of peace” stuff and equally sick of the Donald’s, well whatever you want to call it.
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Hi Pete,
good to see you here. What helps me with the sickness (of seeing faults in left/right) is to see the reality that they ( eg.-Obama/Trump) is us, as in fairly representative of many of my neighbors, and co workers, and even fellow parishioners/congregants. However, I suppose it is by God’s grace that we sometimes get better leaders than what we deserve, or rise above what we are, or what we want (which, in my opinion, has not happened for awhile).

Blessings with a Happy New Year

PS-If you want to hurt me, even chastise me, vote_______, sorry, per house etiquette will not put down which party.
 
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