Apologize? No … Explain? Yes
Umar and Izzy Mo both had pieces on why the Muslims and Muslim organizations should not condemn attacks by extremist and/or lunatic Muslims.
Personally, I’ve always had such a relationship with non-Muslims, that I have never been associated with such foolishness. Even after 9/11. The most I would be asked was “Man, what is wrong with those people?”. I received several phone calls after 9/11 from non-Muslims to make sure that I was not being harassed. (While many were, by the grace of God, I was not)
But I was asked that question (”what’s wrong with those people?”) because it was assumed that I may have some insight on those people that they, as non-Muslims, would not have. (”Man, I don’t know what’s wrong with those lunatics!”)
That said, I do understand the frustrations that many Muslims may feel if they are constantly asked about things they, personally, had nothing to do with, however, it does not help to be silent.
If we are asked a question about the lunatic fringe, I still don’t feel that we should jump all over their backs. Here are a few things to keep in mind:
#1: Many people still, even today, know little to nothing about Islam. Imagine being a non-Muslim watching the news, viewing the internet and/or listening to talk radio and of Muslims rioting, burning effigies, and blowing up buses and buildings and you meet a Muslim one day. He (or she) seems friendly so you want to make some sense of all the madness. What better source than a Muslim him/herself who can explain what Islam really is?
Yes, sometimes you will get what seems to be a pretty silly question, but, I say we should be tolerant, friendly and neighborly even in those cases. People are curious and want to ask questions. If we are standoff-ish, then they will, once again, be left to form their own misconceptions.
#2: If the Muslims are silent on the issue, then others will speak for them. Ann Coulter would be glad to do so. And think about it, would there not be outrage in the Muslim community if the media suddenly decided not to ask the Muslim organizations anything anymore and instead brought on other “experts” instead to speak on these issues?
On a personal level, keep in mind that sometimes the nutty brother up the street is very glad to explain how these acts are perfectly in accord with Islam. So every opportunity should be taken to show the real side of Islam from an intelligent and rational Muslim. You could even tell them that you don’t like having to “apologize” for someone else’s actions.
You could also point out to them that, while the bomb plotters (from last week) were Muslim, it was also a Muslim, from the peaceful majority, that rightly tipped off the authorities to the plot.
#3: The extremist/lunatic fringe exists! And it claims to speak for all Muslims and they are very loud (particularly in the UK as far as the West is concerned). If we do not disavow someone who claims to speak for all of us, then in my mind, our collective silence will be seen as approval. And will lead to more denial of our internal problems (What fringe element?!) So, we need to stop burying our heads in the sand on this one.
#4: The constant barrage of news of terrorism, riots in Europe, and other acts commited by Muslims that make the extemist/lunatic fringe seem to be a pretty significant minority. Yes, there are many, many more acts here in the US commited by Christians, but the thug that robbed the liquor store the other night did not do it in the name of all Christians. I’ll also point out that I’ve known of Muslims to be arrested for individual crimes and the news reports would not mention their religion because there was no connection at all. Even when they had Muslim names.
These political realities, even though we may not like it, make it necessary for the Muslim organizations to distance Islam from it in a clear and unambiguous manner. Given the constant barrage of negative images of Muslims the common person sees on a daily basis, and our relative isolation from society, I don’t think it is reasonable to expect a person not to ask a few questions about this or expect to see some type of condemnation of things done in the name of Islam.
“Apologize”? … No
Explain? … Yes
I think that a few more announcements of the tip offs by Muslims to planned terror attacks by other Muslims will stop some of the questioning as well.
Link: Muslim’s Tip led to unraveling of terror plot
Link: Tip from Muslim led to Global Investigation
Filed under: Sloganism over Reality
I’ve provided a link to this on my blog with my commentary
As-Salaamu ‘alaikum,
The fact is that however loud we “condemn terror”, the bigots will still claim that our silence is deafening because they are listening to others’ noise. Dennis Prager tried this in the LA Times and it was torn apart by a lot of people. Some will also claim that our scriptures permit us to do this or that and that we don’t disavow things the Ottoman Empire or Abbasids did that they don’t like. On top of this is the fact that we are not personally responsible for things others do without consulting us any more than the English are responsible for football hooligans or drunken stag-nighters who cause trouble in Prague, Berlin or wherever. That’s why I decided never to display one of those “British/American Muslims Against Terrorism” badges on my blog even when others did.
Yusuf:
wa alaykum as-salaam
I’m not speaking of the bigots (see Ann Coulter video above). They think that the Muslims should be wiped out en mass and anything short of that is unsatisfactory to them. I don’t think the average person thinks that way
As salaamu ‘alaykum Tariq,
Your first point is important. Almost all of us live and work constantly around non-Muslims. They are our families, neighbors, teachers, students, clients, bosses, friends, etc. etc. For those people that know us as individuals they may look to us to help shed light on issues that involve Muslims if we are known to be Muslim by those around us.
The other points while I don’t necessarily disagree with, are missing a big part of the picture.
If you think that most of the problems in the world, or most of the violence is caused by Muslim extremists, then you’ve bought into the media picture and this is what we must resist.
Do we expect our non-Muslims friends and families to explain to us why the Christians invade our countries, kill our children, destroy our houses, steal our land, rape our sisters, etc. etc. If you don’t think they do it in the name of Christianity or Democracy or western civilization or claim to be representing all of the ‘good’ people in the west or the “true Americans” or “true British” than you are not listening to what they say or reading what they write. If you think what most of these people oppose is just extremism and not the deen of Islaam than again, you are not listening to what they say or reading what they write. Can they explain to us why they kidnapped our brothers and held them in cages like animals in Guantanamo? Can they explain to us why they support with money and weapons the Israeli terrorist operations in Lebanon. Why they forcibly take money from us to pay for this terrorism while at the same time stealing the zakat we give to Muslim orphans because they, without trial or even evidence, say that it goes to ‘terrorists.’
We as Muslims should try to correct whatever shortcomings we have in our communities because we love our brothers and sisters and we wish to gain the pleasure and assistance of God.
We have nothing to answer for to the people who have the power in this world, the people who are the real oppressors, the real killers, the ones who create the extremists with their extremism and with the silence and impotence and apathy of the so-called good Muslims who are willing to sit back and watch the oppression and do Nothing but continue to make themselves more comfortable.
Bani Israel had a lot of problems at the time of Musa (as). No doubt Musa (as) attempted to correct them. We know about this from the Qur’aan. But no doubt Allaah knew and Musa knew who Firawn was and that Musa while Musa would surely make the message clear to Fir’awn in no way was he there to apologize for the mistakes of Bani Israel to Fir’awn for in reality while it would be up to Bani Israel to correct their mistakes it was largely Fir’awn who had made them what they were.
“Wa tilka ni’matun tamunnuhaa ‘alayya an ‘abbadta banee israeela”
And this is the past favor with which you reproach me: that you have enslaved the Children of Israel….Soorah Ash-Shu’araa Ayah 22
Tariq, focus on our shortcomings yes, we may opress ourselves greatly but don’t think that there are not others who oppress and who are often greater oppressors in terms of harm in this world.
Allaah knows best.
Salaam alaikum,
That David Letterman video was something! Alhamdulillah, most people have been kind to me and part of me feels like people are tired of being scared and that they want answers. But hopefully, I can overcome my public shyness (too bad not as bold as I am on my blog! :-)) and do more dawah. Until then, I’ll let my professionalism on the job speak for itself.
I am pretty much with Abu Noor on this one. I dont mind explaining to the non bigots. I think the bigger picture needs to be what are we, as Muslims, are going to do to change our own situation?
Our religion teaches us that things will never go right until our own back yard is in shape. That is key here. Lets stop worrying about others, lets work on our own issues.
Once we straighten out our own world everything will fall into place, if not, we have the unity and the strength to meet any challenge head on and defeat it.
Abu Noor:
As an individual, I’m not saying that we should walk around offering an explanation. If we are asked about it, then we should explain to them.
Yes, there are many bigots that support the things you mentioned and even think that it is not going far enough. There are also those that think that it is foolishness and bad for this country. I think that the majority of common people just want to live in peace and you can talk to them.
People see it as a form of justifying extremism when we say “THEY create our extremism”. We have to live up to our standards..not any one else’s.
That is why after 9/11 most people did not buy the “yeah we condemn it BUT…” condemnations that were issued by some. We have to say that there is no room in Islam for that type of non-sense. PERIOD
And unfortunately most of the fitnah of our times has come from the 9/11 attacks that were carried out by those deranged lunatics. Now we are paying the price for it.
Abu Sinan:
You are actually saying what I am saying. Except I’ll add that we need to stop making excuses for the extremists.
As salaamu ‘alaykum Tariq,
You start off by saying we should explain not apologize then you say that we cannot really explain we have to just condemn things without trying to understand why they occur. Anybody who is unhappy with explanations and wants nothing but condemnations are the type of people who are opposed to Islaam or are entirely ignorant of the world around them.. we should not feed into either of those situations.
I think you are truly and profoundly wrong to think that most of the fitna of our times comes from the 9/11 attacks. Most of the extremism in the Muslim ummah is secular extremism..There are many problems in our ummah and almost all of them result from the opposite end of the spectrum, that is from people obsessed with dunya and completely neglectful of our deen.
It is exactly because I do not want to promote this mistaken view that the Muslims’ problems results from 9/11 that I will not buy into this futile idea of apology and condemnations. The people who are demanding them will NEVER be satisfied with you because what they are asking is that you reassure them that their beliefs and way of life is correct and your are wrong and that you will not challenge them no matter what they do. They want Muslims in the west to accept that they will abandon the rest of the ummah in return for the material and other benefits of living in the west — this is why I quoted the ayah regarding Musa (as).
As we’ve all pointed out, the Muslims have to correct themselves to win the pleasure of Allaah and to be successful. The oppressors are tools Allaah (swt) may use to guide us, punish us, or wake us up…Of course they are responsible for their own evil, we do not need to cater to them, as Allaah (swt) will give them their due and their power over us will be removed if we simply practice our deen and call others to it as we are commanded to by our Creator.
Abu Noor:
I just don’t think many reasonable people are interested in ‘why’ people would fly planes into a building full of people who were simply going to work and/or going about their lives.
I’m not saying that ALL the problems in the ummah result from 9/11, but do you doubt that the deportations, imprisonments, frozen charity money, and the general hostile atmosphere are the direct result of the 9/11 attacks? Would there even be the popular websites like LGF that bash Muslims? Most Americans knew little to nothing about Islam or Muslims until they saw those planes fly into the buildings.
As for the “reasons” for extremism, I look at it this way:
Let’s say a white person gets robbed by a black man, then that white man goes and randomly chooses a black person, who had nothing to do with the robbery, and kills him in a fit of rage. Would anyone be interested in ‘why’ this crime happened or would they want to try him and put him in jail?
the positive outcomes of explaining or apologizing will never be to the extent that we may wish for. therefore either explaining or apologizing wont do enough as its not enough.
what is required is us, the ummah, coming out of our self-imposed exile and isolation within society to engage people in real space and real time to the extent where The Muslim is not something they mistrust, fear or hate.
it is just like a drink on a shelf that you heard about to be very bitter. each time you walk past it in the store, you will never touch it or go near it. however when one day, if somehow you happen to taste it and if that drink tastes sweet to you, you will forget all the bitterness that you thought it will be. no salesman, how impressive and competent he is, will be able to persuade you, if you had not tasted its sweetness, to even believe it is sweet in taste, let alone taste or buy it.
we are the drink and we have to get the customers to taste the sweetness of this ummah. this can only be done through daily normal good deeds not through campaigns. however normal good deeds done on daily basis can only involve a good majority of society if we step outside into the hearts and central spaces of society. which means, we need to build our mosques in city centres not outskirts, we need to train our youth in all areas not just natural sciences so they eventually get employed in all areas hereby having our representation not restricted to certain industries of the economy, we need to get more aggressive in charity work and social work and pretty much everything else that is halal which we stay away from now by isolating ourselves in our safe comfort enclaves within society.
I couldn’t agree more
An excellent post and very good comments also
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