Islamic Introspection: If The Shoe Fits, Don't Light It

ToogoodReports ^ | June 3, 2002 | Patrick Mallon

[Starmaker]

As Americans have discovered, saying anything that disdains apologies for the most extreme elements of Islam leads one to infinite guilt for hateful, bigoted and intolerant opinion. I suppose it would be more comfortable to think instead like a mindless, brain disordered liberal. Amazing isn´t it, how quickly words like "hateful," "bigoted" and "intolerant" seem to emerge like fleas whenever the light of truth rears its mean-spirited beacon. Muslim apologists sound less concerned with the reality of Islamic terrorism than the fact it is being discussed at all.

Back in January, I wrote a letter to the editor in the Orange County Register titled "CAIR doesn´t seem to care," regarding the Council for American-Islamic Relations hypersensitivity to increased airport security, and CAIR charges of racial profiling.

Michigan Congressman John Dingell´s metal hip replacement set off an alarm at airport security. Dingell was forced to a private security room where he dropped his trousers to satisfy an investigation. Mr. Dingell neither complained, nor requested an apology.

That same week while passing through airport security, an Arab woman was requested to remove her headdress to be checked. She protested. As well, an airline pilot refused to board an Arab-American Secret Service agent who was behaving strangely. CAIR launched an immediate media offensive, demanding apologies.

My letter prompted Sabiha Khan, Southern California Media Relations Coordinator for CAIR, to publish a rebuttal titled: "Don´t Blame all Muslims." Nice title huh? Disagreeing with CAIR´s adamant opposition to the same security measures we ALL are held to gets interpreted as "blaming all Muslims."

Ms. Khan, rather than focus on specific airport investigations, instead changed the subject and described "2,000 documented hate incidents across the U.S." involving Americans who are Muslim, Arab or who may look Middle Eastern. I never thought to ask Ms. Khan how she felt about the "hate crime" committed against innocent victims on 9/11.

And what led to this heightened security? On December 22, 2001, Muslim Richard Reid tried to blow up his sneakers while on a Paris-to-Miami flight. Years before, Mr. Reid, while in a London prison, converted to Islam, taking the name Abdel Rahim.

Fortunately, most American Muslims do not agree with the fanatics´ views. And more Muslims do indeed condemn terrorism in the name of radical Islam. There are two moderate voices of reason who perhaps should receive at least equal visibility as the often seen and heard American-Arab Anti-Discrimination League leader Hussein Ibish. They are Muqtedar Khan, a political scientist at Michigan´s Adrian College, and former editor of the Journal of Islamic Arabic studies, and Sheik Hisham Kabbani, leader of the Islamic Supreme Council of America.

Muqtedar Khan had this to say after 9/11:

"The culture of hate and killing is tearing away at the moral fabric of Muslim society. If bin Laden were an individual, we would have no problem. But unfortunately bin Laden has become a phenomenon – a cancer eating away at the morality of our youth. It is a time for soul searching. How can the message of Mohammed, who was sent as mercy to mankind, become a source of horror and fear? How can Islam inspire thousands of youth to dedicate their lives to killing others?"

Sheik Kabbani had this to say after 9/11:

"Peaceful Muslims, moderate Muslims, do not interfere in the politics or foreign policy of the United States. But the activists are very clever. They use the mosques and Islamic Centers to gain credibility for themselves. In front of the microphones they say the United States is good. Then they rally against the United States, they say the wrath of G-d is coming against the United States. My own feeling is that only by opening our eyes to the cancer in our midst can we finally begin to set about the great task of excising it."

It is truth coming from these Islamic authorities that groups like CAIR and the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination League should embrace and make more visible as they seek to validate Islam as non-threatening to the United States. Unfortunately, Arab groups that defend Islam with little more than tacit acknowledgment of the most radical elements, instead drift in their arguments toward their primary animus: Israel.

As an independent, conservative, Irish-Catholic American, I support the right of Israel to exist and to defend itself. Though I cannot comprehend the self-hating psychosis of the left, many of them Jewish-Americans in the media who blame their own nation of origin for these problems, they are certainly entitled to voice their opinions. One will never find perfect balance, or an entirely objective conviction, but what is true, and indeed explosive, is that America is in the middle of it, and we need to find, stop, and prosecute the bad guys. Period!

Yet, when we look for leadership from our compromised government officials, we find them capable of nothing more than dumping in their diapers. New York, city of 2,900 incinerated Americans, still provides ample theater for the mental disorder called liberalism. Ever politically correct, never morally judgmental Mayor Bloomberg, when asked on Sunday June 2 about racially profiling terrorists said:

"I don't care what statistics you show me in a little group of – in – you know – ah – it is just against everything America stands for to hold somebody who's just walking down the street to a different standard because of what they look like or what other people who may have came from the same country they did originally or practiced their religion."

Can anyone figure out what he said?

I wonder what might have been different about 9/11 if we had held the 19 Arab-born murderers to some sort of standard too. But that question was answered when the FBI, airlines and the INS all admitted that fear of being accused of racial profiling contributed largely to a failure to do their jobs. There were red flags that day, and in the weeks preceding. Remember? We were paralyzed by political correctness, while falling victim to the old maxim: If you stand for nothing, you´ll fall for anything. Not much has changed after all.

To comment on this article or express your opinion directly to the author, you are invited to e-mail Patrick at gohabsgo@cox.net .

[nightdriver]

"Fortunately, most American Muslims do not agree with the fanatics´ views."

Only some of them do.....I feel MUCH better now!