Liberty on Tap since 1984

Islamophobia, a perspective

It is estimated that there are over one billion Muslims world-wide. How many of these Muslims hold to the fundamentalist, jihadist views of “extreme” Islam? It’s not clear, but if that number represents five percent of all Muslims, it is clearly an intimidating number. They are not only a good-sized minority, but very outspoken, both in word and action. While no intelligent person thinks that all Muslims are fanatical terrorists, almost all of the Muslims portrayed in the media are exactly that.

My question, as I struggle to address Islamophobia in America, is this: Where are the moderate Muslims?

As a Catholic, I often speak out against the manner in which the Church dealt with the sex abuse scandal involving a minority of the priesthood. Although I find it ridiculous that people still rant about the evils of the Crusades here in the 21st century, I acknowledge that there is no Biblical justification for those events, not even in Leviticus, and I am not shy about saying that.

Again, where are the not quite a billion moderate Muslims? Perhaps I’m watching the wrong news programs or surfing different websites, but I don’t hear any Muslims saying, “Hey, I read the Quran every day and a pray every day and I live my life to please Allah, and I don’t believe in Jihad or the necessity to destroy the infidels. I don’t agree with how they are interpreting the writings or teachings. They do not believe what I believe.” It appears that an obvious minority of Muslims is defiling the beliefs of most Muslims, and yet I just don’t hear anyone in that spiritual community speaking up.

So yes, I do feel bad about the prevalence of Islamophobia in our current society, but maybe instead of simply talking about your right to religious freedom, you should share your moderate views of Islam with the non-Muslims, and show us why we should accept and tolerate you instead of fear and distrust you.

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Comment by Ronald A. Lau on September 16, 2010 at 2:44pm: OOO! I have a statistic!

Of the xx% of extreme muslims, 100% of them want to kill Americans, or anyone else that doesn't bow to them.

Wow. 100%!

Comment by Marcotte Anderson on September 15, 2010 at 11:50am: So Phillip, you don't actually have any real answers to my questions, or anything of substance to add to the discussion? I enjoy sarcasm as much as the next guy, but the meaningful exchange of ideas has it's place too.

I'm really trying to understand why we should treat (moderate, non-terrorist) Muslims differently, and I've yet to see a cogent argument.

yahoos who disagree with the location of the mosque at Ground Zero.
And also the yahoos who disagree with the presences of mosques in Wisconsin and Tennessee.

Here is a serious question: How far away from Ground Zero would it be acceptable to build a mosque? Three blocks away is good enough for a strip club, so it that enough for a mosque? Thirty is enough apparently, so I guess the answer is somewhere between 2 and 30. Can anyone narrow it down further? (I know this sounds sarcastic, but I'm honestly being serious. Where do you draw the line?)

Slightly different question. Should Muslims be excluded from any faith-based memorial at Ground Zero? I'm not sure what exactly (if anything) is planned, but if there is a chapel of sorts, should it include any religion specific iconography, like a cross, Star of David, or crescent?

Comment by Phillip Jerome Chesser on September 15, 2010 at 11:13am: Ah, Marcotte's moral preening! See, he takes a broader, more tolerant view of Islam than the yahoos who disagree with the location of the mosque at Ground Zero. He feels the need to gives us instruction about the First Amendment, religious tolerance, etc. I'm so happy! I didn't know about all that stuff before! What would we do without the enlighteners to enlighten us?

Comment by Marcotte Anderson on September 14, 2010 at 1:18pm: Another analogy....

Should we expect blacks to come out and explicitly denounce murder, since black disproportionately commit (or at least are arrested for) murder? Of course not. The default stance we should take with any human being is that they are against the most basic of evils, like murder or flying planes into buildings.

Comment by Marcotte Anderson on September 14, 2010 at 1:07pm: Phillip C:
I guess where I'm coming from is that I think it's unfair to require Muslims to denounce terrorists anymore than we would require Christians, Atheists, Americans or anyone to denounce terrorists. The Islamophobia that we see in this country is, I think, born mostly out of a finding of guilt by an association which is tenuous at best, but completely absent in reality.

Why is the default view for Muslims, "Explicitly denounce terrorism or I will assume you are complicit" while for everyone else the default view is, "Of course you denounce terrorism, who doesn't?"

Comment by Marcotte Anderson on September 14, 2010 at 12:10pm: So Phillip, you prefer to judge people differently solely based on their religion? I will readily grant that terrorists who bastardize Islam are more numerous and effective (in terms of body count) than terrorists who bastardize other religions, but that doesn't give you or anyone else the right to treat Muslims* differently than Christians.

*In my view, Al-Qaeda are not Muslims. And abortion doctor killers are not Christians, etc.

Comment by Phillip Jerome Chesser on September 14, 2010 at 12:03pm: The tiresome moral equivalence between Islam and Christianity shows either ignorance of history or a desire to take an Olympian view.

Comment by Marcotte Anderson on September 14, 2010 at 10:33am: Where are the moderate Muslims?
They're building mosques in Manhattan. (Link is to Soledad O'Brien's interview with Imam Rauf.)

Perhaps I’m watching the wrong news programs or surfing different websites, but I don’t hear any Muslims saying, “Hey, I read the Quran every day and a pray every day and I live my life to please Allah, and I don’t believe in Jihad or the necessity to destroy the infidels."
Well, I'm sure most of the Muslims you will see on cable (or network) news will be toward the more radical end of the spectrum, simply because that gets better ratings. I think the portrayal of Muslims in the media suffers the same type of selection bias that the portrayal of climate scientists does. In an effort to be "balanced," the media shows one scientist who subscribes to the theory of Climate Change and one who doesn't. Likewise, you see one (or more) images of "radical" Muslims juxtaposed against one example of a moderate. The viewer is lead to the conclusion that the two sides are equally represented in the world, when they are not.

How many of these Muslims hold to the fundamentalist, jihadist views of “extreme” Islam? It’s not clear, but if that number represents five percent of all Muslims, it is clearly an intimidating number.
Do you have any evidence or reason to believe it is 5%? Could it be 1%? 0.5%? 0.1%? If it's not clear, then perhaps you shouldn't shape your world view on an assumption.

you should share your moderate views of Islam with the non-Muslims, and show us why we should accept and tolerate you instead of fear and distrust you.
Should Christians likewise explicitly seek out Atheists and share their moderate views after a wacko abuses their faith to further his own goals?

Islamophobia, a perspective

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