Subject: [Homestead] Boiler plate comments on Muslim terrorism
Date: Thu, 09 Sep 2004 11:18:37 -0700
Meaningless coming from Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tantawi and other Mid East
governments. The few individual critics are already forgotten, probably
like their forerunners, marked for assassination.
Boston.com THIS STORY HAS BEEN FORMATTED FOR EASY PRINTING
By Jeff Jacoby, Globe Columnist | September 9, 2004
THEY ARE still burying the victims of the latest atrocity committed,
some believe, in the name of Islam -- the slaughter of hundreds of
children, teachers, and parents in an elementary school in Beslan,
Russia. And from Muslims the world over, as usual, has come mostly silence.
There have been no public demonstrations by Muslims anxious to make it
clear how outraged they are that anyone could commit such unspeakable
deeds for their version of Islam. There has been no anguished outcry by
Islam's leading imams and sheiks. Prominent Muslim organizations in the
West have not called press conferences to express their disgust. Once
again the world has witnessed a savage episode of Islamist terror, and
once again it strains to hear a convincing rejection of the terrorists
from those who should care most about Islam's reputation.
That is not to say there has been no criticism at all. Crown Prince
Abdullah of Saudi Arabia telephoned Russian President Vladimir Putin to
assure him that "this terrorist act . . . goes against religious
teachings and violates human and moral values." Syria's official news
agency decried the massacre as "a terrorist, cowardly action." Sheik
Muhammad Sayyid Tantawi of Al-Azhar University in Cairo lambasted the
murderers for "taking Islam as cover" and said that "those who carry out
the kidnappings are criminals, not Muslims."
But these are boilerplate denunciations, practically meaningless --
particularly when they come from sources that sustain Islamist
fanaticism (Saudi Arabia), shelter and support terrorists (Syria), or
defend suicide bombers as praiseworthy "martyrs" (Tantawi). They condemn
no terrorists or terror organizations by name. They offer no help in
destroying the infrastructure that recruits, funds, and trains them. And
they contain no hint that the global scourge of Islamofascist jihad is a
cancer eating away at the Muslim world.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations, which issues dozens of press
releases every month, had nothing to say about the bloodbath in Russia
until I requested a comment. The statement CAIR then issued doesn't even
acknowledge that the killers were Muslim:
"No words can describe the horror and grief generated by the deaths of
so many innocent people at the hands of those who dishonor the cause
they espouse. We offer sincere condolences to the families of the
victims and call for a swift resolution to the conflict in that troubled
region." At least CAIR went through the motions of condemning the
butchery. Other voices preached a different message altogether.
Ali Abdullah, an Islamic scholar in Bahrain, announced that the
bloodshed in Beslan "is the work of the Israelis who want to tarnish the
image of Muslims." In London, Islamist cleric Omar Bakri Mohammed told
the Daily Telegraph: "If an Iraqi Muslim carried out an attack like that
in Britain, it would be justified because Britain has carried out acts
of terrorism in Iraq."
Fortunately, a few Muslim commentators /have /denounced the evil being
done in the name of Islam, and have done so courageously and
unambiguously. (The Middle East Media Research Institute has compiled
their reactions at www.memri.org.) One in particular stands out: an
extraordinary column in the pan-Arabic daily Al-Sharq Al-Awsat by Abdel
Rahman al-Rashed, the manager of the Al-Arabiya news channel.
"It is a certain fact that not all Muslims are terrorists," he begins,
"but it is equally certain, and exceptionally painful, that almost all
terrorists are Muslims.
"The hostage-takers of the children in Beslan were Muslims. The
hostage-takers and murderers of the Nepalese chefs and workers in Iraq
were also Muslims. . . . The majority of those who manned the suicide
bombings against buses, vehicles, schools, houses, and buildings all
over the world were Muslim. . . . Does all this tell us anything about
ourselves, our societies, and our culture?. . .