Interesting article from the Chicago SunTimes. Read and discuss...
Peaceful Muslims should turn their anger toward Islamofascists
September 18, 2006
BY MARY LANEY
Something's wrong. As I thumb through the pages of newspapers and magazines and flip through newscasts on radio and television, it seems that something is terribly wrong.
While the overwhelming majority of Muslims in America are peaceful citizens, their voices are not ringing out.
We are at war. Islamofascists have declared war on the United States and stated that they intend to kill all Americans. And they've shown us that they mean business.
We've just passed the anniversary of the worst attack on America in history, 9/11, when Muslim terrorists killed nearly 3,000 innocent men, women and children as they turned passenger planes into missiles. Yet the news is filled with stories of Muslims -- not loudly condemning the Muslim murderers -- but complaining of their treatment here and demanding Americans change their attitudes.
We Americans should change our attitudes? Terrorist cells have been discovered here. Plots to blow up bridges and the Sears Tower have been uncovered. Bomb-making supplies carried by Muslim terrorists have been stopped at our borders. A plot to bomb 10 airliners bound for the United States was foiled. Yet we Americans should change our attitudes?
America has opened its doors and universities to Muslims from foreign countries -- perhaps the best way for these students to see our freedoms and develop a new respect for our country. But where, I ask, is the returned show of support?
Pope Benedict is calling on moderate Muslims to speak out against the violent strain of Islam, calling jihad a movement against the nature of God. But where are the moderate Muslim voices here? Why aren't they speaking up to repudiate the kidnappings, suicide murders and beheadings done by Islamofascists?
For an answer, I went to the Web site of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, CAIR. But the CAIR site highlights a workshop on how to "Know Your Rights"; a section on "Political Empowerment"; a demand to put a Muslim holiday on all school calendars.
This past spring, Muslim students at Michigan State University held a protest -- not to decry Islamic terrorists -- but to speak out loudly against Danish cartoons depicting Mohammed as a terrorist. What's worse is this: When a tenured professor, I.S. Wichman, sent an e-mail to a student, the school's Muslim Student Association made the letter public and demanded that the professor be officially reprimanded.
What had Wichman written? He wrote that, more than being offended by the cartoons, he was offended "by beheadings of civilians, cowardly attacks on public buildings, suicide murderers, murders of Catholic priests (the latest in Turkey), burnings of Christian churches, the continued persecution of Coptic Christians in Egypt, the imposition of Sharia law on non-Muslims, the rapes of Scandinavian girls and women, the murder of a film director in Holland, and the rioting and looting in France."
He went on to write, "If you do not like the values of the West -- see the First Amendment -- you are free to leave."
It seems that the students believe they have the right to protest cartoons, but professors don't have the right to speak out against murderous atrocities. Something's wrong.
To Michigan State's credit, the professor will not be reprimanded as he was exercising his right to free speech.
We are at war. Our soldiers are following the rules of war -- but their opposition is not.
CIA counterterrorism officers are buying private insurance to cover legal costs in case they are charged with a crime, as is being hinted at by some members of Congress who feel their interrogation techniques might be too "tough."
In Iraq, Americans have been kidnapped, tortured, beheaded, burned, hanged from bridges, dragged through streets. But the CIA's method of questioning a terrorist in a cold room while playing loud music is too "tough"?
We're fighting a war for civilization against an enemy bent on destroying it and creating an Islamic world based on a warped view of what true Islam is -- yet where are the voices of American Muslims condemning this enemy?
Something's wrong.
Peaceful Muslims should turn their anger toward Islamofascists
September 18, 2006
BY MARY LANEY
Something's wrong. As I thumb through the pages of newspapers and magazines and flip through newscasts on radio and television, it seems that something is terribly wrong.
While the overwhelming majority of Muslims in America are peaceful citizens, their voices are not ringing out.
We are at war. Islamofascists have declared war on the United States and stated that they intend to kill all Americans. And they've shown us that they mean business.
We've just passed the anniversary of the worst attack on America in history, 9/11, when Muslim terrorists killed nearly 3,000 innocent men, women and children as they turned passenger planes into missiles. Yet the news is filled with stories of Muslims -- not loudly condemning the Muslim murderers -- but complaining of their treatment here and demanding Americans change their attitudes.
We Americans should change our attitudes? Terrorist cells have been discovered here. Plots to blow up bridges and the Sears Tower have been uncovered. Bomb-making supplies carried by Muslim terrorists have been stopped at our borders. A plot to bomb 10 airliners bound for the United States was foiled. Yet we Americans should change our attitudes?
America has opened its doors and universities to Muslims from foreign countries -- perhaps the best way for these students to see our freedoms and develop a new respect for our country. But where, I ask, is the returned show of support?
Pope Benedict is calling on moderate Muslims to speak out against the violent strain of Islam, calling jihad a movement against the nature of God. But where are the moderate Muslim voices here? Why aren't they speaking up to repudiate the kidnappings, suicide murders and beheadings done by Islamofascists?
For an answer, I went to the Web site of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, CAIR. But the CAIR site highlights a workshop on how to "Know Your Rights"; a section on "Political Empowerment"; a demand to put a Muslim holiday on all school calendars.
This past spring, Muslim students at Michigan State University held a protest -- not to decry Islamic terrorists -- but to speak out loudly against Danish cartoons depicting Mohammed as a terrorist. What's worse is this: When a tenured professor, I.S. Wichman, sent an e-mail to a student, the school's Muslim Student Association made the letter public and demanded that the professor be officially reprimanded.
What had Wichman written? He wrote that, more than being offended by the cartoons, he was offended "by beheadings of civilians, cowardly attacks on public buildings, suicide murderers, murders of Catholic priests (the latest in Turkey), burnings of Christian churches, the continued persecution of Coptic Christians in Egypt, the imposition of Sharia law on non-Muslims, the rapes of Scandinavian girls and women, the murder of a film director in Holland, and the rioting and looting in France."
He went on to write, "If you do not like the values of the West -- see the First Amendment -- you are free to leave."
It seems that the students believe they have the right to protest cartoons, but professors don't have the right to speak out against murderous atrocities. Something's wrong.
To Michigan State's credit, the professor will not be reprimanded as he was exercising his right to free speech.
We are at war. Our soldiers are following the rules of war -- but their opposition is not.
CIA counterterrorism officers are buying private insurance to cover legal costs in case they are charged with a crime, as is being hinted at by some members of Congress who feel their interrogation techniques might be too "tough."
In Iraq, Americans have been kidnapped, tortured, beheaded, burned, hanged from bridges, dragged through streets. But the CIA's method of questioning a terrorist in a cold room while playing loud music is too "tough"?
We're fighting a war for civilization against an enemy bent on destroying it and creating an Islamic world based on a warped view of what true Islam is -- yet where are the voices of American Muslims condemning this enemy?
Something's wrong.
