Friday, January 5, 2007
Asking Muslims to denounce terrorism is like asking Catholics to denounce pedophilia
Here’s a letter I wrote that was published in the local newspaper, the Herald-Mail. It was in response to a letter written by someone who was calling for all Muslims to denounce terrorism. For some reason, it struck a nerve with me. Here is my letter:
I wanted to weigh in with an opinion on the recent letter written by Jack Myers where he called upon Muslims everywhere to denounce suicide terror attacks. Why stop at only calling on Muslims to denounce terrorism? Should be ask all religious people to denounce terrorism?
Muslims believe in the God of Abraham, along with people of the Jewish and the Christian faith. Should everyone that worships the God of Abraham also denounce terrorism? There are over a billion peace loving people in the world that practice Islam. Only a small percentage of that number recognizes or endorses terrorism as a legitimate method of achieving objectives. It is ridiculous and insulting to lump all Muslims in with the terrorists. The reality is that an overwhelming majority of Muslims don’t condone terrorism or even know a terrorist.
Asking Muslims to denounce terrorism is like asking Catholics to denounce pedophilia. Of course the vast majority of Catholics do not condone or endorse pedophilia. Similarly, the vast majority of Muslims do not condone or endorse terrorism. Don’t allow the actions of a small few lead you to make erroneous judgments about a majority.
I don’t know if we will ever win this war on terror. How do you win a war against a technique? I do know that we will not win it by insulting a billion Muslims that don’t support terrorism. It’s giving credibility to the idiotic notion that all Muslims are blood thirsty terrorists that only have children so they can strap bombs on them and turn them into suicide bombers.
It’s like asking Christians to denounce rattlesnake handling.
The ironic thing about my letter to the paper was the title they gave my letter. It’s as though the editor didn’t even read what I wrote.
He entitled it, “All should denounce terrorism“.
Really? Was I saying that everyone should denounce terrorism? That’s not even close to the point I was making.
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“All should denounce terrorism?” Is it possible that they were trying to dissuade people from reading your letter by giving it the lamest title possible? Local news editors need to visit Headbutts ‘R’ Us.
You win a war against a technique the same way you win a war against an emotional state. That’s why, after we win the War on Terror, I hope we get straight to work on the War on Heartbreak (something that hits much closer to home for me).