Moderate Muslims: Speak Up Or Get Lumped In with Islamo-Fascists (Part 2)

26 Sep, 2006 by John Hawkins

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Earlier this month, I wrote a glowing post on a column by Aslam Abdullah in the Las-Vegas Review Journal called, “Kill Us, Too: We Are Also Americans. Radical Muslims Not Worthy Of The Religion.

Well, apparently RWN wasn’t the only place to comment favorably on Abdullah’s article because a reporter from the Review Journal got in touch with me to discuss the reaction this piece received. Apparently, Abdullah’s piece generated a wave of positive publicity — which if you think about it, is rather telling. An American Muslim loudly and openly denouncing terrorism shouldn’t be so unusual that it should draw a lot of attention.

Which brings me to a point that I was making to the reporter. Columns like the one Abdullah wrote that feature a moderate Muslim strongly condemning terrorism and extremism? They’re not common. But, Islamic fanatics behaving badly? That’s almost an every day thing.

In a Human Events column that I wrote last month, Moderate Muslims: Speak Up or Get Lumped In with Islamo-Fascists, I catalogued what people are seeing from the Islamic extremists.

Well, I’d like to do it again, but for September of this month. Here are just some of the headlines from the Daily News archives of RWN this month:

Pakistani Lawmakers Threaten To Quit If Islamic Pro-Rape Rape Laws Are Changed

Sudan Man Forced To ‘Marry’ Goat

Dubai’s Ruler Accused Of Slavery

Pope’s Speech Stirs Muslim Anger

Italian Nun Slain In Somalia, Pope Link Speculation

Arab Op-Ed: Pope’s Remarks May Lead To War

The Pope Must Die, Says Muslim

Honour Killing Claims Life Of Six-Year-Old

Last Night On The Amazing Race, Two Muslim Contestants Refused To Shake Hands With Some Female Fellow Racers

Muslims Demand Pope Convert To Islam

Shiite Militias Are Encouraging Children — Some As Young As 6 Or 7 — To Hurl Stones And Gasoline Bombs At U.S. Convoys, Hoping To Lure American Troops Into Ambushes Or Provoke Them Into Shooting Back

Pakistani Clerics Demand Pope’s Removal

Taliban Gunmen Carried Out Their First Assassination Of A Female Afghan Government Official Yesterday

Those headlines you just read? They’re what the Islamo-Fascists are telling the world that Islam is all about day in and day out and the moderate Muslim response is….crickets chirping and complaints about words like, “Islamo-Fascists.”

Moderate Muslims who really believe the whole, “Islam is Peace,” thing may be in the majority, but the Islamo-Fascists dominate the debate while moderates, with a few exceptions, are sitting on the sidelines. Aslam Abdullah’s column? It was great. But, there should be 5 or 6 Aslam Abdullahs out there in the public eye for every extremist and for whatever reason, since that’s not happening, the reputations of moderate Muslims are taking a terrible beating as a result.

It’s still not too late for more moderate Muslims to start vocally condemning these terrorists and extremists, but the longer they wait, the harder it will be to turn around hardening attitudes towards Islam. That’s unfortunate, but it’s also a fact of life and it’s really troubling that so many moderate Muslims still haven’t woken up to that reality more than 5 long years after 9/11.