And so will Americans.
It is not for non-Muslims to say what Muslims should think. A social mass as large and old as Islam has its own resources, its own internal compasses and its own needs. Muslims will do what they must, and what they can. But non-Muslims will observe what Muslims think. It’s a free country.
Ah, but what will we do in this free country of ours where observing what the Muslims do and telling it like it is results in absolutely nothing being done?
I read an article in a paper which has a pretty good circulation in my state. It told of a Muslim school being opened and the prejudices the principal, teachers, and students were exposed to. On the one hand, violence (verbal or otherwise) against "innocents" cannot be condoned. On the other hand, I couldn't help but wonder what is being taught in that school far from the prying eyes of our liberal media (who, no doubt, would cover up any "undemocratic" teachings anyway). Are the little Muslims being taught about the supremacy of Islam? Are they being taught to hate Jews and Christians? We'll never know will we?
Muslims don't think, they obey, or else.
Kanan Makiya was born in Baghdad and teaches at Brandeis. His books include Republic of Fear: The Politics of Modern Iraq, Cruelty and Silence: War, Tyranny, Uprising, and the Arab World, and, most recently, The Rock: A Tale of Seventh-Century Jerusalem. (January 2002)
This is an excerpt of what he said on Frontline:
At this point in time, in this place, at this conjuncture in our history, religion did drive those planes into those towers. In that sense, in some deep sense, some deep way, religion is responsible. ... Not any religion, but Islam in particular.
The battle to rid Islam of that notion of jihad ... is a terribly, terribly important one, which it does not seem to me we are up to yet. Moderate, that is, Muslim thinkers from within the tradition themselves, have not yet met the challenge.
So the existential question for Muslims today is, "Can they construct such a dynamic sense of their own religion that is open to the world? Accepting of it? Of 'otherness,' of people and religions and so on?" ... That takes on these guys, this alternative "jihadic" strain of Islam ... [and] defeats it intellectually, ... pulls the rug under it, by undermining the pillars and pointing out the inhuman and ungodly, if you like, qualities and characters it has taken on. ...
You don't hear too many Muslims saying this kind of stuff. I certainly don't agree with him on a lot of issues, but I appreciate his honesty.