In Theory: In wake of Paris attacks, is an unfair burden placed on the Muslim community?

Jan. 20, 2015 11:24 AM PT

In the wake of the attack on the French satirical publication Charlie Hebdo and the deadly hostage crisis at a Paris kosher market last week, the Muslim community has once again been thrust into the public eye. This, of course, comes less than a month after the hostage crisis at a Sydney café, which was discussed in a previous In Theory question.

In a moving tribute to his brother, Ahmed Merabet, the police officer killed in the Charlie Hebdo attack, Malek Merabet said, “My brother was Muslim and he was killed by terrorists, by two false Muslims. Islam is a religion of peace and love.”

But these attacks have also prompted the question, “Why do Muslims have to apologize?”

Muslims and non-Muslims alike have been quick to point out that these were the acts of a radical group, not representative of the mainstream.

In a column published online by Time, basketball legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar writes that these attacks were motivated by business and politics, not religion. But he also writes, “When the Ku Klux Klan burns a cross in a black family’s yard, Christians aren’t required to explain how these aren’t Christian acts.”

He goes on to write, “We have to reach a point where we stop bringing Islam into these discussions. I know we aren’t there yet because much of the Western population doesn’t understand the Islamic religion.”

It’s a sentiment shared in a New York Times opinion piece by Linda Sarsour, executive director of the Arab American Assn. of New York.

“I am horrified by these attacks, but not because I am Muslim. I am horrified because I am human. By constantly apologizing and denouncing these attacks, Muslims reinforce the misguided public perception that they are connected to ISIS through the same basic ideology, when in fact they have nothing in common at all.”

Q. Because it is said these attacks by radicals unfairly portray people of the Muslim faith, is it time we start separating discussion about these attacks from religion? Is there an unfair expectation placed on the Muslim community when these acts are perpetrated?

There probably is an unfair expectation put on members of the Muslim community. And I have heard this issue raised before: The media needs to refer to such violent attacks as other than the deeds of “Islamic fundamentalists.” Before you say, “But that’s who is doing the killing!,” was Hitler called a “Christian extremist?” Of course not. But why not? Nazi soldiers had on their belts the inscription “Gott mit uns,” or “God with us.” And those “Christians” murdered some 6 million Jews during WWII, plus 5 million others. Also, Hitler had his own theologians who claimed to believe that the man who impregnated Mary was a blond, blue-eyed Roman soldier, producing, of course, a blond, blue-eyed Jesus!

And yet we still didn’t call him a “Christian fanatic.” Fanatic, yes, but we somehow — rightfully so — left off the misnomer “Christian” as an identifier. It’s time we dropped the “Muslim” or “Islamic” identifier from what we call the thugs who murder and commit unspeakable crimes. I’m not asking that we be “politically correct,” but every time we say “Islamic” and follow it with “fundamentalist” or “extremist,” we are impugning an Abrahamic religion (if you are a Christian or a Jew, you belong to an Abrahamic religion, too). Also, the word “Islam” means “peace.” It is unfair for us to paint with the same brush those who have hijacked a religion to serve their own evil purposes.

As one of my Muslim friends in La Cañada says, those people who in the name of Islam kill innocent people are — his word — “knuckleheads.”

I couldn’t agree more!

The Rev. Skip Lindeman
La Cañada Congregational Church
La Cañada Flintridge

I don’t think any individual should apologize for something he or she did not do. I think a person should say they are sorry for any injury they have caused another person, accidentally. I passionately do think that every one should apologize for anything done, intentionally, that harms another human being. More so, I advocate that innocent members of all communities should step up and proclaim their sorrow for any community’s innocents who have been harmed, their families and their loved ones.

Unfortunately, my calling for a universal shrill cry of anguish for innocents, no matter who they are or where they reside, was seen as a veiled attempt to make Muslims feel guilty for the crimes of other Muslims. Don’t put words or ideas in my words. We should all feel anguish over the death of any innocents.

Let us begin our cry of mourning in this manner: Quote scripture, yours, mine or ours (Koran Sura 2:62 or 5:69 or Tanakh Leviticus 19:18). Fellow believer in the Creator, Muslim, Jew or Christian, let us wail, the innocent loss of life, together, whether it happens in Algeria or Zanzibar, Norway or New Zealand or any place, land, sea or air, in between. Have we not all one Father, has not one God created us? And shall we not mourn the loss of even one of us?

Rabbi Mark Sobel
Temple Beth Emet
Burbank

I am truly sympathetic to those who worry about “those Muslims” based on the news of the world. But there comes a point where we moderate Muslims can’t possibly be put on our heels every time an act is committed by some group we’ve never heard of, or by some mentally deranged criminal who claims our faith.

It has reached a point of exasperation for us Muslims who have spoken out for decades, but to never be heard, and instead be told “where are the moderate Muslims?” Worse yet is to have our voices drowned out by both the terrorists and the media-fueled/politically motivated ignoramuses who capitalize on those acts of terror to generate more fuel of hate toward Islam.

To be clear, yes, the Muslim world is in its Dark Age. There is a fundamental lack of freedom (religious, civil, economic, human, etc.) in Muslim-majority countries in the Middle East. Unfortunately, no one refers to the largest Muslim country in the world, Indonesia, and neighboring Malaysia, and how they live in pluralistic and economically vibrant societies.

So, as goes the Middle East, so goes the perception of the Muslim world. And with that comes the damaged baggage of historic colonialism, the Palestinian/Israeli conflict, ISIS, Iraq, etc.

For this Muslim, who was born in New York, raised in L.A., goes to work every day, loves the Lakers, goes to Mosque, gets stuck in traffic, has bills to pay, tries to keep fit and eat healthy, who loves his wife, has children to love and raise, and is just trying to lead a God-conscious productive life, I’m not going to get pegged by the stupidity of those who think I’m a terrorist or an apologist for terrorists.

Omar S. Ricci
Muslim
Glendale

It is useful to clarify terminology yet impossible to avoid mentioning religion in discussing attacks by avowed Islamic groups. Granted, the struggle is not about theology as much as over land, resources and political power.

Because Islam is being given an undeserved black eye, Muslims do need to condemn violence done in the guise of their faith, and to educate the unenlightened. Many have, and will continue, to speak out. This responsibility falls to all reasonable people as well.

As the world fixates on satirical cartoons and on outward expressions of identity, I can’t help but think of the playground chant: “Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me.” Neither will head-scarves.

Meanwhile the masters of war grind out the weapons that enable religious fanatics to kill and maim so effectively. If we don’t eliminate them worldwide, it will surely be nuclear explosions next. Let’s condemn all those too.

Roberta Medford
Atheist
Montrose

It’s time for much more than that.

It’s time for news media to report these horrific events without giving them such alarmed, exhaustive coverage, which only makes horrific violence all the more appealing to the nasty people out there, crazed for worldwide glory.

And it’s time for peace-minded, responsible producers to start giving Americans TV shows and movies with normal, everyday Muslim characters, wearing their head scarves and caps while happening to be someone’s friend, co-worker or hero.

It’s time for the rest of us to stop pretending that Islam is the only religion with an ancient history advocating war and atrocities. All of our religions, I think, can point to more than a few distasteful, bloodthirsty scripture passages, of which we say, “Yeah, but faithful people today don’t do that.”

Most of all, it’s time for sane, good people of all sorts and faiths to break bread together and make friends with each other.

A couple of thousand years ago, people expected Jesus to solve “the problems of the Middle East.” They anticipated a Messiah who would be a political revolutionary, a military conqueror, who would free them from oppression by Rome, and bring about peace.

He didn’t do that. What he did was say, “Come to dinner.”

And sitting around the table with him would be all sorts of people: men and women (unheard of!), the clean and the unclean, rich and poor, masters and slaves, Jews and Gentiles. Christians say that at the Last Supper, Jesus told his disciples, “Keep doing this” and for centuries, “this” has been taken to mean the nouns — the bread and wine. But my theory is that what Jesus meant was the verb — the action. “Keep having these meals, keep inviting like and unlike to sit down at the same table together, keep inviting people into friendships across societal norms. If you really want to remember me, do that.”

We can’t fix the world on our own, any of us. But we can live like it’s fixed; we can “act as if” until it’s true. So if the change you wish to see is world peace and religious tolerance, start by finding some co-worker, gym companion, neighbor or classmate of a different religion, and say, “Come to dinner.”

And then find another.

The Rev. Amy Pringle
St. George’s Episcopal Church
La Cañada Flintridge

Let me first address the erroneous correlation made by the basketball player. The KKK exists with white supremacy as its core value, and the Christian religion is secondary, if that. Its members assert the notion that Americanism is ipso facto Christianity. It reminds me of Mafia tales, where mobsters would go to confession to absolve their sins, then “whack” somebody the next hour. They weren’t Christians — they were culturally religious and entirely pagan.

A Christian corollary might be Jim Jones, the Disciples Of Christ pastor who dumped the Bible and declared himself God, then killed his congregation. That’s something we Christians had to explain. It wasn’t something we “apologized” for, but something for which we had to provide an “apologetic” (a defense).

Today, Muslims need to provide such an apologetic. They don’t need to “apologize” for the sins of their misguided brethren. They need to prove why terrorist Islam is not true Islam. The terrorists believe moderate Muslims to be liberals who really don’t even believe what their own scriptures teach. As a Christian, I’m gobsmacked at liberal colleagues who do the same with the Bible. They’ll toss uncomfortable commands for more contemporary secular sensibilities, and the Word of God takes a bath. So, who’s more seriously following the Koran and its companion volume the Hadith: ISIS, or the western Muslim who says those books don’t really mean what they say?

If I truly believed that Jesus commanded “kill the polytheists wherever you find them and capture them and besiege them and sit in wait for them at every place of ambush,” I would do just that! But Christ’s commands are completely contrary to this, and there are no open-ended passages that may be construed to encourage such. No, this passage is from the Koran 9:5. Since Muslims misunderstand the triune nature of the one Christian God, and believe Christians to be polytheists, our community remains uneasy.

Muslims need to provide a solid defense, then denounce their vocal fellows who claim no allegiance with the terrorists yet sympathize with their motivations. That’s what I’d do if I were them.

The Rev. Bryan Griem
Montrose Community Church
Montrose

Is there an unfair expectation placed on the Muslim community when these acts are perpetrated?

Unfair expectations are placed on each and every community. As soon as a community is identified, others approach it with hopes and anticipation. People are still honestly surprised that all women don’t want to be mothers or that all black people don’t like to dance.

It is still frustrating when an entire religious group is asked to apologize for the mistakes of a radical remnant. All thinking and sensitive 21st-century Christians should still be horrified at the church’s past support of institutions and ideas such as slavery or denial of the vote to many people. Likewise, many Muslims the world over are dismayed at the actions of many radicals.

Law-abiding Muslims hearts are broken; they perceive that the bonds of interreligious trust are strained. Apology perhaps does not do much besides make the apologizers feel beat up and in some way guilty for something that is not their fault. However this time of violence and unrest is an opportunity to go public, really public, and teach, really teach, the rest of the world about the peace and love and acceptance of being a Muslim. It might take a lot of examination on the part of Muslim leaders, and it may mean that a lot more faithful Muslims would want to study to learn the teachings of their Holy Book. But knowledge is power, and knowledge is something more — it is also the gateway to trust.

The Rev. Dr. William Thomas Jr.
Little White Chapel
Burbank

We shouldn’t expect Muslims of good will to apologize for terrorism, nor can we hold them responsible for the acts of violence that we have seen in Paris and elsewhere.

However, it is difficult to remove Islam from the conversation when the killers claim faith as their motive. The gunmen in Paris didn’t murder the Charlie Hebdo cartoonists because of French foreign policy or 19th-century imperialism or the Crusades. They killed because the cartoonists lampooned Muhammad. This is what they told onlookers. Likewise, many other terrorists stake the same claim on Islam.

Moderate Muslims ought to speak out, not to apologize, but to explain their beliefs and make clear the cultural or doctrinal distinctions that are lost on a Western society that understands little about Islam. They can help non-Muslims see why those who kill in the name of Islam do not truly represent their faith. Of course, many Muslims have condemned the terrorists’ horrific acts, not because they must as an act of contrition, but in the name of humanity. I hope they continue.

For our part, especially those who claim to embrace the teachings of Christ, we have an obligation, first, to see past our anger. Doing this is terribly difficult, but it is what we profess. We also cannot, according to our own moral codes, blame an entire community for the acts of a few. So we bear an obligation to understand our Muslim brothers and sisters, and to see the difference between the few who hate and the many who wish to live in peace.

Michael White
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
La Crescenta