I hope you will return to this thread for more dialogue. I appreciate your thoughts on this vital matter. May I ask a few questions about your perspective? My intention is to better understand how you arrived at your conclusions and why we aren't hearing from more Muslims with similar mindsets.
Were you born in America? Are you a practicing, observant Muslim? Were you raised as a Muslim, or did you convert? Did you attend public schools? In what general region of the country do you live? Do you regularly attend a mosque? If so, does your imam engage in much political speech? Of what nature? If you could take the pulse of other members of your Muslim community, what percentage of their membership would you guess might echo your position? If the percentage is significant, what, in your opinion, keeps so many of them from speaking out publicly?
Thank you for your time.
Sorry I wrote this article while I was at school so I wasn't able to engage in a dialouge with anyone on here until now. Actually I wasn't born in the United States but I grew up here and the U.S. is pretty much all I know. It's where I swear my allegiance to, I don't say i'm anything else but American. I am an observant Muslim and no I didn't convert. I went to public school like most others and I live on the east coast. I don't want to get more specific in case some angry people do read this.
Actually it's really interesting that you ask about the issue of the mosque, I do attend regularly as well as the prayer services we have on campus. In terms of the main mosque I attend, they severely limit political speech to avoid this very issue all together. They have zero tolerance for people mixing religion and politics or trying to use Islam to justify various political opinions. The Imam says things like, remember to vote and participate in the political process like everyone else so that you are represented but that's about it. In terms of the members of the community though most don't identify or sympathize with any sort of militant elements. I would say almost everyone is very embarrassed by the actions of these groups, and that they have brought more damage to us all than anything anyone else could possibly do. But what some have said on this thread is why they don't speak out. One is because they do fear for their families because you never know where one of those psychos may pop out from and if they hear you. People really do fear these people because of the reputation they have, especially in the countries where most Muslims come from. I also feel that the community rather needs a tipping point to will overtake the fear and I do believe that is coming to the growing pressure where Muslims are really starting to feel like outsiders and they really don't want to feel like that. So if being more inclusive means actually being active and not passive in trying to keep and extra ear out for anyone really radical than they are going to do it.
A prime example recently has been this guy Osama El Dawoody in NYC who turned in a would be homicide bomber on a subway train.