Posted on 12/08/2004 8:55:33 AM PST by gotmatt
UNITED NATIONS - Secretary-General Kofi Annan (news - web sites) opened the first U.N. seminar on confronting Islamophobia with a plea not to judge Muslims by the acts of extremists who target and kill civilians.
The daylong forum on Tuesday came six months after a U.N. seminar devoted to confronting anti-Semitism, also a first for the world body. Both were part a series entitled "Unlearning Intolerance," sponsored by the U.N. Department of Public Information.
"The few give a bad name to the many, and this is unfair," he told Islamic scholars, writers and religious leaders as well as representatives of other religions.
Annan urged people to condemn terrorist and violent acts carried out in the name of Islam but which "no cause can justify."
"Muslims themselves, especially, should speak out, as so many did following the September 11 attacks on the United States, and show a commitment to isolate those who preach or practice violence, and to make it clear that these are unacceptable distortions of Islam," he said.
Annan said "it is essential that solutions come from within Islam itself" and suggested and suggested that the Islamic scholarly principle of "ijtihad," a process of critical inquiry, could foster free debate into what is good and bad in Muslim cultures as well as others.
He stressed that Islam "should not be judged by the acts of extremists who deliberately target and kill civilians."
"We should not underestimate the resentment and sense of injustice felt by members of one of the world's great religions, cultures and civilizations," he said.
"And we must make the re-establishment of trust among people of different faiths and cultures our highest priority," Annan added, saying that failure to do this threatens world peace and development.
Seyyed Hussein Nasr, professor of Islamic studies at George Washington University, said Islamophobia was a question not only of fear but also of hatred — often by people who know little about the religion.
In the keynote address, Nasr spoke of the role of fanaticism in conflicts and said there would there would be no Islamophobia without "mistakes" made by Muslims.
Nasr said most people view Islam as an intolerant, monolithic religion bent on ruling the Western world when in reality, there are various schools of Islamic thought, the religion is not anti-Western and the Islamic dynasties over the centuries accepted both Jews and Christians fleeing persecution.
Fighting Islamophobia, Nasr argued, requires swift action from those in the West who understand that hatred breeds more hatred. Muslims must also take the lead in speaking out against extremism — steps that should be complemented by educational reforms and more effective use of the media.
Ahmed Kamal Aboulmagd, a law professor at Cairo University and vice president of the Egyptian Council for Human Rights, called for "an undistorted mirror" for Muslims and non-Muslims to examine themselves and others.
He said many Muslims for the first time were feeling part of a larger world and abandoning isolationism. Many Muslims also recognized their negligence in not highlighting Islam's commitment to democracy and respect for human rights, he said.
R. Scott Appleby, director of the Joan B. Kroc Institute at the University of Notre Dame, said that in the United States and much of Europe, terrorism had created anxiety about the vulnerability of Western societies, drawn unwanted attention to Muslims, and elicited intolerance and hatred among some Americans. This is what terrorists wanted, he said.
In the United States, Appleby said, patriotism should require a willingness to recognize differences and honest self-criticism, not condescension towards people cast as "the other."
Bump
Dejavu all over again...
Dear U.N.,
SHADDUP!
Sincerely,
avenir
Daily, the adherents of one religion murder all other non-adherents because they are instructed to by their religious texts and leaders.
And these are the people others must learn to tolerate?
What if Muslims learned some tolerance first, merely to catch up to where they aren't murdering everyone else daily. Then we can chat about further inter-religious understanding.
In the mean time, I'm not going to learn tolerance for terrorists, their apologists, or their silent co-religionists. The few Muslims willing to speak against terror will earn my respect, the rest will earn my scorn. And properly so.
Tolerance of evil is evil.
Islam's commitment to democracy and human rights?
I do not tolerate the intolerance of those who would force me to tolerate the intolerable.
Note to Mr. Annan: Islam IS a terrorist organization!!!
Plainly, this is not happening. The muslim street supports Osama, or is silent. The few who speak out are likely to be targeted by a fatwa justifying their execution by random wack-jobs.
I wish there were a substantial majority of muslims willing to confront terror. Three years later, it has not appeared, leading me to believe it does not exist. Ipso Facto my conclusion: Most muslims support terror.
If I'm wrong, show me the overwhelming street protests against terror, and where vast majorities of muslims turned in most of the terror organizers in their community. This has never happened, further proving the case that muslims silently support terror.
I wish it were otherwise. But the truth must be confronted, lest we lose sight of evil in the cotton-fogged-mind-bending of U.N. commissions.
After 9/11 the silence was deafening from the Islamic side of the aisle.
Where is the Forum for tolerance of Zionism?
Islamophobia, in the sense of fear of muslims, is justified.
In fact, it would be insane not to be an Islamophobe.
Example: It would be dangerous for me as a Jew to walk the streets of any Muslim capital wearing a kippah (aka Yarmaluke).
This is like walking through Compton in a business suit. Being fearful of the local black population in that circumstance is just reality, not racism.
So let's be careful when throwing around the word "Islamophobia." When defined as a general hate of muslims, we can have that debate. When defined as a fear of muslims, it is merely a rational view of the world.
Not that I advocate ACTUALLY doing this......heheheheeh...but wouldn't it be funny if someone called an a "bomb scare"...
Oh.....the irony.
We don't. We judge Muslims by how they respond to "the acts of extremists who target and kill civilians". And so far, we are not impressed.
Okay. But what are the other more positive attributes of Islam we can use to judge them? Anybody?
They wrap their baseball bats with foam rubber when they beat their women? That's considerate.
Mmmmmm....They only use dull knives on the infidels? Allah would be pleased.
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