Some jihadists consider no non-Muslim to be innocent. Thus when a Muslim spokesman says that Islam condemns the killing of innocent people, he hasn’t necessarily said anything that would render un-Islamic a jihad attack like the one attempted on Flight 253. But Free Press reporter Niraj Warikoo, who has been covering Muslim activities in the Detroit area for years and giving Muslim spokesmen a free pass on such questions, acts true to form in this piece.
“Nigerian-American Muslims held convention during attack attempt,” by Niraj Warikoo for the Detroit Free Press, December 27 (thanks to James):
Hundreds of Nigerian-American Muslims from across the U.S. — including some from metro Detroit — had gathered this weekend in Boston, Massachusetts for their annual gathering. It’s considered the biggest meeting of Nigerian Muslims in the U.S.
But in the middle of five-day convention came breaking news — a Nigerian Muslim man attempted a terrorist attack on a Northwest plane descending into Detroit.
The participants were horrified and scrambled to put out a press release strongly condemning the incident, said leaders of the 9th annual national convention of the National Council of Nigerian Muslim Organizations, which ended today.
“It was hard news to take,” Muyideen Ibiyemi, chairman of the board of trustees of the National Council, told the Free Press today. “It took us aback.”
But Ibiyemi, of Providence, Rhode Island, said the incident has only made him and other Nigerian-American Muslims more committed to spreading the true [sic] of Islam, which he said was about peace and harmony. The focus of the convention this year was about maintaining Islamic traditions among Nigerian Muslims.
“There is no room in the Quran for this type of thing,” Ibiyemi said of the attempted terrorist attack by a 23-year-old Nigerian man who is Muslim. “There is no room in Islam for killing innocent people.”…
Meanwhile, Ibiyemi said that he and others in his community will continue to preach the correct message of Islam.
“There is no extremism in this religion,” he said. “The Prophet, peace be upon him,” was not an extremist.
“The tenets of Islam are to respect the laws of the country,” Ibiyemi added. “We want to let the world know we won’t associate” with terrorism.
Meanwhile, the unindicted co-conspirator CAIR, also true to form, is attempting to shift the focus of attention away from the Islamic doctrines that lead to such attacks and on to Muslims as victims, based on the chimerical threat of a “backlash”:
Dawud Walid, head of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said today that “we’re concerned about any security threats.”
But he said he’s also concerned about profiling of innocent people based on ethnicity and religion, citing today’s case in Detroit and a reported case in Arizona where men speaking Arabic were pulled off a plane.
“There may be a climate of fear and hysteria” that could result in the profiling of ethnic minorities, he said. There is an “increased anxiety about people’s perceived ethnicities,” Walid said.
Imam Kazeem Agboola, a Nigerian-American Muslim who heads the Muslim Community Center-Detroit, said that “some will call us names, but there’s nothing we can do about it.” His congregation is predominantly Nigerian.
“We’ll be fine,” he added. “We’ll be fine.”
Of course you will.