Others and myself often wonder “where are the moderate Muslims?” in the wake of terrorist attacks. We know they’re out there. But, they seem to be outnumbered by those who celebrate attacks and/or those who say “this has nothing to do with Islam”. But, so few seem to denounce the actions of hardcore Islam. Here’s a group which isn’t hiding
(Fox News) In the days following the Dec. 2 attack in San Bernardino, Council for American-Islamic Relations representatives partially blamed U.S. policy for terrorist attacks, accused gunman Syed Rizwan Farook’s co-workers of making fun of his beard and sought to downplay comments by Farook’s father linking him to ISIS. Like Muslims throughout the U.S., CAIR officials condemned the attack, but too often with what sounded to critics like subtle caveats.
“CAIR is a primary obstacle in the effort of many honest American Muslims who recognize our need to own up and lead long-overdue reforms against the root causes of radicalization: Islamism and its separatism,†said Dr. Zuhdi Jasser, an ex-U.S. Navy officer who founded and heads the American Islamic Forum for Democracy.
Let’s not forget that CAIR is an un-indicted co-conspirator in providing material support to Hamas, a status that has been confirmed by the DOJ, which cut ties to CAIR, and federal courts.
For would-be reformers like Jasser, reclaiming the faith begins with taking back control of Islam’s image. He and other increasingly outspoken Muslim-Americans say true moderates must be honest and unequivocal in condemning acts of violence carried out in the name of Islam. Most of all, they are tired of the Washington-based nonprofit claiming to speak for them.
At it’s very roots, Islam is a violent political religion, based on the actions and words of Mohammad. The Quran itself promotes violence. But, that doesn’t mean that Muslims cannot, and have not, moved beyond the dictates of the Prophet Mohammad and his writings. Christianity had its own violent past, and, of course, there will always be nutjobs within any organization, some violent. Can Islam reduced the number of violent jihadis well below the 1% mark? More importantly, can they move beyond the calls for Sharia law, a caliphate, and its treatment of women and gays, among others? These hardcore attitudes seem to lead many Muslims down the path towards violence.
“CAIR’s information is marketed and packaged so it seems that they speak for all of us, but they don’t speak for me and my group,†said Raheel Raza, president of the Council for Muslims Facing Tomorrow. “CAIR does not and has never represented the majority Muslim voices which are as diverse as Muslims in America.â€
How would a group that is based on Muslim Brotherhood principles and supports terrorist groups be able to speak for all American Muslims?
Muslims Facing Tomorrow is one of more than a dozen moderate Islamic groups from the U.S., Canada and European countries that have joined the Muslim Reform Movement, an alliance put together by Jasser.
The Muslim Reform Movement rebukes violent jihad, advocates for a separation of “mosque and state,” and celebrates individual freedom, human rights and gender equality, and secular democracy, according to its founders, who also reject the idea of an Islamic State and its Sharia Law.
Sadly, this kind of information on these new groups hasn’t hit most mainstream media outlets yet. In fact, there are virtually no articles featuring any of these groups, other than Fox and a few conservative leaning news outlets. These are the types of groups that should be promoted, showing that there is more to Islam, giving Muslims an outlet other than turning radical. The group released a statement saying “We are in a battle for the soul of Islam, and an Islamic renewal must defeat the ideology of Islamism.” Good for them. I hope they succeed.
Crossed at Right Wing News.
There, fixed it for ya’.
We understand that the hardwiring of the conservative “brain” tolerates/encourages contradictory thoughts side by side. You claim that you and your ilk are not at war with Islam, and next you say “Islam is a violent political religion”.
If you truly believe that Islam is a violent political religion, you SHOULD be at war with Islam. You SHOULD be banning Muslims from entering. You SHOULD be infiltrating mosques. You SHOULD be monitoring all Muslims in America.
In a way, Jeffrey is right. We never said that we were at war with Naziism, and the majority of the German people who were not Nazis were not our enemies; we bombed them all from the skies, killing men, women and children without distinction, to destroy the German infrastructure which supported the actual soldiers in the field. We did this because it was necessary to win!
Hiroshima was not a militarized target, but a city which had been mostly spared precisely because it was of less military value. It turned out that the mostly spared city would make the best atomic target precisely because it was mostly undamaged, where the atomic bomb would have been simply burning the rubble that Tokyo already was. The civilians of Hiroshima were the perfect military target precisely because they had been so unharmed. The alternative would have been the necessity to invade Honshu, with an untold number of American casualties.
The actual jihadi are few in number, but they are enabled by the larger Muslim populations around them. It is ridiculous to believe that we can somehow make war on the jihadi and leave the surrounding civilians unharmed.
Hiroshima was not a militarized target….
(For the record, Nagasaki was also considered a target of military importance. Th city was a military depot, contained industry supporting the war, and also was a shipping point for military supplies.)
We were at war with both Germany and Japan. We were not at war with Naziism or Shintoism or fascism. We made inhumane mistakes in our treatment of resident Japanese and Germans, just as we are discussing making mistakes with resident Muslims.
On which nation’s government (representing the civilians, too) have we declared war now? And why would we be willing to punish Muslims in the US, who may be Shi’a or from other nations not associated with ISIL or even be American citizens?
We are not at war with Islam. It serves ISIL’s purposes for us to declare war on all of Islam. It does not serve the purposes of the US.
Perhaps this is why Trump’s popularity with Republican voters is skyrocketing. He wants war with Islam.
That is historically incorrect.
Roosevelt made clear in many speeches that were were fighting Nazism and fascism.
That’s an interesting point. If you want to maintain that, you must believe that the Geneva Accords do not apply to any terrorist or terrorist organization. That means we can pick up a terrorist and summarily execute them.
You really want to go with that?
Ask Muslims Facing Tomorrow the following questions:
1. Do you accept the Qur’an as the immutable word of God?
2. If the answer to 1 above is “yes,” how do you square your rejection of jihad with the Qur’an’s commands to make war upon the infidel?
There are other questions of importance, of course, but the answers to those are the keys.
Christianist fundamentalism is a violent sect. In the US, members bomb clinics, attack gays, Muslims, Jews, Sikhs (thinking they’re Muslim) and law officers. It’s not unlike Wahhabism – an amalgam of religious supremacy and political power. Their attacks on Blacks and Hispanics are politically and racially motivated, not religious.
Not all Christians are violent but the moderates don’t do a very good job of policing their own or even strongly condemning those fundies who commit crimes to further the religious cause. In fact, the non-violent fundies encourage violence by calling abortion “murder”, calling gays “sick” and calling all Muslims “jihadists”. In fact, Christianist fundies believe all others should live according to fundie religious beliefs. Just like ISIL and al Qaeda, the X-ianist fundies want a religious war.
As the Western world has steadily become more secular, rejecting much of the mythology associated with fundamentalism, the US has become its last bastion. And rather than die a gentle death, X-ianist fundamentalism has become a political force, stealthier and smarter to be sure, but not unlike ISIL in their determination to rule.