In the name of Almighty God, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. Last year it was a Muslim soldier who shoots and kills other fellow soldiers. Then it was a Nigerian Muslim college student who tries to detonate a bomb in his underwear last Christmas day. Now, here's a Pakistani Muslim man who is accused (innocent until proven guilty), of trying to detonate a car bomb in Times Square during it's most busy time of the week. As I watched the news just last night and they revealed that they had arrested this Pakistani man, I felt an overwhelming sense of disappointment and anger. I have no doubt that Muslim organizations such as CAIR (Council on American Islamic Relations) and ISNA (Islamic Society of North America) will release statements condemning the actions of this deranged radical and implore non-Muslim Americans to realize that the vast majority of Muslims do not support such actions. This has been the little dance that we do every time something like this happens. Does it help anything? No.
Is it true that the vast majority of Muslims do not support these actions? Yes, most definitely. However, I have experienced first hand that if you go into an average mosque either here in America or in Europe or in Muslim countries, and ask a handful of the average attendees about this phenomenon of indiscriminate violence committed by Muslims, you will hear a few common answers. One of them, is that "I don't really believe it's Muslims doing it". These folks are the conspiracy theorists who think that the Israelis or the American government are actually behind these actions in order to justify waging war on Islam. Another common thing you'll hear is "Yes it's wrong what they did, BUT you have to understand the oppression and despair of the Muslims of the world", "blah blah blah....Palestine", "blah blah blah Americans bomb houses in Iraq", "blah blah blah blah". Basically it's always, "yes it's wrong, BUT...." and fill in the blank. When are we as Muslims going to wake up and REALLY take this issue seriously?
The prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) said, "support your brother whether he do wrong or whether he do right". After saying this, one of his followers asked, "oh prophet, we understand supporting our brother when he is right, but how are we supposed to support him when he is doing wrong?" Then the prophet said, "by preventing him from doing wrong". The prophet didn't say to make excuses or try to rationalize our brothers and sisters doing wrong just because they say they're doing it in the cause of Allah.
I know a lot of Muslims might cringe at this, but George W. Bush said it best when he said, "Those who kill innocents in the name of Allah, blaspheme the name of Allah". That is absolutely right.
The Muslim community has somehow developed this false sense of superiority over the past century or so. We have a victim mentality where we always try to find someone to blame for our problems, instead of looking at ourselves. We threaten to kill and mame anyone who dares insult the religion of Islam or our beloved prophet (peace be upon him). Now I know it's not the majority of Muslims who are actually committing these acts, but why aren't the majority of us doing more about it???? These stupid little 'statements' that Muslim organizations release don't do anything really. Why is it that the American military is having to deal with Al Qaeda and the Taliban when these deviant groups should have been dealt with but us, the Muslim Ummah, a long time ago. Why was the Taliban allowed to rule Afghanistan according to a such perverted "brand" of Islam? During their reign Muslims around the world knew how they were. Why don't we do anything? What are we doing today for Somalia? Why are the rich and powerful Muslim countries silent when Muslims are killing each other there? Is it just because its Muslims who are doing the killing? Because it seems they don't have any problem saying and sometimes doing something when its the non-Muslim American government or the Jews of Israel.
We, the Muslims people today, are kidding ourselves by not dealing with this blatant dhalaalah (deviant way) being practiced by some of our brothers and sisters. For those of us in America and the west in general, we REALLY need to recognize that there ARE Muslims among us who are capable and maybe even planning to do these terrible things. We need to make it very clear in our khutbahs, in our publications, in our halaqas, and in our day to day conversations in the mosques, halal spots, and work places that we as Muslims will NOT tolerate such deviance in our midst. It's one thing to be deviant in faith and tawheed (monotheism), and we need to deal with that too appropriately, but when it involves the lives of innocents (whether they be Muslims or non-Muslims) we need to have a zero-tolerance policy. We need to be willing to report people to the authorities who might be dangerous. We need to start putting threats into their proper perspectives. Yes of course I realize that there are some bad apples in the FBI and the government has not always done right by Muslims, but generally they are trying to protect innocent lives, even if they sometimes are stupid in how they try to do it. They're not going to get any smarter by us refusing to work with them or telling them to stay out of our mosques. Ultimately people like the Taliban and Al Qaeda have killed many more innocent Muslims then the American government ever has. We need to put pressure on our brothers and sisters 'back home' in Muslim countries to do the same there. We Muslims in the west, who are blessed with constitutional rights to free speech, should speak publicly against deviant policies of so-called Muslim governments in places like Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and others. Why hasn't CAIR or ISNA scolded those governments for not doing more to crack down on violent extremists? We need to wake up and face the reality that this IS a real problem in our communities. Stop worrying about trying to convince non-Muslims that we are not violent. If we spent half the effort trying to stop these extremists as we do trying to convince non-Muslims that we aren't extremists we probably wouldn't be having these issues in the first place. Sorry for the rant but I am just disgusted and sick of seeing these Muslims doing or trying to do terrible things, and the rest of us just sitting there picking our nose saying "well but this, and but that".
...And Allah Knows Best...
Is it true that the vast majority of Muslims do not support these actions? Yes, most definitely. However, I have experienced first hand that if you go into an average mosque either here in America or in Europe or in Muslim countries, and ask a handful of the average attendees about this phenomenon of indiscriminate violence committed by Muslims, you will hear a few common answers. One of them, is that "I don't really believe it's Muslims doing it". These folks are the conspiracy theorists who think that the Israelis or the American government are actually behind these actions in order to justify waging war on Islam. Another common thing you'll hear is "Yes it's wrong what they did, BUT you have to understand the oppression and despair of the Muslims of the world", "blah blah blah....Palestine", "blah blah blah Americans bomb houses in Iraq", "blah blah blah blah". Basically it's always, "yes it's wrong, BUT...." and fill in the blank. When are we as Muslims going to wake up and REALLY take this issue seriously?
The prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) said, "support your brother whether he do wrong or whether he do right". After saying this, one of his followers asked, "oh prophet, we understand supporting our brother when he is right, but how are we supposed to support him when he is doing wrong?" Then the prophet said, "by preventing him from doing wrong". The prophet didn't say to make excuses or try to rationalize our brothers and sisters doing wrong just because they say they're doing it in the cause of Allah.
I know a lot of Muslims might cringe at this, but George W. Bush said it best when he said, "Those who kill innocents in the name of Allah, blaspheme the name of Allah". That is absolutely right.
The Muslim community has somehow developed this false sense of superiority over the past century or so. We have a victim mentality where we always try to find someone to blame for our problems, instead of looking at ourselves. We threaten to kill and mame anyone who dares insult the religion of Islam or our beloved prophet (peace be upon him). Now I know it's not the majority of Muslims who are actually committing these acts, but why aren't the majority of us doing more about it???? These stupid little 'statements' that Muslim organizations release don't do anything really. Why is it that the American military is having to deal with Al Qaeda and the Taliban when these deviant groups should have been dealt with but us, the Muslim Ummah, a long time ago. Why was the Taliban allowed to rule Afghanistan according to a such perverted "brand" of Islam? During their reign Muslims around the world knew how they were. Why don't we do anything? What are we doing today for Somalia? Why are the rich and powerful Muslim countries silent when Muslims are killing each other there? Is it just because its Muslims who are doing the killing? Because it seems they don't have any problem saying and sometimes doing something when its the non-Muslim American government or the Jews of Israel.
We, the Muslims people today, are kidding ourselves by not dealing with this blatant dhalaalah (deviant way) being practiced by some of our brothers and sisters. For those of us in America and the west in general, we REALLY need to recognize that there ARE Muslims among us who are capable and maybe even planning to do these terrible things. We need to make it very clear in our khutbahs, in our publications, in our halaqas, and in our day to day conversations in the mosques, halal spots, and work places that we as Muslims will NOT tolerate such deviance in our midst. It's one thing to be deviant in faith and tawheed (monotheism), and we need to deal with that too appropriately, but when it involves the lives of innocents (whether they be Muslims or non-Muslims) we need to have a zero-tolerance policy. We need to be willing to report people to the authorities who might be dangerous. We need to start putting threats into their proper perspectives. Yes of course I realize that there are some bad apples in the FBI and the government has not always done right by Muslims, but generally they are trying to protect innocent lives, even if they sometimes are stupid in how they try to do it. They're not going to get any smarter by us refusing to work with them or telling them to stay out of our mosques. Ultimately people like the Taliban and Al Qaeda have killed many more innocent Muslims then the American government ever has. We need to put pressure on our brothers and sisters 'back home' in Muslim countries to do the same there. We Muslims in the west, who are blessed with constitutional rights to free speech, should speak publicly against deviant policies of so-called Muslim governments in places like Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and others. Why hasn't CAIR or ISNA scolded those governments for not doing more to crack down on violent extremists? We need to wake up and face the reality that this IS a real problem in our communities. Stop worrying about trying to convince non-Muslims that we are not violent. If we spent half the effort trying to stop these extremists as we do trying to convince non-Muslims that we aren't extremists we probably wouldn't be having these issues in the first place. Sorry for the rant but I am just disgusted and sick of seeing these Muslims doing or trying to do terrible things, and the rest of us just sitting there picking our nose saying "well but this, and but that".
...And Allah Knows Best...
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