The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) has criticised the position often taken by news reports and editorials that link Islam with terrorism or militancy. In an article entitled "A Sensible Way to Describe Terrorists," CAIR chairman, Parvez Ahmed, said that this is a result of a misnterpretation of Islam. He also refers appreciatively to the European Union's decision to distribute soon new guidelines to its 25-member nations that recommend using a "non-emotive lexicon for discussing radicalisation."
Noticing the resentment among Muslims to the juxtaposition of "Islam" and "terrorism," the European Union (EU) is reportedly developing the list which is expected to be adopted in June.
According to the CAIR chairman, EU officials say that the guidelines, which are not legally binding, would ask European governments to shun the phrase "Islamic terrorism" in favor of "terrorists who abusively invoke Islam." Other terms being considered by the review include "Islamist," "fundamentalist" and "jihad."
Ahmed said, this "first of its kind effort" to separate terrorism from its perceived roots was "laudable."
There is no effort to separate terrorism from its perceived roots. What 'perceived' roots? Unless of course you mean the perception gleaned from seeing dozens of attacks celebrated by masked cowards screaming 'Allahu Akhbar' which, at least as far as I've been able to verify, is an Islamic sentiment. Or maybe it's the perception that the Qur'an is cited by Muslim 'cleric' after 'cleric' as justification for the slaughter of innocent civilians?
The notion that Islam is the 'perceived' root of the recent spate of global terrorism and the focus of the U.S. led war on terror is analogous to saying that the engine is the 'perceived' powerplant of a car.
"Associating the criminal enterprise of terrorism with the faith of 1.4 billion Muslims, 99.99 percent of whom will never come near any act of terrorism, much less use Islam as a justification for their crimes, is just plain wrong..."
All well and good except for the fact that the terrorists we are fighting are composed of groups like Al-Qaeda, which is...drum roll please...led by people who are Muslim (surprise!), making it an organization based, however loosely some might claim, on Islam. Facts are facts. We don't see Bin Laden reaching for a copy of the New Testament on his sporadic videos, do we?
A word search on news stories published in major newspapers over the past decade shows that reporters are hundred times more likely to associate Islam with terrorism or militancy than all other faiths combined.
Wow, I wonder why that might be?
"Today, we all live in fear of terrorism. Equating terrorism with Islam makes the mainstream Muslim community doubly vulnerable to both the random acts of terror and the ensuing backlash. Muslims worldwide are the primary victims of terror."
Tell that to the families affected by the Cole bombing, the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, commuters in Madrid and London, the families of Nick Berg and the families of every coalition soldier lost in Afghanistan and Iraq.
They are the primary perpetrators of terror, and we're supposed to have a pity-party for them because it's unfair to characterize the Islamic faith with a link to terrorism.
Yes the vast majority of Muslims probably disagree with the ideology of terror spread by these groups but that simply does not change the fact that the groups operate under the banner of Islam. I feel sorry for rank and file Muslims who simply don't have the courage to stand up. If your religion is so peaceful, take it back. Don't sit around on your asses and wait for CAIR of all groups to come around and try to mandate a redefinition of the term terrorist in order to make you seem like a much more affable bunch.
That just makes it look a lot worse.
(Source: adnki.com)
Technorati Tags:
War, Protest, News, media, Islam, Muslim, EU, European Union, politics, Al-Qaeda, Iraq, attacks, terrorism, policy, 9/11, crime, criminals, Qur'an, Koran, jihad, Sunni, Shiite, CAIR, Council on American Islamic Relations
