One of the most frustrating things that many American Muslims hear is that there has never been a single condemnation of 9/11 from Muslims. This mantra has been repeated again and again by those who are trying to dehumanize Muslims.
However, the person in the article below gives a good reason why many of these condemnations have not resonated. Many - not all - of them had some ridiculous justification attached to it. “We condemn terrorism, BUT…”
I stated before that this was not acceptable for other groups and there is no way that Muslims can expect this to be acceptable in our case.
The people who murdered Emmett Till thought they were defending the honor of a white woman. The people who murdered Medger Evers thought they were defending their culture. Does anyone try to justify what they did except they are seen as on the fringe?
How would it have looked had white civil rights workers said “Yeah, that was bad, but you have to understand that whites feel that their culture is threatened and we need to work on that”
Does anyone try to justify the actions or try to explain why a skinhead does what he does? No, and likewise no one is interested in knowing why 19 lunatics would fly planes into buildings or any other act of terror.
Again, this is not to say that Muslims should constantly apologize for actions we had nothing to do with, but when asked - which is almost inevitable - the condemnations should be unequivocal and not have a veiled justification attached.
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[quote from article, etc.]
The point is clarified in the comments that Muslims who have nothing to do with terrorist attacks should not have to apologize for them, but that they still should unconditionally condemn terrorist acts done in the name of Islam.
I do take exception to one comment here: "This mantra has been repeated again and again by those who are trying to dehumanize Muslims." I'm sure there are those who try to dehumanize Muslims, and dehumanization of anyone is wrong. In fact, that is exactly what this blog tries to fight: the dehumanization of humanity by radicals who consider themselves to be the only true Muslims, and who consider everyone else to be "apes", "pigs" and "polytheists".
Consequently, to the extent that I have complained about not hearing condemnation from the Islamic World of terrorist acts committed in the name of Islam, it is not because I wish to dehumanize anyone, but rather it is because I haven't heard a great deal of condemnation.
If decent, peaceful, law-abiding people who are Muslims are not a silent majority in the Islamic World, I think they are at least a not-very-well-heard-but-very-significant minority.
It's not surprising they don't get the headlines the way the terrorists do. Decent Americans in uniform are building schools and other types of civil works projects in Iraq, and the news services only tell us about incidents of mistreatment of prisoners or criminals committing rape and murder. No wonder; even at home in America, decent Americans helping their community are not as newsworthy as criminals destroying it.
To you fellow infidels out there I would like to point out that the Khawarij terrorists we are battling consider people such as Tariq Nelson to be worse than us: according to modern Khawarij terrorists, we infidels might still come to Allah, but people like Nelson have come to Allah and left.
For that reason, although I am sure Tariq Nelson and his readers consider themselves Muslims and not apostates, I link to Nelson's blog under the heading Islam as Seen by Apostates and Infidels. My blog addresses violent Islamic conquest; in the eyes of the radicals bent on such conquest, "You're either with us or you're with the infidels", so I put Nelson & Co. with us infidels.
Mr. Nelson, no disrespect to you is intended. If you see this and would like me to move the link, I'll be very happy to consider your suggestions.
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