Thinking Meat

Over at A Small Victory, Michele has had it with Muslims:

I'm always careful to put a disclaimer in front of the words Muslim. Radical. Militant. Something that sets those crazed, suicidal, murderers apart from the peace-loving, people-next-door who practice the same religion.

The problem I'm having with that now is I see less and less of the latter. I have yet to see any of the moderate Islamists (is there such a thing?) stand up and condemn their brothers for their acts of violence; violence done in the name of Allah, their god. . .

So where are the followers of Islam who do not condone the branch of their religion that is being practiced by those who see suicide belts as a fashion statement? Do they even exist?

If any event can shed the light on how some have underestimated the strength and numbers of the followers of radical Islam, it is the death of Sheik Yassin. Suddenly, the whole world is mourning and chanting and throwing stones.

They protested his death in Jordan, Lebanon, Yemen, Egypt, Sudan and Iraq. They burned flags in Beirut. . .

These people who live just miles from me praise this man. They cry over his death. In fact, they wail. They curse Israel, curse America and wish death upon everyone but themselves. Where are their leaders, the ones who claim to be moderates and wonder why people walk on the other side of the street from them? Speak up. Tell us that you denounce Yassin and Arafat. I'm not asking that they turn around and praise Israel or defend her actions, I'm just asking that they show me who they are, that there are Muslims who do not fall to their knees in despair when a despicable mass murderer dies.

She has a point -- one that has been pushed by LGF for over two years now. It's not just that there are lunatics and radicals and terrorist sympathizers in disproportionate numbers among Muslims, including American Muslims. That would be bad enough, but the far greater problem is that the countering voices seem so weak that they barely register. We keep hearing how the terrorists are a tiny, radical minority -- so where in hell is the huge, non-radical majority that is supposed to repudiate them? Why is the death of an unabashed terror sponsor like Yassin publicly presented as a global tragedy? Is this really the leadership that global Islam follows? Why aren't there Muslims marching in opposition to the bombing in Spain, or the horrific terror attacks in Turkey, or (heaven forbid!) the inhuman mass murder of Israeli bus-riders?

Why is it that every statement out of CAIR fits the template of Of course, we condemn terrorism, but...? Why the constant apologia? Why can't they ever flip the clauses around the conjunction, anyway? No one is asking them to plaster their cars with Elect Sharon stickers, but wouldn't it be nice if once -- just once -- they said something like

Of course, we want the Palestinians to have a state, but the bombing of Israeli civilians is not an acceptable way to do it.

Of course, Muslims have many reasons to be angry at Western powers, but setting off bombs in their cities is inhuman and against everything we stand for.

There, that wasn't so hard, was it? Same ideas, different emphasis. And it'd be nice to see this delivered as publicly and loudly as the Muslim lobby manages to yell whenever some Islamic "charity" gets investigated for sending CARE packages to al-Qaeda, or when someone points out that a value system that permits child "martyrs" is not compatible with the norms of civilized behavior. While we're at it, let's hear some condemnation not just of abstract terrorism, or the backhanded criticism of Israel with "terrorism in all its forms," as if killing a Hamas operative is equivalent to bombing a pizza parlor. What is it that sticks in CAIR's craw that keeps them from pointedly, unequivocally condemning Islamic terrorists, by name? How hard is it to say "Palestinians who send children to blow up other children are nothing but bloodthirsty psychopaths, and we condemn them unconditionally"? Why this pathological need to equivocate at every turn?

For Pete's sake, if the Muslim community wanted a better image in the West, all they had to do was create it. Instead, with a few notable exceptions, the community seems bent on being antagonistic, chauvinist, intolerant of their host cultures, and openly seditious. Given this, and the apparent lack of any dissent, why shouldn't we take them at their word? Why should I not treat this community with suspicion, when every message it sends out seems to be condemnation with a veiled (or even overt) threat? Having seen no protest, no outrage, no revulsion at terrorism beyond perfunctory condemnations, why should I think anything other than that the Muslim community by and large supports it?

It doesn't have to be this way. But frankly, I fail to see why I should always be the one giving the full benefit of the doubt. If there is another voice, another movement, another set of ideas in Islam -- we're listening. We're all straining to hear it. But we'd better hear it soon.