Posted by
David Van Edema on Monday, December 01, 2008 8:44:20 PM
We all know about the recent shooting rampage by an Islamic terrorist group which took place in Mumbai (formally Bombay), India a couple of days ago. As of this writing, nine of the terrorists are dead, and one has been captured by the Indian commandos that liberated the hotels and Jewish synagogue. The rest of the terrorists have so far been unaccounted for. Hopefully they'll be caught, or preferably, killed, soon.
Now, I bet many of you are thinking right now that this is going to be yet another rant of the "evils of Islam". Instead, I'm going to surprise you with something that I found remarkable about the comments made by some Muslims after the attack. I'm going to share a few quotes, which I've borrowed from an AP report written by Karin Laub on November 30 (Muslims condemn Mubai attacks, worry about image)...
"The occupation of the (Jewish) synagogue and killing people in hotels tarnishes the Muslim faith. Anyone who slaughters people and screams 'Allahu Akbar' (God is Great) is sick and ignorant." ... Kazim al-Mugdadi, political science lecturer at Baghdad University.
"A handful of terrorists like this bring the entire faith into disrepute." ... Inayat Bunglawala, a spoksman for the Muslim Council of Britian.
"I think that Muslims should raise their voice against such actions. They should forge a coalition to fight such Phenomena, because it harms them and damages their image." ... Ali Abdeel Muhsen, Muslim engineering student, age 22.
Muslim and Arabgs must confront the violence "that is taking place in our name and in the name of our (Islamic) tenents. Unfortunately, we have yet to see a distinguished popular condemnation in the traditional Arab or Muslim communities that strongly rejects what is happening in the name of Islam or Arab nationalism." ... Khaled al-Jenfawi, columnist for Kuwait's "Al-Seyassah Daily".
I want you to take a good look at the above quotes, and see if you can guess whats different about them from the usual moderate Muslim commendations concerning acts of terrorism. I'll give you a hint... its whats NOT in them. Go ahead, look 'em over, I'll wait....
Give up, or did you figure it out? Here's the answer; there's not a single "but" or "however" found at the end of the quotes. You've seen them before. How many times have you heard a moderate Muslim condemn a terrorist attack, but quickly followed it by a "but" or "however" at the end?
Examples: "It is wrong for the terrorists to kill innoccent people, BUT I understand why they do it, because of George Bush's pro-Israel policies angering Arabs." Or how about, "Not all Muslims are like the terrorists. We should never resort to violence, HOWEVER, because of America's unjust and imperialist actions in the Middle East, it is only natural for Muslims to feel the need to fight back." Sound familiar now?
The AP report also contains the usual drivel from Islamic extremist web forums, as well as Iran's Ahmadinejad, but that's to be expected. no surprises there. These are the type of quotes that I've wanted to hear from the moderates for a long time, but never expected to actually read them. Could this be the beginning of a new trend? Could the silent majority of Islamists finally be making themselves heard? Let's hope so. I think this AP article is definately worth the extra attention from the general public. It may be a small start, even a late start, but its a great start. I've always felt that the best way to stop terrorism by Islamic extremists, was with the aid of the moderate Muslims. If this keeps up, maybe we can actually get some real progress done.