UPDATE: Well, at least SOMEBODY knows how to do it right (thanks, Kathy)
Damn I hate it when headline writers don't bother to actually read the story.
Muslims Join People of Other Faiths in Condemning TerrorismGood. I was happy to hear that Muslims would condemn the murders in England. Let's get to it.
Source: kcbs
Publication date: 2005-07-10(KCBS) - Muslims in the Bay Area stood along side Christian ministers and Jewish community leaders to speak against this week's bombings in London.
Muslim community leaders called on the public to educate their neighbors about the Islam, and how its doctrine of peace differs from extremist ideology.Still waiting for the condemnation�
"If people could just open their hearts and minds and come to our open houses," Amina Ansari of the Council on American Islamic Relations told KCBS's Margie Shafer, "they would learn that education is the key--not hatred and anger and resentment."Oh lovely. They get a quote from one of the largest organizations of terrorism-apologists in the country. Still waiting for a condemnation�
Ansari and other Muslim leaders were joined by Christian and interfaith ministers at the Islamic Society of San Francisco, where religious leaders urged tolerance and understanding towards American Muslims.Yeah, yeah, whatever. Condemnation, please?
"We have a lot of prejudices in our churches and in our communities," said Franciscan priest Friar Vitale. "We have to stand up to that prejudice."Off topic! Where's the condemnation?
Ansari said the Council on American Islamic Relations, a civil and human rights organization, began receiving hate e-mails on Thursday morning.Gee, I wonder why? Here you have a perfectly good opportunity to condemn terrorism, with a pre-fab headline all ready to go, and all you do is whine about mean e mails."E-mails, profanity," said Ansari, "People think Muslims are terrorists."
Souleiman Gahli, president of the Islamic Society where the demonstration was held, stressed to those gathered that extremists who commit violence do not share the same beliefs as ordinary Muslims.Good, now we're getting somewhere. Condemnation on the way�"We will not let them speak on behalf of Islam.," Ghali said. "We will be standing up for Islam and for the values of Islam, for what the Prophet has taught us."
Rev. James DeLang, president of the Interfaith Council of San Francisco, tried to put the message into a Christian perspective.Wait, WTF happened to the condemnation?
"If someone in the name of Christ were to do these things that were done in London," DeLang said, "I would be both devastated, angered, and distressed that such a terrible act had been done in the name of the one in whom I believe."Yeah, and the government would be nailing their sorry asses instead of pandering to whiny crybabies like Ansari.
Marwa Elzankaly, an attorney with the Bay Area Association of Muslim Lawyers, said that government officials need to be educated about Islam even more than the general public.Yes, they should all have Daniel Pipes on their reading lists. And Bernard Lewis.
"Praying five times a day, going to the mosque should not be a basis for whether or not you may or may not have engaged or support terrorist activities," Elzankaly said.No one said it was. But it's a simple fact of reality that, while not all Muslims are terrorists, pretty damn near all terrorists are Muslims. Until the "moderates" wake up to that fact and start pushing back against the extremists instead of crying about some e-mail, they will be viewed with suspicion (and understandably so).
She opposes provisions of the USA Patriot Act that make surveillance of community groups easier to do, a sentiment shared by some of the Christian religious leaders called to speak.How about opposing the murders of innocent people while you're at it?
"We've got to face up to prejudice, whether it comes form the people in the pews, or the government and the Patriot Act," Vitale said.Jesus Christ, Vitale, you already said that and you're starting to sound like an Anglican. Now step aside so we can get to that condemnation we were promised.
Oh crap, the story's over. And not one word of condemnation, just a half-hearted "they don't represent us" and a bunch of whining.
Posted by Ken S at July 11, 2005 01:45 PM | TrackBack (0) |You would think that after all that righteous indignation and all the hoopla over the gitmo gulags the muslim community would at least rise forward and condemn the attacks in London. But no. Nary a whisper. And the worse part about this is that noone in the MSM seems to give a rats behind about this.
Posted by: Val Prieto at July 11, 2005 02:01 PMDear Muslim leaders,
"It is wrong to blow innocent people up and Allah does not approve."
How hard is that?
Regards,
Posted by: Emily at July 11, 2005 02:18 PMAh, but they weren't innocent. They were infidels. "Palestine from the River to the Sea" isn't just a Middle-Eastern concept; the Thames is a River, and the Channel is close enough for jazz.
I'm not bitter.
Posted by: Nightfly at July 11, 2005 02:37 PMThe most amazing part is that nearly all of the MSM still thinks CAIR is an appropriate voice for Muslims.
Posted by: Ken Summers at July 11, 2005 04:29 PM"We didn't do it -- it was those other Muslims. I mean -- those other non-Muslims who are only pretending to be Muslim but are in fact... well, they actually are Muslims but they're going about it all wrong, really! First you settle in and wait until they've forgotten you're there and then-- hah hah! Just kidding! Infidels have no sense of humor! No nuance!
"So, where were we -- terrorists? Awful, awful. Nothing to do with us, of course -- Islam is a religion of peace."
Posted by: Andrea Harris at July 11, 2005 10:23 PMA ROPMA cleric in London declared on Friday that "there is no such thing as civilians". Islamic clerics in the UK are doing the same thing...expressing sorrow for the deaths but not condeming the attacks.
Posted by: Andrew Ian Dodge at July 12, 2005 04:12 AM"no such thing as civilians" - So who were those 100,000 "civilians" the Lancet claimed we killed?
Posted by: Ken Summers at July 12, 2005 06:08 AMHere are some other articles about the exact same event:
From The Oakland Tribune:
http://www.insidebayarea.com/searchresults/ci_2848821
"We're joining Americans of all faiths to condemn the attacks in London," said Imran Maskatia of Hayward, a member of the Islamic Networks Group. "Those who are responsible for the acts are distorting and defaming the name of Islam."
From The San Francisco Chronicle:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2005/07/09/MNGNEDLFON1.DTL
"We really want our voice to be heard in clear terms," said Souleiman Ghali, president of the Islamic Society of San Francisco, during a news conference at the group's headquarters. "We want the people of this country to know that the people who committed these terrorists acts are criminals and that (the American Muslim community) is here to fight against extremism and hate."
And here's another one:
http://www.pluralism.org/news/index.php
'Those who committed these crimes act in their own name only,' said Amina Ansari of the Washington, D.C.-based Council on American-Islamic Relations, and added that the Quran condemns violence.
Posted by: Zaki at July 14, 2005 10:26 PMDid any of you even bother to READ the quotes in this article?
Did anyone bother to pay attention that the quotes at hand preach the message of moral, racial, and human tolerance - among all races, religions, and creeds.
Are any of you smart enough to decipher the quotes about "standing up to prejudices" and not letting the fanatical zealots speak on behalf of Islam, and standing up for the true values of Islam...which as any educated person knows, is a religion that preaches moral values, equality among all human brothers and sisters, and praises the value of life, home, love, and happiness.
How many of you saw the headline and just did a (ctrl+f) search for the word "condemn?"
How many of you are so wound up and completely ignorant to what the values of our own nation, and what the values of our own different religions are based on...what they stand for...
Oh, gee, it's the same thing.
It's almost as if you people are looking for a reason to start a fight.
Think of it this way...why is it that when a black person commits a crime, we don't shit ourselves silly and boast outrageous claims that all black people are criminals?
Why is it that when some whitebread southern hillbilly WHITE MAN "accidentally" knocks up his cousin...why don't we boast outrageous claims that all white people from the south are inbred?
The examples are simple given the audience I'm preaching to (namely you)...but given that...why is it that when a man commits an act of terrorism and that man happens to be Muslim...why do we go around boasting outrageous claims that all Muslims are terrorists?
Why are some of you so deranged and set in your ignorant ways that you can't accept the truth that there is a HUGE majority of Muslims and people of Islamic faith that are fighting their hardest to stop the sadistic ways of these religious fanatics that are giving their people a bad wrap?
Why do we not believe in their efforts just because they choose not to fight their war with guns?
Seriously...put down the remote, go outside and mingle with the three dimensional people, try reading more, try educating yourselves more, and try to get an accurate grasp of what's really going on in the world before you jump on the bandwagon of some ranting and raving a-hole like this Ken Summers guy.
My guess...he's at home, watching Springer, with one finger on the button and the other up his nose.
Posted by: Mr. Boy at July 14, 2005 10:32 PMZaki, thanks for the first two quotes. That third one from CAIR, though, is rather weaselly but pretty typical of CAIR.
Mr. Boy, I read all of the quotes. Not a single condemnation of the terrorist acts, only whining about prejudice against Muslims. Obviously, you didn't read what I wrote. Go back and read it again, then come back and try again.
Posted by: Ken Summers at July 15, 2005 06:10 AM
