I wrote Unrelenting Evil before attending Quaker Meeting later in the afternoon. I feel somewhat better now. It's incorrect of me to say that all Muslims are evil or stupid. Certainly some of them must be peaceful, otherwise they would have killed each other off centuries earlier. I still have trouble accepting a subgroup killing a person whose sole aim was to help the group. Perhaps if I could understand, I might forgive.
Faried writes with several public statements by The Muslim Association of Britain, Palestinians, Council for American-Islamic Relations, (same), and some blogger. and asks:
Doesn't an appeal count as condemnation of the kidnapping?
I have to ask: "Where is the fatwa against the murderers?" More importantly, how many people will believe the fatwa and act on it? Surely if all these quotes from the Qur'an can be believed, then killing an innocent person is one of the worst things a Muslim can do. Surely it's worse than merely publishing a cartoon or humiliating some prisoners?
There were much condemnation for, say, Nick Berg's murder because that was relatively an unusual event; see http://www.answers.com/topic/nick-berg or http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4978424/
I'm sorry, but, no, this is not condemnation. It is excusing the Berg murder with "yes it's horrible but". A condemnation would be "yes it's horrible and". Muslims are capable of absolute judgements. They have uniformly judged the cartoon depictions of Muhammed as blasphemy. Surely if they were members of "a religion of peace", they would be able to condemn a murder of a peaceful innocent without reservation, exception, or excuse.
posted at: 05:45 | path: /politics | permanent link to this entry