More below the jump...
Nutshell paraphrase:
It'll be bad if Western nations have to respond to domestic Muslim terrorists without the help of Muslim communities, 'cause the governments will be less effective and pleasant with their guns and dogs and racial profiling than the Muslim communities would be with rejecting, ostracizing, and condemning extremists.
I think it'd be a wonderful boon for Muslims if their religious leaders loudly and unambiguously rejected all terrorism as contrary to their religion. Most people (myself included) are largely ignorant of Islam, and would, I think, be greatly set at ease if they heard clear words that Islam, whose history with Christianity has been fraught with mutual hostility, did not wink at terrorism. Otherwise, people are liable to form their opinion of Muslims by the most spectacular things they see that are associated with the religion, which, unfortunately, aren't so uplifting these days.
The most notorious Jewish terrorist in recent memory, a nut named Baruch Goldstein, killed 29 people in a Hebron mosque in 1994. If the rabbinate hadn't universally condemned his actions, and loudly, I know I'd've un-Jewed myself.
No comments:
Post a Comment