The level of denial never ceases to amaze me. “Jihad, suicide bombing most abused words in US, West,” from NewKerala.com, with thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist:
Lahore: An American Muslim rights body has said suicide bombing and Jihad were the most abused words associated with Islam in the United States and the West.
Samina Faheem Sundas, the executive director of the American Muslim Voice, while addressing a function here, said that the two words are so much abused, that a school child who might not have any knowledge about Islam, would know that Muslims are suicide bombers and kill innocents in the name of Jihad.
“An American schoolchild might not have any knowledge about Islam but he knows that Muslims are suicide bombers and kill innocent people in the name of jihad. An average American has doubts about the loyalty of every Muslim with the US,” the Dawn quoted her as saying.
I think this is highly fanciful. In fact, I highly doubt that the average American schoolchild has any idea that “Muslims are suicide bombers and kill innocent people in the name of jihad.” An immense amount of effort has been directed to making sure that schoolchild and the American public in general does not associate Islam with terrorism, and it is paying off.
Yet it remains true, however, that some Muslims have become suicide bombers and have killed innocent people in the name of jihad. But you are unlikely to hear any explanation of that, or any effort to combat this kind of thinking among Muslims, from Samina Faheem Sundas.
She said that the situation was so biased that a Christian responsible for the Oklahoma blasts was not labelled a Catholic bomber, because Americans believe only Muslims commit such acts in the name of religion.
“A catholic was responsible for the Oklahoma blasts but he was not labelled as a catholic bomber because Americans argue that only Muslims commit such acts in the name of their religion,” she said, adding that the “Madressah in Pakistan should only impart religious education to their students. The teachers should deliver lectures in their personal capacity and not as teachers of the seminaries.”
That’s not bias. That’s accuracy. For all the tireless invocation of Tim McVeigh as the lone example of a Christian terrorist, he did not blow up the building in Oklahoma City because of any Christian teaching. Yet the jihadists consistently and routinely invoke Islam to justify their actions. (Watch out! If you take notice of their doing that, you must be a bigot!)
She further said that it was because of this prejudice that Muslims were suffering more than any other community in the Us and the West, post 9/11 and 7/7, because they did not bother to depict the true Islamic way which is non-violent, she added.
Sure. Let Muslims depict that true non-violent Islamic way, and they might find themselves having an easier time.
“The need of the hour is to launch a vigorous campaign to create awareness among the Muslims in the US. They need to know that they have the right to say no and the right to an attorney; they have the right to say no to the search unless the law-enforcers have a search warrant and they will have to get a subpoena to question anyone,” she further said.
Why do we never hear any Muslim spokesman saying this: “The need of the hour is to launch a vigorous campaign to refute the jihad ideology that leads to violence among Muslims worldwide”?