Comments on: Do Muslims Speak Out?

By: Leslie

Leslie — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 04:36:52 +0000

A Canadian Muslim woman named Sheema Khan has collected her essays (which started as newspaper columns) in a book called “Of Hockey and Hijab:Reflections of a Canadian Muslim Woman”. In an interview for the “Ottawa Citizen” she was asked the question, “How do you think Canadian Muslims view the threat of terrorism?” She answered, “The community is in denial – we have to recognize that. I was reading court documents. People have lied through their teeth. It’s not always ‘poor innocent, truthful Muslim’ against ‘big bad state’…. But we are projecting an image we are too concerned about the rights of Muslims, and it seems that we don’t care enough about the safety of the wider society. It’s not a balanced approach.” She says that in order to change things, “we [Muslims] in Canada must be more forceful with the message that terrorism is wrong.”
About two dozen Muslim clerics, mostly Canadian, have just issued a fatwa against terrorism directed against Canada and the US. This fatwa both condemns terrorism and acknowledges the benefits of religious freedom Muslims have in Canada and the US. While some have discounted the sincerity of at least one of the leaders, Syed Soharwardy, nevertheless it seems like just the kind of response Dr. Khan is calling for.
I, for one, appreciate their honesty. I also respect their courage to declare to their community that religious freedom is desirable and available here, and needs their vigilance in protecting.

By: Yosef

Yosef — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 20:28:33 +0000

But as Haroon, knows, according to Islam the umma is by definition and nature a collective. The tawhid or oneness of Allah is expressed in his Law and the community of believers, and the individual is subordinate to the demands and status of the whole. The entirely normative status of the apostasy law in Islam confirms this. Muslim orgs advocate as one body (OIC, Al-Bayt Institute, ISNA, CAIR). One cannot have it both ways, its either collective or not.

By: al ballard

al ballard — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 15:38:06 +0000

As a follower of Jesus (thank you Carl, for defining where we should be,) there are times within my community of believers that I wished they did not speak out as their words and actions are an embarrasment.
Also in the community of conservative christianity there has been developed an attitude of speaking out to be right and claim others to be wrong.
All of us have the challenge to seek wisdom in the words of our faith and to desire communications which are spirit led. Which in a number of cases requires us to be an example through our actions in loving others, being different than the world.
Being an activist may appear to clear debate as to what others think, however, in most cases it just leads us to defend vs be Jesus followers.
A major key is to turn off all media, spend more time in getting to know your savior as a personal friend, he/his spirit will provide right answers and I believe you will be surprised that in most case they are words of compassion, empathy, unity, truth in love.

By: Haroon Moghul

Haroon Moghul — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 14:01:57 +0000

Thanks for posting this.

Certainly, many Muslims do speak out against terrorism — the media rarely focuses on it, and so, year after year, despite every major Muslim organization issuing condemnations, I keep getting the same question: Why don’t Muslims speak out?

More problematically, why should Muslims be held to a standard that other minority (and majority) groups are not held to? Thomas Friedman pens ridiculous essays calling for Muslims to “prove” their opposition to terrorism by flooding the streets in protest against al-Qaeda, but we would rightly be aghast if we asked Christians to flood the streets against, say, the plastering of Bible verses on gun scopes.

Because, ultimately, terrorism, like racisms, is rooted in the belief that individuals can be blamed collectively, that guilt, inferiority and character traits are shared by groups, and as such the group can be indiscriminately targeted, through words or weapons. Individuals have moral choices; groups are made of individuals, but when we ask a group to answer for individual actions, do we not thereby lend legitimacy to the same kind of rhetoric? Each person is responsible for himself or herself – that is the foundation of democracy, and of a proper morality.

Most Muslims do indeed condemn terrorism, and practice an Islam that fights radicalism (and work hard to undermine radicalism). It certainly does not help when it is assumed — and I’m not saying you’re doing this here, but rather that I’ve experienced it too often — when I, a New Yorker born and raised in New England, am expected to answer for actions of people in countries I have never been to.