9-11 is not a Muslim Issue
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Posted in : Opinion:
- On : Sep 11, 2009
By Bruce Fenton
Lisa Belkin and The New York Times today featured a guest blog from Moina Noor (a public education blogger) in which she describes trying to make sense of 9-11 for her young son, while still trying to understand it all herself.
“Explaining 9/11 to a Muslim Child”
By making this a “Muslim” issue we play in to the very fears and stereotypes we seek to avoid. The primary description of the people who committed this act is not “Muslim” but “murderer”.
Yes, this terrible act was committed by Muslims, we get it. But the actions of 17 lunatics do not create a permanent burden for 2 billion others solely because they share the same root faith (albeit very different interpretations of that faith).
Where do we hear of Christian parents worrying about how to explain the actions of Slobodam Milosevic to their children? Milosevic killed 100,000 people in the name of religion but in no way represents Christians.
Explaining 9-11 to a Muslim child should be the same as to any other child: it was a horrible act. The fanatics who did this didn’t do it “in the name of religion” as the NYT piece states, they had specific political demands, such as to remove the US involvement in the Mid East, in addition they were religious extremists. Even if they had acted solely in the name of religion – so what? They don’t represent the religion of Islam any more than Reverend Phelps represents Christians when he pickets funerals of homosexuals with his famous “God hates fags” signs.
Anyone who would commit mass murder of this nature is crazy, plain and simple. All religions and all large groups have their share of crazies and most have their share of mass murderers as well.
While similar numbers to those 3000 who died on 9-11 die weekly in various conflict around the world,the shocking and visual nature of this attack and the damage to the the previously untouchable American psyche made this particular violence stand out more than the many other natural and unnatural disasters worldwide. Television footage, the untouchable attitude that America had and a bit of ego made many Americans feel as if 9-11 was the greatest tragedy in history. In terms of loss of life, it wasn’t even the greatest tragedy of the decade, let alone the century: the Southeast Asian Tsunami claimed 30 times as many lives, the Invasion of Iraq over 100 times as many, war in Africa 1000 times as many.
Because of the nature of the attack, as well as total lack of understanding about Muslims by most Americans, the media and the public were quick to paint this as an us vs. them struggle. Instead of identifying the perpetrators, engaging in investigation, catching them and bringing them to justice, as was done with the international manhunt for Carlos the Jackal, our very foreign policy was changed. Attitudes about this religion in the US, (one of the top 15 Muslim countries, population-wise) not only changed but brought us away from the values we hold most dear. Americans who would stand in the line of fire to protect religious freedom and fight discrimination suddenly dismissed and abandoned our citizens who needed us most.
We didn’t just suffer in our own borders, the us vs. them mentality led to support of the Iraq Invasion even though the terrorists identified as responsible were from Afghanistan, a country with a different language over 1000 miles away. Invading Iraq was like saying that to stop Mexican drug cartels we should bomb New Hampshire: after all, Mexicans and people in New Hampshire share an international border and do generally practice the same religion. When media, ignorance, irrationality and fear create a climate that makes reasonable people think that a significant percentage of two billion Muslim want them dead because they “hate freedom”, then even the irrational becomes justified. The nation who prides itself most on religious freedom would likely never have attacked Iraq if not for religion. Most ironic is that Saddam’s Iraq was non-religious, even anti-religion; Saddam was notoriously secular, isolated from Islamic governments and gave no power to religious authority in his own government. One of the first things that the Coalition Provisional Authority did after the invasion was impose political, social and geographic division between Shia and Sunni. During and after the invasion, the Iraq conflict the religious angle was more promoted along with the inaccurate term “jihadist”. While “jihad” actually means an internal struggle it was co-opted by the media to mean “Islamic extremist”.
The notion that these extremists were somehow a threat to our Constitution or representative of any statistically significant number of the world’s 2 billion Muslims became the norm. Politicians, in a thin effort at political correctness tacked the word “extreme” or “radical” in front of the word “Islam” to be sure to separate the religion as if it were something resembling a 50/50 or even 90/10 split: the ‘good’ Muslims like those millions who live here in the US and the “bad” ones who beat women and seek our destruction. The FBI stated that their best bet to fight terror is to reach out to the “Muslim community” and engage them. While better than stating an intention to tear up the Bill of Rights and kick in doors and detain people based on religion, this statement ludicrously lumps Muslims together as if everyone has a cousin hiding in a closet with a bomb. The effort would be as sensible as “reaching out” to Irish Catholic Americans in Lockport NY in an effort to stop the next Timothy McVeigh. Some didn’t even bother with political correctness or sensibility at all, like one politician who stated that the problem was not just the Taliban but the Shia and the Sunni, in other words, all Muslims.
In reality the number of Muslims who engage in terror or seek the destruction of the US is absolutely no higher than Christians or any other group. It cant even be represented statistically as it is such a small number. On return from one of my trips to the Middle East someone asked me how much evidence of Al Qaida I saw in Dubai. I told him they are just about as prominent as the Timothy McVeigh militia would be in Boston or the Columbia drug cartel armies would be in Atlanta.
In the wake of 9-11 even many Muslims fell in to the trap of thinking that their religion was somehow divided between the terrorists and the good guys in any meaningful way. Hundreds of Islamic groups, schools and leaders issued condemnations of the actions of terrorists, yet a perceived failure to condemn these acts is still a common criticism. Some sought to purposely distance themselves, almost proclaiming “I’m a Muslim, but one of the peaceful kind.” Other Muslims, some of whom have lived in the US or Europe all their lives, bought in to the notion that all predominately Muslim countries were filled with public stoning, abuse of women and thriving terror cells. In the US, women who lived in the land of the free were made to feel ashamed at wearing a headscarf in public and hate crimes against Muslims skyrocketed. Many Muslims hid or downplayed their faith.
Others, like the exceedingly talented communicator, Queen Raina address the misconceptions head on. Queen Raina, in her YouTube video series even responded to a question about Muslim honor killings and the need to stop them. Sadly, apologizing for honor killings or identifying them with Islam is a lot like having an accountant from Omaha apologize for the actions of LA gang members. Far more people are killed annually by gang violence than by honor killings. Its simply not statistically relevant. Some crazy Muslim man killing his daughter for “honor” is no more representative of Islam than a youth in Baltimore being killed for his sneakers. Do Muslims commit acts of terror? Sure, some do. Just as some Americans murder children, kill people for sneakers or hang people from trees for the color of their skin – but its not what being an American is about by any stretch. Muslims did not need to apologize for 9-11 or condemn every crazy act by a Muslim any more than any other group should have to answer for the actions of all its members.
Terror does not represent Islam. Terrorists are no more common in Islam than any other religion.
The son of the woman who wrote the column, Moina Noor, does not need to be ashamed of his religion or heritage and does not need to apologize for the actions of extremists any more than an Irish or English person needs to atone for their strife or a Christian needs to apologize for the KKK. Instead, teach Muslim and all other children to hold their heads high and be proud of their beliefs, their heritage, the color of their skin and their faith.
Noor’s young son and all his classmates, of all religions, creeds and colors should live without apology for any acts other than their own and they should live free of discrimination, and expectations based on stereotypes.
Despite public misconceptions and opinion, there are many who remember our truest values and would lay down their life to protect them and those rights.
Eight years after the terrorist attacks of 9/11, Americans see Muslims as facing more discrimination inside the U.S. than any other major religious group. Nearly six-in-ten adults say that Muslims are subject
to a lot of discrimination, far more than say the same about Jews, evangelical Christians, atheists or Mormons, according to a new Pew Research Center survey.