Posted on 09/16/2004 11:14:23 PM PDT by naturalman1975
Australian Muslims need to loudly damn the terrorism done in Islam's name, writes Shahram Akbarzadeh.
Terrorism shocks Muslims as it does non-Muslims. The deliberate killing of innocent people is always wrong. That is true in Islam as in other religions. The callous murder of children, even those of the perceived enemy, is beyond barbarity. Muslims know this in their bones, just as non-Muslims do. There is no need to consult the Koran to find the appropriate passage that condemns the murder of children. Some things are universal. Love for innocent children is one of them.
A dark shadow befell Australian Muslims when Chechen sympathisers embarked on their mindless hostage-taking in Beslan and planted explosives in the local school. News of the tragedy was received with instinctive shock and disbelief. But voices of public condemnation have been barely audible.
To its credit, the Islamic Council of Victoria rejected these acts as un-Islamic in an interview with SBS, and I suspect the NSW council did the same in Sydney. But the vast majority of non-SBS-watching Australians have been left in the dark as to how Australian Muslims react to this blatant disregard for basic human decency.
Australian Muslims face a difficult choice. They are being eaten from inside. They are repulsed at the way their faith is being dragged into mud by terrorist groups who target unsuspecting civilians going about their daily business. They are annoyed and frustrated at the familiar pattern of insinuations in some media coverage and on some talkback radio shows that equate Islam with terrorism.
Privately, Australian Muslims damn the terrorists for the hurt they cause. But they find it hard to disown terrorists publicly. Why? Maybe it has something to do with a warped sense of loyalty. Chechen terrorists, abhorrent as their actions are, call themselves Muslim. And it is not difficult to see that public criticism of Chechen terrorists by Australian Muslims could be seen as criticism of Chechen Muslims.
Oddly enough, Muslims in the Middle East did not have the same reservations and did not feel constrained in condemning the perpetrators of the Beslan atrocity. The disparity between the response by Australian Muslim leaders and by Muslim leaders in the Middle East is odd, because a sizeable proportion of Australian Muslims come from the Middle East. On most socio-political issues Australian Muslims are far less conservative than their brothers and sisters in their ancestral homelands. The only major issue that distinguishes Australian Muslims is migration and settlement in a Western society as a minority group.
Australian Muslims are exhibiting a classic symptom of the siege mentality. They feel overwhelmed by the constant media coverage of their affairs. Some wish the media would just leave them alone so that they could go back to their inconspicuous lives and practise their faith without having to justify themselves ad infinitum. They are offended by insinuations that Islam could foster terrorism, and they follow their natural instinct of closing ranks.
But that is precisely what hurts Australian Muslims the most. By failing to take the lead in distinguishing themselves from the self-proclaimed soldiers of God, by simply responding to questions when pressed, Australian Muslims only reinforce public bias against Islam. It is not sufficient to point to Russia's bloody suppression of Chechen aspirations for independence, which dates back to pre-Soviet times. It is not sufficient to point to President Vladimir Putin's heavy-handed approach in dealing with those suspected of links with the insurgents. The West is aware of Russia's record. None of that justifies the deliberate targeting of innocent Russian and Ossetian children.
Condemning other Muslims as evil to a Western audience is probably the hardest challenge Australian Muslims have faced. It must feel like betraying your own kind. But this taboo needs to be broken. For the sake of Islam and for the sake of Muslims' good name, Australian Muslims can no longer shy away from this urgent task.
Dr Shahram Akbarzadeh is senior lecturer in global politics at Monash University and co-editor of Islam and the West, Reflections from Australia (UNSW Press).
There are no Fatwas against Bin Laden.
This 'taboo' has a name, and that name is bigotry.
Just one problem with that. Muslims are the evil.
"Terrorism shocks Muslims as it does non-Muslims. "
fyi
you and me both
Muslims will condemn terror when the old media tells the truth.
Yep. Starting about 1400 years ago.
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