Culture of Denial Fading?
Looks that way. Slowly, but surely. This is from Breitbart.com:
After the Sept. 11 suicide hijackings, distraught U.S. Muslim leaders feared the next casualty would be their religion. Islam teaches peace, they told anyone who would listen in news conferences, at interfaith services and, most famously, standing in a mosque with President Bush.
But five years later, the target audience for their pleas has shifted. Now the faith’s American leaders are starting to warn fellow Muslims about a threat from within.
The 2005 subway attacks in London that investigators say were committed by British-born and -raised Muslims, and the relentless Muslim-engineered sectarian assaults on Iraqi civilians, are among the events that have convinced some U.S. Muslims to change focus.
“This sentiment of denial, that sort of came as a fever to the Muslim community after 9-11, is fading away,” said Muqtedar Khan, a political scientist at the University of Delaware and author of “American Muslims.”
“They realize that there are Muslims who use terrorism, and the community is beginning to stand up to this.”
_A Canadian-born Muslim man worked with police for months investigating a group of Islamic men and youths accused in June of plotting terrorist attacks in Ontario. Mubin Shaikh said he feared any violence would ultimately hurt Islam and Canadian Muslims.
_In England, it’s been widely reported that a tip from a British Muslim helped lead investigators to uncover what they said was a plan by homegrown extremists to use liquid explosives to destroy U.S.-bound planes
[…]
Salam al-Marayati, executive director of Muslim Public Affairs Council, an advocacy group based in Los Angeles, says working closely with authorities underscores that Muslims are not outsiders to be feared.
It also gives Muslims a way to directly air their concerns about how they’re treated by the government. “We’re not on opposite teams,” al-Marayati said.
“We’re all trying to protect our country from another terrorist attack.” In 2004, his group started the “National Anti-Terrorism Campaign,” urging Muslims to monitor their own communities, speak out more boldly against violence and work with law enforcement. Hundreds of U.S. mosques have signed on, al-Marayati said
[…]
Imam Muhammad Musri, head of the Islamic Society of Central Florida, said he has tried to address this problem in the eight mosques he oversees in the Orlando area. He regularly invites law enforcement officials to speak with local Muslims and encourages mosque members to come to him with any suspicions, even if they overhear something said in jest.
Musri says he also speaks regularly with local FBI and police to establish a relationship in case a real threat emerges.
“Here in Central Florida, talking to most people, they are literally upset by the actions of Muslims _ or so-called Muslims _ overseas in Europe and the Middle East, because they say, `We wish they would come and see how we’re doing here,’” Musri said.
“We know who the real enemy is _ someone who might come from the outside and try to infiltrate us. Everybody is on the lookout.”
Link: U.S. Muslims warn of threat within - Breitbart.com
Link: U.S. Muslims warn of threat within - Washington Times
UPDATE: Omran Salman writes about this subject in this article in the Philadelphia Inquirer and M. Osman Siddque says that Muslims need to come forward in an Op/Ed in the Washington Times.
There are some Muslims that ARE helping, behind the scenes, to fight against the lunatic fringe. We just have to denounce them in more clear terms
Filed under: The Culture of Denial and Pretense
“Lunatic fringe” - lol
Review: Shoot the Messenger
Shoot the Messenger was on BBC2 last night; it featured David Oyewolo (from the drama Spooks, British slang for spies) as Joe, a young black teacher who entered the profession after attending a meeting to discuss the chronic underachievement of black b…
If someone came to with some sort of craziness, I would try to talk them out of it but if they persisted I would not have a problem turning them in but I would never want to spy on other Muslims and from what I understand it is haraam for a Muslim to spy on other Muslims.
Salaam ‘Alaikum
I think it goes beyond turning in people we hear saying bad things or being friendly with the Feds. We have to do for self (or selves). The state of diyn education needs to be taken seriously, or we are effectively welcoming the crazies with open arms and waving goodbye to our children and grandchildren. The way the diyn is being taught right now in schools or in masajid (esp to converts) is so namby-pamby, wishy-washy, superficial it’s a wonder people know anything sometimes. We need to stop viewing each other as too simpleminded to understand some of the basic concepts of fiqh. We need to view this as something valuable, and look for truly educated religious teachers, not gynecologists, dentists, and engineers who have a full volume set of Sahih al Bukhari on the shelf. When people begin to understand that, in reality, they can’t just open up the Qur’an or hadith and make up their own ruling making the haram halal (shaking hands w/ opposite gender or riba’ or whatever), then they will also understand that when those terrorist freaks start speechifying and seeming to justify what they’re doing, they are only selectively quoting and distorting in order to put a turban on their criminal activities.
As salaamu ‘alaykum,
The more common result of Muslims “helping” by “turning in” Muslims who seem to radical to them are things like the Virgina Paintball fiasco..which was also started by some great helpers among the Muslims who weren’t in “denial” about all the “dangerous radical lunatics” in their community.
I am not saying that one should allow any harm to come to civilians in this country or anywhere else and if one should know of any munkar, one should seek to prevent it…but to think that the primary interest of government agencies is safety of citizens is naive and counter to experience and history.
Allaah knows best
The Muslim is a brother to the Muslim. He does not do wrong to him, does not forsake him, and does not betray him. (Muslim)
I attended the Paintball trials and the brothers who turned against the other ones did so to get lighter sentences. They did not go to the government first.