Thursday, February 16, 2006

Where are the silent Muslim majority?

[An academic writes:]

Shalom Aleichem (Salaam Aleikum),

We wake up this morning to see video on CNN showing rampaging Muslims around the world. In Europe, the Middle East, the Pacific Rim ... Muslim Mobs spreading mayhem. It seems that these angry Muslims are rioting and firing their AK-47s into the air because of cartoons. Yes . This latest epidemic of Muslim outrage comes to us because some newspapers in Norway and Denmark, insensitively (believing that they were just exercising freedom of speech), published some cartoons depicting Mohammed. Muslim outrage huh. OK ... let's do a little historical review:
Muslims fly commercial airliners into buildings in New York City. No Muslim outrage.
Muslim officials block the exit where school girls are trying to escape a burning building, in Saudi Arabia, because their faces were exposed. No Muslim outrage.
Muslims cut off the heads of three teenaged girls on their way to a Christian school in Indonesia. No Muslim outrage.
Daniel Pearl, Wall Street Journal reporter, beheaded on Arab TV. No Muslim outrage.
Muslims murder teachers trying to teach Muslim children in Iraq. No Muslim outrage.
Muslims murder over 80 tourists with car bombs outside cafes and hotels in Sinai, Egypt. No Muslim outrage.
A Muslim attacks a missionary children's school in India. Kills six. No Muslim outrage.
Muslims slaughter hundreds of children and teachers in Beslan, Russia. Muslims shoot children in the back. No Muslim outrage.
Over two hundred tourists killed by Muslim terrorists in Bali, Indonesia. No Muslim outrage.
Let's go way back. Muslims kidnap and kill athletes at the Munich Summer Olympics. No Muslim outrage.
Muslims fire rocket-propelled grenades into schools full of children in Israel. No Muslim outrage.
Muslims murder more than 50 commuters in attacks on London subways and busses. Over 700 are injured. No Muslim outrage.
Muslims massacre dozens of innocents at a Passover Seder. No Muslim outrage.
Muslim newspapers publish anti-Semitic cartoons. No Muslim outrage
Muslims are involved, on one side or the other, in almost every one of the 125+ shooting wars around the world. No Muslim outrage.
Muslims beat the charred bodies of Western civilians with their shoes, then hang them from a bridge. No Muslim outrage.
Newspapers in Denmark and Norway publish cartoons depicting Mohammed. Muslims are outraged.
Dead children. Dead tourists. Dead teachers. Dead doctors and nurses. Death, destruction and mayhem around the world at the hands of Muslims .. No Muslim outrage ...

But publish a cartoon depicting Mohammed with a bomb in his turban and all hell breaks loose.
Come on, is this really about cartoons? They're rampaging and burning flags. They're looking for Europeans to kidnap. They're threatening innkeepers and generally raising holy Muslim hell, not because of any outrage over a cartoon. They're outraged because it is part of the Islamic jihadist culture to be outraged. You don't really need a reason. You just need an excuse. Wandering around, destroying property, murdering children, firing guns into the air and feigning outrage over the slightest perceived insult.
I know and understand that these bloodthirsty murderers do not represent the majority of the world's Muslims. When, though, do they become outraged? When do they take to the streets to express their outrage, at the radicals who are making their religion, the object of worldwide hatred and ridicule? Islamic writer Salman Rushdie wrote of these silent Muslims in a New York Times article three years ago.
… "As their ancient, deeply civilized culture of love, art and philosophical reflection is hijacked by paranoiacs, racists, liars, male supremacists, tyrants, fanatics and violence junkies, why are they not screaming?"
Indeed. Why not? .
You may not necessarily agree with me ,and as an academic I respect your right to do so. After visiting and living in ten Islamic countries, I had always hoped, that a small amber of decency would enflame the Islamic world, and create a firestorm of enlightment and tolerance.

Please let me know why you disagree.(and me too. MM)

Shalom and Aloha,
Rafi
Hawaii 96732

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