The Myth of Muslim Silence

And here’s an interesting episode involving the King Fahad Mosque, reported by the LA Weekly:

“Imam Shuaib delivers a sermon that is one part sorrow for the tragedies, one part comfort for Muslims who fear being marked for retaliation, one part lecture filled with hellfire and brimstone to make clear to any and all within earshot that the Koran condemns the events that took place on Sept. 11.” Near the sermon’s end, a man wearing traditional Muslim garb lurches to his feet and stalks toward Shuaib, roaring with fury. The Imam is perverting the meaning of Islam with his words, he yells. Jews, Christians and non-believers should not be in this mosque!

There is a near scuffle, as Usman Madha blocks the heckler’s advance . The man shakes him off with a violent motion. Eventually, the man is ushered out the front door without further incident. (http://www.laweekly.com/general/features/to-be-muslim-and-american-in-la/4515/)

Catch-22

Throughout my research, I came across several Muslim groups, like the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC) and many others who have, on their websites, statements condemning terrorism and asserting that terrorism is incompatible with Islam. Yet I also came across claims that some of these groups are secretly associated with terrorist groups. Off the bat, I have to wonder to what extent Muslims have to bend over backward to prove themselves. People want Muslims to denounce terrorism and violence, and they do — after which they’re accused of hypocrisy and terrorist ties. No wonder they feel persecuted.

Admittedly, in one particular case — CAIR — the suspicions seem to warrant scrutiny. But that isn’t the rule for the groups I’ve come across, like MPAC and The American Muslim (http://theamericanmuslim.org). So what’s going on? A clue comes from one of two signs I saw on the side of the UAC protesters:

“G-d gave Israel to the Jews, not to terrorist pigs. Islam is not a peaceful ‘religion.’ It is a cult of G-dless violence. Murder of 70,000 native African blacks in Darfur, Murder of 3,000 Americans in NY, Murder of 300 children in Chechnya, Murder of Train riders in Spain, Murder of theatregoers in Russia, etc. Islam = Violence.”

There you have it, the assumption behind the myth propagated by the UAC and its ilk: Islam is an inherently violent religious ideology. This leads to the bigger question in all of this is: why must Muslims — or anyone else, for that matter — continually denounce terrorism? Terrorism is morally wrong. Duh. The only reason to expect Muslims to endlessly restate this obvious ethic is that the UAC and like-minded folk assume all Muslims to be violent terrorist supporters unless they continually prove themselves innocent. But that kind of assumption — assuming guilt instead of presuming innocence — is no different than the racist stereotyping of blacks or Jews. It should be soundly condemned and discouraged.