Muslims Against Theocracy & Violence

I believe that the U.S. government goes much too far in its efforts to demonize “enemies” in order to maintain the support of the American people. The caricatures of the Japanese used in American posters during WWII, for example, not only helped keep anti-Japanese army sentiment high, but also helped enable the use of interment camps for American citizens of Japanese descent.

The practice is no longer as blatant as it once was in terms of government sponsored poster art, but language like Muslim terrorist as opposed to simple terrorist serves the same purpose. Everyone in the country is familiar with political cartoons depicting burnoose wearing, sword wielding characters assumed to be Muslims, too. They aren’t government sponsored posters, but they serve the same purpose. Since I do not believe that the Muslim faith in general is the problem, I find such imagery disturbing.

I find comments of friends and acquaintances to the effect that Islam preaches salvation through violence equally disturbing. They refer to the famous line about killing the “infidels” as evidence that all Muslims are sworn to kill us, while sliding over allusions to Biblical injunctions like “an eye for an eye”. Like some Muslims, some Christians pick and choose the “holy” verses they want to apply to a given situation in order to justify actions that they would not otherwise take.

Another thing I find disturbing, though, is that while I do hear some Christian leaders - though far too few - speaking out against unnecessary violence, I do not hear Muslim leaders, even in those minimal numbers, speaking out against such horrible violence as suicide bombings, IEDs, and holy wars.

If the Muslim world would like Americans and the rest of the world to perceive them in ways other than those in which they are portrayed in the American press, it seems to me that they would be wise to begin a serious and sustained effort to publicize themselves and their beliefs in other ways. Their silence makes them look guilty of supporting the violence.

On the other hand, maybe the silence isn’t of their choosing. Here are some examples of what doesn’t make it into the popular American press:

Colgate University has put together a web page designed to provide readers access to Muslim thought on the events of and subsequent to 911. You can review it at: http://groups.colgate.edu/aarislam/response.htm

Here’s a more recent reference that reports increasing leadership from Muslim leaders speaking out against theocracy and radical Islam: http://www.qando.net/details.aspx?Entry=5818

It is obvious to me that the confrontational rhetoric on both sides needs to be toned down and voices of sanity and restraint ought to be turned up. Why won’t the American domestic press do its part and publish the words of moderate Muslim leaders who seek the same peace as moderate Christian leaders? For that matter, the least they could do is publish the Christians, but instead what we get are the voices of G. W. Bush, dick Cheney, and Osama bin Laden.

“Moderation in all things," unless you are the press - there only extremism sells.


The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy. Instead of diminishing evil, it multiplies it. Through violence you may murder the liar, but you cannot murder the lie, nor establish the truth. Through violence you murder the hater, but you do not murder hate. In fact, violence merely increases hate. Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.
– Martin Luther King, Jr.

Be the change you wish to see in the world. -- M. K. Gandhi

Individually we have little voice. Collectively we cannot be ignored.
But in silence we surrender our power. Yours in Peace -- BR