11.23.2004
Slowly, but surely
Some among the Muslim community begin to speak out
It is a certain fact that not all Muslims are terrorists, but it is equally certain, and exceptionally painful, that almost all terrorists are Muslims.
So says Abdel Rahman al-Rashed, general manager of Al-Arabiya news channel. The gentleman says many painful things about his religious community. Painful but necessary.
We can't call those who take schoolchildren as hostages our own. We cannot tolerate in our midst those who abduct journalists, murder civilians, explode buses; we cannot accept them as related to us, whatever the sufferings they claim to justify their criminal deeds. These are the people who have smeared Islam and stained its image.
We cannot clear our names unless we own up to the shameful fact that terrorism has become an Islamic enterprise; an almost exclusive monopoly, implemented by Muslim men and women.
We cannot redeem our extremist youths, who commit all these heinous crimes, without confronting the Sheikhs who thought it ennobling to re-invent themselves as revolutionary ideologues, sending other people's sons and daughters to certain death, while sending their own children to European and American schools and colleges.
More of this frank language is needed. As we have heard, 'the truth shall set you free.' I would ask our Muslim brothers and sisters across the globe to pay attention to the way their religion is practiced in the USA. Were they to do so, they would see - by and large - that their faith is not a religion of death, but one of peace and mercy...as it is written.
// posted by HunterByrd @ 8:44 PM 
