An apology to Muslims everywhere?
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America has learned better than to make sweeping statements about Jewish people, Japanese Americans, and African Americans, so why, asks Nicholas Kristof in the New York Times, in the 21ist century is it OK to equate Muslims with terrorism? It’s not, he says. Those who follow Islam are not a violent “undifferentiated mass,” and he is “sickened” to hear “gentle souls lumped in with Qaeda terrorists.”
To those smeared by anti-Muslim extremism, “I hereby apologize to Muslims for the wave of bigotry and simple nuttiness that has lately been directed at you,” says Kristof. “I want to defend Muslims from intolerance” he says, but also defend America from extremism within. “This isn’t about them, but about us,” and it’s frankly us who should be more embarrassed. For more on Islamophobia in America, click here. For more from the Kristof archive, click here.
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Highbad is right of course….we’ve got The IRA etc this side of the pond who are clearly not muslim.
However. ‘Muslim’ terrorists are the predominant terrorists over the last decade.
Muslims must condemn them loudly or they are to blame for the intolerance of Islam.
Condemn loudly and begin to be accepted. Fail to condemn and the result is all you deserve.
To hold all Muslims responsible for reigning in the most extreme among their ranks would seem similar to holding all Christians accountable for the same, or all blacks, or all whites.
Extremists take all forms, and as a society we’re better off if we spend out time responding to those individuals accordingly, rather than finger-pointing at others for not doing enough to stop them.
Ordinary Muslims to not speak out against the criminals in their ranks in enough numbers to deter their ambitions. They know who the Jihadists are, they could stop it or at least minimize it. It could be a fear thing or benign neglect.
Fear or benign neglect? I think a combination perhaps?
Why “is it OK to equate Muslims with terrorism?”
Maybe because while not all Muslims are terrorists, all terrorists have been Muslim? At least on our shores. It is a method that works for them, and it is encouraged by their religion, and practiced by extremists of that religion.
Proof that this is the case can be found by looking to the moderate “everyday” Muslims, who don’t speak out against the extreme factions. Not because they believe the jihadists are correct, but because they fear reprisal. They are terrorized by their own.
Our own media is a great example of the screeching of extremists (teabaggers for example) drowning out the voice of the moderates. But if those moderates quit speaking at all because of fear, we’ll end up just like them.
MH:
“…not all Muslims are terrorists, all terrorists have been Muslim…”
..and to me that speaks volumes!!!
“Maybe because while not all Muslims are terrorists, all terrorists have been Muslim?”
False!
Timothy McVeigh
James Von Brunn
The Unabomber
KKK
Abortion clinic shooters
The list goes on and on…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terrorism_in_the_United_States
If you define terrorism so broadly as to include any act designed to inspire terror, then almost any criminal who killed people would count. Ideological motivation (poltical, religious) and indiscriminate targeting of civilians are usually added to define terrorism. Another is asymmetrical warfare.
Those people you listed could definitely be considered doing terrorist acts. I would argue that allowing the militia type training camps and extreme religious nuttery that foster it is a bad idea, and in my circles at least there is no tolerance for it.
Thanks for beating me to this point, Highbad. Indeed:
1) Not all terrorists on our shores have been Muslim; and
2) Furthermore, the more we start treating all Muslims as terrorists, the more we are likely to alienate Muslims, rendering some more vulnerable to recruitment to terrorist groups.
This has been demonstrated in gang formation–when blacks were bussed to predominantly white schools, being picked on by the predominantly white student body and being harassed by the police rendered them more likely to band together for protection, and to start forming a group identity in opposition to the majority.
Any one of us who has been incorrectly judged by others and who have responded with a knee-jerk “f*ck them” should understand this aspect of human nature–we don’t like being unfairly judged, and passing unfair judgment can only serve to escalate inter-group tensions.
True. We sometimes forget that domestic terrorism also presents a clear and present danger to our nation.