“We strongly believe terrorists have no religion and they do not deserve a burial,” said Maulana Zaheer Abbas Rizvi of the All India Shia Personal Law Board, a body for framing Muslim laws.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
This is good, but it’s in the same league as the pastor of a large church in Oklahoma condemning Timothy McVeigh, with perhaps tepid support from his denomination, but not much from a national umbrella church organization like the National Council of Churches or the National Association of Evangelicals, let alone wider Christendom.\u00a0\u00a0 The Shia are a distinct minority in India at about 10% of the approximately 100 million Muslims.<\/p>\n
It’s tempting to put all Muslim denunciations of terrorism in the same category, but it’s a mistake.\u00a0 It is not unusual for (especially) moderate Muslims to denounce the murder of other Muslims by Islamists.\u00a0\u00a0 How many of those same people say anything about rocketing Israeli civilians?<\/p>\n
Even CAIR “denounces” terrorism, all the while it supports it via the Holy Land Foundation’s funneling of cash to Hamas.\u00a0 Denunciations of terrorism, lacking specifics of who did what to whom, are cheap.\u00a0 Ask CAIR to condemn a specific jihadi’s murder of innocents and all you usually get is, “We condemn all terrorism.”\u00a0 And that’s code for, “We’re not going to name names.\u00a0 And Israel is a terrorist nation.”\u00a0\u00a0 A ringing moral condemnation does not begin with, “Yes, but…”<\/p>\n
So regarding Muslim denunciations of bad behavior by Muslims, some discernment is required.\u00a0 Yes, you can find the occasional scholar or Imam who denounces it (though it often lacks those specifics).\u00a0 But is it a scholar who is important in the Muslim world, or merely one who is popular with western elites as a “moderate spokesperson”?\u00a0 It is well documented that many Muslim spokespeople say one thing in English to western media, and something else entirely to their own people, in their own language.\u00a0 When a “Christian” murders an abortionist (which happens about once every ten years in the USA), virtually EVERY Christian leader speaks out against it instantly, in practical terms, including very conservative anti-abortion activists, both Protestant and Catholic.\u00a0 You don’t need to look for “moderate Christians,” or “Christian scholars,” or something.\u00a0 The Jerry Falwells, James Dobsons, Bishop Chaputs, the Popes, Pat Robertsons, Christian leaders of every stripe, Christian academics, the National Council of Churches, the National Association of Evangelicals, virtually every pro-life<\/em> group and conservative talk-show host will condemn in unison the murder of the abortionist “in the name of Christ.”\u00a0 And this is the response to only ONE person’s murder “in the name of Christ,” about every ten years.<\/p>\nIs it possible to contend that there is anything even remotely close to this in the Muslim world?\u00a0 Instead, we see people dancing in the street at the murder of thousands.\u00a0 We see a “compassionately released” terrorist, reponsible for the deaths of hundreds, greeted as a conquering hero by national leaders and clerics (most recently in Lybia, but it’s a common pattern, isn’t it?).\u00a0\u00a0 Imagine if Timothy McVeigh had driven his diesel-laced fertilizer truck up to the Al-Hussein Mosque in Cairo, instead of the Federal Building in Oklahoma City, and said God told him to do it.\u00a0 When the Egyptians released him on “compassionate parole” in 30 years (you’re laughing hysterically, right?), do you think his return would be celebrated by the President of the USA, national religious leaders, an adoring press, and public acclaim?<\/p>\n
One “out” that is sometimes taken is to say that there is “no recognized single leader” in Islam.\u00a0 But there isn’t in Christianity, either.\u00a0 If you consulted with the Pope, the Archibishop of Canterbury, the National Council of Churches, the National Association of Evangelicals, maybe some worldwide Protestant denominations and a few national Orthodox churches, and they all agreed, you could reasonably say “Christianity has spoken.”\u00a0 And they all condemn the murder of abortionists, even though most are pro-life (with the notable exception of the National Council of Churches organizations, of course, which mostly represent dying denominations).<\/p>\n
As I understand it, there are four “schools” of Islamic jurisprudence in Sunni Islam, and two in Shia Islam.\u00a0 Those schools have well-known leaders, perhaps two or three important ones in each case.\u00a0 It would be most persuasive if THOSE leaders spoke in unison that the murder of non-Muslims by jihadis is immoral and unIslamic.\u00a0 But people in the west don’t listen clearly.\u00a0 Some of these guys have “expressed sympathy” for the families of the killed on 9\/11.\u00a0\u00a0 That is not the same thing as a ringing condemnation of the acts of the terrorists, and the public assurance to their own people, in their own people’s native languages, that the acts were sin, were unIslamic, would have been condemned by Muhammed, and did not earn the perpetrators a place in paradise.\u00a0 Has THAT happened?\u00a0 Or should we accept the PR statements of “moderates” who know that they’re talking to the western media in English or French?\u00a0 Does Islam even teach that it is a sin to lie to non-Muslims for the sake of protecting the reputation of Islam?\u00a0\u00a0 Google “Al-taqiyya.”\u00a0 (Qur’an 3:28: “Let not the believers take for friends or helpers unbelievers rather than believers. If any do that, in nothing will there be help from Allah; except by way of precaution, that ye may guard yourselves from them”.\u00a0 This verse has been used, it seems, to justify lying to infidels in the defense of Islam.)<\/p>\n
Let’s be really clear.\u00a0 Imagine that 20 “Christians” hijacked four airliners filled with people from Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt and Iran, and flew them into, say,<\/p>\n
1) the Masjid al-Haram mosque in Mecca at full occupancy,<\/p>\n
2) the Prophet’s Mosque in Medina during the hadj, and maybe<\/p>\n
3) the Haghia Sophia in Istanbul during Friday prayers, along with aiming one at<\/p>\n
4) the palace of the Saudi family in Riyadh.<\/p>\n
The entire Christian world would rise up in breathless horror.\u00a0 Can you imagine the SCOPE of the reaction, the revulsion, the utter shame, and the rejection by the Christian world that this had anything<\/em> to do with Christ or Christianity?\u00a0 Can you imagine the thousands of recriminations that Christians would direct at each other, the self-examination, the zillions of study sessions to reinforce traditional Christian teaching on murder that would result in churches, christian schools and colleges, etc.?<\/p>\nWould we be willing to settle for a nice statement from the pastor of the First Baptist Church in Dayton and an obscure professor of “Christian studies” somewhere that “we’re sorry for the victims’ families”?\u00a0 Would we immediately put out PR statements hoping that this wouldn’t lead to “Christophobia” and “hate crimes” against innocent Christians?\u00a0 Would we have to look for cherry picked Christian spokesmen to say “moderate” sounding things to the media?\u00a0 And let’s be clear:\u00a0 would Christians in ANY Muslim plurality nation be anywhere near as safe as Muslims have been in the USA after 9\/11?<\/p>\n
And would even the most conservative Bible Belt town in the South have a spontaneous dance of joy in the public square over the murder of those godless infidels, by right-thinking American boys with scout knives who hijacked airliners full of unbelievers?<\/p>\n
I am waiting for an Islamic cleric in a prominent position in one of those six schools of Islamic jurisprudence<\/em> to say that the killers of 9\/11 are most likely in Hell, and belong there under Islamic teaching, as do those who are now emulating them.<\/p>\nAnd the notion that all six schools’ major representatives will make such a statement?\u00a0 I suspect the Lord will return first.<\/p>\n