We should allocate more funding for interreligious dialogue and educational exchange programs domestically and internationally. It’s right there in the name, after all.
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To deny this is to stick one’s head in the sand and perhaps, one day in the future, to lose one’s head.
“Moderate Citizens” of the Middle East have questions that they would like to ask all those demanding they speak up against ISIS: “What is your position on your governments policies in the Middle East?” and “Why have you not demanded more responsible behavior when dealing with affairs of such disastrous consequences in our countries?”
– Muslims from around the D.C. area gathered in front of the White House Friday evening to honor the victims in the recent terror attacks in Paris and Mali and to condemn terrorism.
PHOENIX – “Given the horrifying events in Paris last week, I am calling for an immediate halt in the placement of any new refugees in Arizona”.
Imams from various Mosques and Islamic Centers around the state expressed their concerns over the violent acts by the extremist groups, done in the name of the Qur’an. Actually, by refusing to call them “Islamic terrorists”, President Obama is keeping us safer. “There are radical minds, and radical people, but Islam is Islam”, Shareef explained. We must all stand together with Paris, if ISIS is to be defeated.
Texts distributed by CFCM member organizations included both religious arguments against violence, backed up by quotes from the Koran, and discussions of problems facing French Muslims. Given their false theology, it makes very little sense to call ISIS Islamic. The Ahmadiyya Muslim Community is a movement within Islam. Part of that means returning to religious sources, the same ones ISIS distorts and manipulates, and imagining more relevant and effective interpretations of these for the modern age. “So we feel the need to do something”. We must prosecute this struggle to its only possible conclusion: The total defeat and destruction of ISIS.
Any subsequent response must consider how we’ve gotten to this point, and how we get out.
Don’t give in to fear. Or racists. After Friday’s attacks, I laid out the reasons why Paris was targeted, why France was vulnerable, what ISIS wants to accomplish, and how we shouldn’t respond. We already have a MI town where Muslims are the majority.
The CFCM sermon said French Muslims “proclaim our full support for the values of the Republic” and prayed to God “to preserve and bless France”. What you won’t hear, however, is much history.
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For a few reason, perhaps because of the dichotomist nature of the human psyche or perhaps because racism is anything but dead, many Americans believe that to support the American military, one must radically oppose Islam and all Muslims. If one belongs, why doesn’t the other belong? Recent history shows us, however, that when attacks like this take place, the impulse is to do just that, to single out Muslims for suspicion and hostility. “We simply can not accept refugees from countries that have a significant terrorist presence until the terrorist threat has been eliminated”.
