July 23, 2005
The Wisdom Fund

Must Muslims Show Contrition for Terrorists' Acts?

by Ben Tanosborn

One gets tired of columnists who bombard us with rabid explosions showing flagrant historical and cultural ignorance. Tom Teepen, a columnist for Cox Newspapers, was the culprit du-jour when his paranoia carried him as far as to say that Muslims' passivity [in denouncing terrorism] threatens to make Islam a pariah faith. Wow! He just cited a perfect example of Religious Correctness. Not!

I've always felt that men of goodwill sympathize with their brothers' sorrows. Not just those who practice one of the world's great religions. or one of the lesser ones; or even those who identify with Spinoza's philosophy, or abstain from having one. Not just those belonging to a specific group, but to the entire human race. Good people of any "brand," silently or publicly, always feel, and want to soothe, their brethren's pain - without the need for proclamations, edicts or fatwa.

Unfortunately, goodwill is not easy to come by for the human race. There always seem to be religious, political or ideological prejudices, and at times legitimate contentions, which stand in the way. And trying to unrealistically change external behavior, often for no other reason than appearance's sake, serves hypocrisy and little else. Yet, many of our politicians and much of the mainstream media chant the same tune, calling for Muslims throughout the world to publicly condemn suicidal acts. After 9/11 there has been continuing criticism that the Muslim population, whether residing in the Middle East, Chicago, London or anywhere else, has not shown remorse - such criticism often taking punitive tones.

At times the criticism has been terse and direct. other times, condescending and sadly ill-conceived. Typical among the latter, and used by those who should know better- Tony Blair the latest in this fray- is the utilization of the term "Islamic extremists" as the descriptive name for the militant groups causing all this mayhem; be it Al-Qaeda, Hamas, Hezbollah or just jihadists-at-large who have had it with the West, and what they judge from them to be tactics of control and deception. Call them terrorists or assassins, if you must, but adding "extremists" to the word Islamic doesn't diminish the negative context assigned, by chance or choice, to Islam. At best, the use of that term is one of ignorance, or imprudence. or both.

Two days after the London suicide bombings I was having a lengthy discussion on the subject of suicide bombings with an American-Lebanese friend. Not a Muslim, but a Catholic Maronite. A second-generation American, Steve S. (S stands for Selim, his father's best friend) stays engaged with the Middle East community of a large Midwestern city. a socio-cultural tradition that dates back to his childhood days, something that stays alive with his biennial visits to the land of his ancestors, a land he has learned to love so well. An American true-blue in every respect, he is also proud of his ties to the Middle East, and to his brothers of the Muslim faith.

Steve's grandfather was a Kamikaze victim in Okinawa. So suicide attacks have a personal meaning to him. But losing his grandfather in the Pacific that way does not bring him to the point of outright denunciation of any group whose objective is to repel an invader and take back their land. Not that he approves such actions, either.

"It's not a question of fanaticism, martyrdom or 'shock and awe'," Steve tells me as he calms down from the emotional tenor in our discussion. To him there is a sole purpose for that behavior, for any act of terrorism by whatever name: to instill fear. And as a footnote, to set the record straight, we must add that self-immolation is not the exclusive domain of "extremist" Muslims. Man, all men, when confronted with utter despair, have often reacted in similar ways - whether Jewish Zealots, Christians, Hindus, Buddhists or Shintoists.

If columnists such as Friedman, Teepen and many others, would come to recognize that the war which is being fought has little to do with religion, even if those at power's short end are Muslim, they would not be naively calling for Islam to voice outrage at some of these acts that sadly result in unacceptable human carnage. These are not random acts of violence, but the result of despair from those who feel they must resort to fear as their only weapon to level the battlefield. their only chance to win the war and drive the enemy out.

No, Mr. Teepen, it isn't twisted theology that produces violence. It is man who produces violence, not through divine inspiration but primal instincts of survival. And that violence is only an intervening and not a causal link with Islam.

It's obvious that we, in much of the West, just don't get it when we ask for Islam's voices to show outrage. and contrition. That, after we have done everything under the sun to radicalize them!

As any shrewd politician would quickly point out: It's the occupation(s), stupid!

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The Bible: War, Violence, Fornication

[And we took all his cities at that time, and utterly destroyed the men, and the women, and the little ones, of every city, we left none to remain.(2:34) . . . And we utterly destroyed them, as we did unto Sihon king of Heshbon, utterly destroying the men, women, and children, of every city.(3:6) . . . And when the LORD thy God shall deliver them before thee; thou shalt smite them, and utterly destroy them; thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor shew mercy unto them.(7:2)--"Deuteronomy"]

Thomas Jefferson, "The Christian God is a being of terrific character - cruel, vindictive, capricious, and unjust"

Helen Ellerbe, "The Dark Side of Christian History", Morningstar Books (July 1995)

Don McCurry, "Islam and Christian Militarism: How Christianity has fueled Muslim violence," missionfrontiers.org, April 2001--an excerpt from "Healing the Broken Family of Abraham: New Life for Muslims," Minstries to Muslims (January 1, 2001)

Tariq Ali, "Mullahs and Heretics," London Review of Books, February 7, 2002

Enver Masud, "What's Wrong With Suicide Bombing?," The Wisdom Fund, May 9, 2002

"Bush's Crusade," The Wisdom Fund, October 16, 2003

"Scofield Study Bible Altered, Anti-Islam Text Inserted," The Couples Company, December 1, 2003

J. Harold Ellens, "The Destructive Power of Religion: Violence in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam," Praeger Publishers (December 30, 2003)

[Can the Bible be the "Word of God" when it has Samuel order King Saul in the name of God to "Go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have; do not spare them, but kill both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass (1 Sam. 15:3)? Is it the "Word of God" when the Psalmist writes about the Babylonians who have conquered Judah: ". . . Happy shall he be who takes your little ones and dashes them against the rocks" (Ps. 137:8-9)?--John Shelby Spong, "The Sins of Scripture: Exposing the Bible's Texts of Hate to Reveal the God of Love," HarperSanFrancisco (April 1, 2005), pages 18, 19]

"FINI: ITALY DOESN'T ACCEPT ISLAM-TERRORISM EQUATION," Agenzia Italia, July 22, 2005

Robert Fisk, "The dangerous dichotomy between some Muslims and the society around them," Independent, July 23, 2005

[Muslims who preach hate are to be deported and subject to new restrictions, Charles Clarke announced in the Commons on Wednesday. So what would the home secretary have to say about stuff like this: "Blessed is he who takes your little children and smashes their heads against the rocks"?

Or this: "O God, break the teeth in their mouths ... Let them be like the snail that dissolves into slime; like the untimely birth that never sees the sun ... The righteous will bathe their feet in the blood of the wicked." No, this is not Islam, it is the Bible. And there is a lot more where that came from.--Giles Fraser, "Fundamentally speaking," Guardian, July 23, 2005]

Malise Ruthven, "Islam: A faith under Fire," Sunday Herald, July 24, 2005

Larry B. Stammer, "Homegrown Risk Worries U.S. Muslims," Los Angeles Times, July 25, 2005

Sabaa Saleem, "Being Muslim in a Mad, Sad World," Washington Post, July 31, 2005

Timothy Garton Ash, "What we call Islam is a mirror in which we see ourselves," September 15, 2005

[The Armageddonites have also backed brutal tactics in pursuit of their favored policies. Lt. General William G. "Jerry" Boykin is deputy undersecretary of defense for intelligence and was heavily involved in the torture scandals. Christian Zionist Sen. James Inhofe of Oklahoma was the only senator to publicly condone torture of prisoners of war.--Jon Basil Utley, "The Brutal Christ of the Armageddonites," antiwar.com, February 24, 2006]

[The so called "God" of the Bible makes Osama Bin Laden look like a Boy Scout. This God, according to the Bible, is directly responsible for many mass-murders, rapes, pillage, plunder, slavery, child abuse and killing, not to mention the killing of unborn children.

. . . most Christians believe that God is a good and loving god, and wants people to do good things. I believe that most people want to do good things and behave morally. I also believe that many Christians haven't really read the Bible, or just read certain passages in church. This is understandable, as the Bible is hard to read due to its archaic language and obscure references. Also many priests and preachers don't like to read certain passages in the Bible because they present a message of hate not love.--EvilBible.com]

Copyright © 2005 Ben Tanosborn