Westerners often naively put the question "Why don't the Islamic clerics
denounce Islamist terorism?" to Muslim apologists. They have their answer
ready: "They do, only the anti-Muslim Western media do not give
prominence
or even notice of this." Yes, occasionally one gets a condemnation from
clerics, but one wonders in what pro****tion they are to their numbers in
the
world's 1.5 billion Muslims. If the Western media give little attention
to
the few who condemn, this is because they are of no political
significance.
Now if the mullahs and the ulema generally united in a powerful
condemnation
of suicide bombing (clearly an appalling sin: killing oneself in order to
kill innocent others), terrorism generally (killing innocent people in
order
to further a political end), and the jihad against the West and
non-Muslims
(in Darfur for instance), this would end these horrific practices: all
the
faithfull would turn against the criminals.
It is difficult to avoid the conclusion that the mullahs and the ulema
are
complicit in the world-wide resurgence of militant Islam, that in fact
the
Jihad is being conducted in part in the interests of the Islamic clergy.
A Muslim writer, Sa'ad Allah Khalil, echoes the naive question with which
I
began this posting, also criticizing Muslim clerics:
"How long will we continue to bury our heads in the sand and to think
that
the world is ignorant and knows nothing about us? How long will we
deceive
ourselves? How complacent we are if we imagine that we can, with
declarations and telegrams [condemning terrorism] convince the world that
our thought and culture are innocent of terror...
"It is true that not every Muslim is a terrorist. but since 9/11, hasn't
every terrorist been a Muslim?... Is their a sheikh or an Islamic
religious
authority that denies these murderers' and their leaders' affiliation to
Islam? don't they give bin Laden the title of 'sheikh' and sometimes the
the
title 'the sheikh mujahid' [Jihad Warrior]? Don't they always find an
excuse
and justification for these murderers?..."
"The religious institutions, and the official and unofficial religious
authorities, must take real, not formal measures ...If they will not do
so,
it won't be long until the world stands in a single rank against Islam
and
the Muslims." (metransparent.com July 13 2005)
It is becoming clear that Islamic culture worldwide is not innocent of
terror.
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