LiveWire

A post by Pat

I’ve had it with this attitude that is so typical within the Muslim community. There is a clear reluctance to speak out against fellow Muslims whenever an act of terrorist violence is committed. The Muslim community takes more effort to protect themselves from imaginary retaliation than it does to identify the fanatics amongst them and stop them. I would like to see a more strenuous effort to denounce violence in the name of their religion than a disclaimer on a website.

The evil of fanaticism is active within the Muslim community. It is necessary for members of that community to take meaningful actions to eliminate it. Denounce terrorism everyday, not just on the days we count more bodies. Institute action programs to eradicate the spread of fanaticism in the name of your religion. Stop claiming victimhood by casting non-Muslims as those who are collectively violence-prone.

Muslims feel need to respond

Muslim organizations around the country are making concerted efforts to distance themselves from violence that some associate with Islam following the Fort Hood shooting spree, allegedly by a major of Middle Eastern descent.

Shortly after the shooter, accused of killing 13 people, was identified as Nidal Malik Hasan, the Darul Islah mosque in Teaneck posted a message on its Web site condemning the massacre. …

“It’s a necessary evil,” said Salaheddin Mustafa, president of the Clifton-based American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee of New Jersey. “If you don’t respond — and explain that what this man did is contrary to how Muslims are raised and taught — you get criticized.” …

Many mosques have urged their congregants to be extra vigilant of their surroundings. Many, such as the Teaneck mosque, have asked their local police departments to step up their presence around their place of worship.

“Nothing has happened, there hasn’t been an incident,” said Waheed Khalid, the president of Darul Islah, “but we thought we should be cautious.“

You think, ‘Please God, don’t let it be a Muslim,’ ” said Ibrahim Hooper, communications director for the Council on American-Islamic Relations in Washington. “Whenever there’s a tragic incident like this, we seem to go through the same script by all parties — the ones who see Islam as a reason for it — and our condemnations. I wish we could break out of it somehow

But the condemnations hardly deter hate calls and e-mails, and the insistence by some that Islam somehow condones such violence. … “We’ve gotten hundreds of e-mails and some calls expressing hate, using vulgar language,” Hooper said. “In quieter times, you might not get any at all. But they spike after something happens.”

“”Some ask why we have to answer for the actions of someone we don’t even know and we had nothing to do with, like the Fort Hood shootings,” Mustafa said. Even if he said he did it because of Islam, I say so what — that may be what he said, but Islam is about peace. His actions were contrary to what Islam teaches.”

So what? Because it isn’t just a coincidence. There are too many advocates of hate and violence who claim to speak in the name of Islam. They are sending killers out of your community and destroying the lives of others. We expect more than a “so what” and a complaint that people are picking on you by stares and emails. I am not disrespecting Islam nor am I condemning all Muslims as incipient killers. Whatever superficial alienation exists between Muslims and non-Muslims to begin with, it is made far worse by acts of terror committed in your name followed by your refusal to accept any part of the blame. There is evil in your midst. It is necessry for you to weed it out.

We just learned the hard way that ignoring the obvious can get people killed.