Muslims Address Silence on Europe Attacks

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands (AP) - Europe's Muslims have remained largely silent in the face of terrorist attacks that have killed 254 people in Madrid, London and Amsterdam. Europeans want to know why.

Why have so few of them publicly condemned the train and bus bombings in Madrid and London? Why have so few spoken out against the murder of Dutch filmmaker Theo Van Gogh, killed because his work was considered an insult to Islam?

Talk to Europe's mainstream Muslims privately, however, and it turns out they have a lot to say.

Seek them out in the neighborhoods where they live and work - in the outdoor markets and butcher shops that sell halal meat, in the book stores that display literature on Islam and the West, in the boutiques that promote Islamic dress codes, in the Turkish restaurants and smoky Tunisian teahouses, in their schools and youth clubs - and they denounce, the vast majority unequivocally, attacks against civilians in both Europe and the United States.

"Van Gogh was a crazy man, but no one has the right to kill anyone who says bad things about the Quran," said Mohammed Azahaf, a 23-year-old student who runs a youth center in Amsterdam. "If you kill one, it's like killing the whole of mankind," he said, quoting a line from the Muslim holy book.

For some of the more than five dozen Muslims interviewed for this story in Amsterdam, Paris and London, it's a sense of shame, or even guilt, that innocents have been killed in the name of Islam; they say those feelings make them seek to be "invisible." For those lucky enough to have jobs, there is little time to protest or even write letters to newspapers. For others, there is fear of being branded anti-Islam in their communities.

Dutch Muslim rapper Yassine SB wrote a song about his anger over Van Gogh's murder but scrapped plans to perform it out of fear of being ostracized by the Islamic community. He also turned down requests by a popular Amsterdam radio station to sing a song against terrorism.

"If you sing that, it's like you choose the Dutch, not Muslims," said Yassine SB - the initials stand for his surname Sahsah Bahida - who is popular among Dutch North African youths like himself for his songs against racism.

In the Netherlands, Somali-born Dutch politician Ayaan Hirsi Ali - who wrote the script for Van Gogh's movie "Submission" - went into hiding after receiving death threats for her condemnations of Islam. And in the United States, Syrian-born psychologist Wafa Sultan's calls for Islamic reform also earned her death threats.

But there is another reason for the silence - one that for many overrides all others.

Why, many Muslims ask, should they have to speak out against, or apologize for, actions of radicals who do not represent them - people they do not even regard as true Muslims?

Many find the very idea of being asked or expected to denounce such acts "extremely offensive and insulting," said Khurshid Drabu, a senior member of the Muslim Council of Britain.

"I'm British," said Tuhina Ahmed, 24, a British-born Muslim in London whose family came from Gujarat in India. "I could have been blown up as well." Why, she asked, should she have to make a public statement to prove her objection to terrorism?

To many, the pressure to denounce acts of terror smacks of President Bush's warning that 'you are either with us or against us.'

"People and politicians say where are the Muslim people, why aren't they on the streets defending themselves? They say we should go into the streets and condemn what happened so they see us as good Muslims," said Karima Ramani, a 20-year-old Dutch born to an Algerian father and Moroccan mother. "I don't feel it's my duty. I'm not responsible for the death of Van Gogh."

"If they protest as a group of Muslims against these terrorist attacks, they take on an extra responsibility which is not theirs. So I can fully understand their reasons," said Ruud Peters, professor of Arabic and Islamic studies at the University of Amsterdam.

Yet the Internet is filled with blogs - mostly from Westerners but also by some Muslims - asking why Muslims are not expressing revulsion at the attacks. They see the silence as giving the terrorists strength.

"Isn't silence, justification, fear and hesitation in condemning terrorism, a factor in the encouragement of these individuals to appear on numerous platforms and satellite channels and claim that they represent a religion in the absence of active influential groups and institutions?" asked a blog entry by Ahmed Al-Rabei, a Kuwaiti journalist who works for London-based newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat.

"Isn't it a tragic crime to label the millions of European Muslims as guilty because of the rhetoric of a few professional lunatics, while the rest remain silent and wallow in self-pity? We have to admit that Islam has been hijacked particularly in European countries."

Muslim leaders say they and other Muslims have marched in a number of anti-terrorism rallies in Europe - the largest was held on the first anniversary of Madrid's 2004 bombings - and Muslims can't be expected to pour into the streets every day. They also say they have condemned the attacks in the media.

Surveys indicate a small but significant chunk of Europe's Muslim population supports the terrorists.

In a poll of British Muslims after the July 2005 suicide attacks on London's transport system, 6 percent thought the bombings were justified. Another 24 percent condemned the attacks but had some sympathy with the bombers' grievances.

Many Europeans blame the Continent's Muslim leadership, which they accuse of making ambiguous and qualified condemnations that give the impression they are making excuses for the bombers: grievances over the war in Iraq or the West's support for Israel.

"It's the leaders who are most responsible," said Rory Miller, senior lecturer of Mediterranean studies at King's College, London.

Europe's Muslims, who originate from 57 countries, differ in culture, language and even the strain of Islam they follow. They came at different periods and for different reasons. Some were born here and consider themselves as much French or British as they are Muslim.

Condemnations by most of the Muslims interviewed for this article had no strings attached.

Azahaf, 23, was among the thousands who marched in Amsterdam against Van Gogh's killing. "I demonstrated not for Van Gogh but for freedom to talk, to say what you want," he said.

Olivier Roy, a respected French scholar of Islam, says Muslim silence is a "classical psychology of immigrants" - wanting to be "normal" and become mainstream. "For them, integration means to be recognized as citizens. They don't want to be recognized for their specificity."

Sue Vogel, a psychologist who practices in Muslim-populated Bedford, in central England, said that after last year's bombings in London there was a great sense of guilt among some of her Muslim patients. "I had to do a lot of work to convince them that I saw them as people, rather than as Muslims," she said.

Lamia Hamdoun, 33, a teacher at a boys' school, emigrated to England from Tunisia 12 years ago. Last year's London bombings were so overwhelming for her, she says, that she prefers to remain invisible.

"When these incidents happen, I'm always scared. ... I shrink," said Hamdoun, who lives in a tiny apartment in north London with her Egyptian husband, Mohammed, and 9-month old-son, Sammy - whose name was chosen because it's common both in the Muslim world and the West.

She said she fears that her husband may be arrested in a police sweep just because of his looks or name. "I wish we could change his name so people don't know.

"I just don't want to think about it, I want to just get on with my life, deal with my personal problems. It's something I can't deal with."

Many of Europe's best-integrated Muslims say their lives are so far removed from those of the radicals that it simply has never occurred to them to protest.

Alia Kdeih, 50, came to Paris in 1977, at the height of a civil war in her native Lebanon. She got her degree from the Sorbonne, married a Lebanese and presents a cultural program on the Arabic service of French government-owned Radio Monte Carlo. Her elegant Western-decorated apartment in a middle-class Paris neighborhood has only a few flavors of Lebanon.

Kdeih said she will not go into the streets to condemn the attacks even though she's appalled by them - pointing out that her identity is not defined by Islam.

"It's not something I want to stress," she said. "I don't feel responsible for what happened even if they are Muslims."

I learned early on how thankfull they where to be able to come to America, to get away from the hell holes they where born in. They wanted no parts of the madness, religious yoke, etc., their families where born into. The simply wanted to live in peace, and provide a safe place for their families to live.

In which case they were not Muslims. They may have been born into Islamic societies, but in practical terms they were "ex-Muslims". As as any, by definition, who reject the concept of jihad, and who decide that living in peace with their families is more important than the spread of Islam

One of the most important events that began my "deprogramming" from liberalism was watching and listening to the Cuban community during the Elian Gonzales debacle. There was too much raw uncensored truth to be contained by our agenda-ridden media. My eyes were really open to all the crap and lies I had been fed in college when I finally heard the true voice of the Cuban people instead of some Marxist professor.

Regarding the deafening muslim silence, if they are not part of a solution, they are part of the problem. Everyone is responsible. Christians loudly and swiftly denounce fanatical actions perpetrated in their name. I expect nothing less from muslims. But I know enough not to believe the sincerity of their leadership regardless of what they say.

Perhaps. But don't short change your knowledge. Not all Muslims believe jihad is limited to conquering in the name of allah. Not all muslims are under the spell of the wahaabist, salafist, Qutbist etc., versions of interpretation of the Quran and the Hadiths. But lets call it a draw. We can write volumes on the subject referencing various muslim and non muslim scholars and still get no where in essence.
Surely those Shia soldiers that fight every day side by side with US Soldiers and Marines, and have been known to call them brothers, and use terms like we love you, you are brothers for some reason do not take to strongly jihad in the one form so convienently used by the above mentioned sub sects/ really not sub sects at all but movements based on goons of the past, that fully adhere to the wild antics of those A Rabs of the dim past. I prefere to give allowance to those that hate the idea of killing humans because they do not follow allah the black rock.
But let there be no misinterpretation as to my feelings for those goons that prefer violance toward all non-muslims or muslims of different faiths. They should be wiped out for everyones benefit.

For some of the more than five dozen Muslims interviewed for this story in Amsterdam, Paris and London, it's a sense of shame, or even guilt, that innocents have been killed in the name of Islam; they say those feelings make them seek to be "invisible."

Oh, so sad, their only fault is that they're just too darned noble!

Whenever you're dealing with someone who has agreed to criticize themselves, and then their verdict against themselves is that they are just too good in some regard, watch out, you're dealing with a slimy manipulator.

Why, many Muslims ask, should they have to speak out against, or apologize for, actions of radicals who do not represent them - people they do not even regard as true Muslims?

Because if that statement is true then they are using the name of Allah in vain and they are blaspheming your religion, therefore you should be expressing the same outrage at them as you did about the cartoons.

Why don't westerners learn more about your Religion of Peace, because your actions speak louder than your empty word.

Amen. Aren't these the same people that whine and cry about anti muslim/islam racism the world over?? The only time they do speak out publicly is when there's a perceived backlash against them in the wake of terrorist attacks. Basically, they care only about themselves.

Bush and many others went out of their way to differentiate between muslim perpetrators of atrocities and peaceful practitioners of islam (though that's a relative term). That is what makes "them" different from us the civilized world, because we care, we're not selfish and only bitch when bad things are done to certain people. With that kind of selfish attitudes, they have no moral right to complain about anti islam or anti muslim prejudices.

"I think we're on the same page, or close to it."
Perhaps closer then casual discourse reveals. Yes, Islam/Arabic culture is so remote from western ways. Truly a clash of civilizations. They have the choice. Either as say the Turks under the Autarh for example in the 20's, to westernize and open up to world thought that differs from their multi thousand year existence or stay in the past.
A prime example is that of Israel. Sure totally different circumstances involved in bringing that nation into re-existence, but in essence... Abram and keturah had six sons. Zimran, Jukshan, Medan, Midian, Ishbak, Shuah, and obviously earlier on, with Hagar Abram produced Ismael.
One side seeks to stay in the past. The other to modernize and accept much in the way of western civilization for what should be obviouse, many different reasons. But never the less. The nation of Israel could have choosen to go back to it's roots in a pure form. But they choose not to.
So the Arabs must choose. Live as desert caravan traders or modernize and accept the realities of what it entails. Of course I use a bit of poetic license.
Perhaps in the next ten years or so, with things developing as they are, we shall see greater division between a majority of Muslim centers of learning in all the ME/FE lands that realize they must look in the mirror and those that think they actually have things figured out correctly.
So many convoluted concepts they must deal with due to the integration of the cultures and the religious, and of course the concept of some that only allah can rule, and there is no place for the concept of government as is practiced in the western world and much every where else. Will they gravitate toward what GWB and others over the past some seventy years or so have desired, or will they reject the offers that can throw off the yoke that burdens them so deeply. Guess time will tell.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.