the Muslim Non-Radicals
Whenever there is a violent act of Islamic extremism the typical reaction of those “hard on Islamism” is to point out that this is somehow endemic to Muslim culture, citing the facts that there aren’t protests and statements condemning these violent acts. I knew that after 9/11 there were tons of protests around the Muslim condemning the acts — such as a protest of 1 million in Tehran… oh then they sent troops to help us and NATO fight in Afghanistan… and the we repaid them by labeling them as a member of the Axis of Evil. But I always thought it was discouraging and suspicious that I would never hear of loud centrist Muslim voices. I knew that it was either A) a matter of there being no loud centrist voices or B) a lack of reporting in American media giving voice to these centrist voices. I always assumed that the latter was more likely to be the truth.
So it’s good to see someone pointing out the vehement condemnations of many mainstream Muslims in the wake of the the New Years’ Day terrorist attack on a Coptic church in Cairo, Egypt. Here is a link to an English newspaper out of Cairo from the conservative blogger Claire Berlinski, who lives in works in Istanbul:
Different political groups called for a demonstration today at 7 PM in Shubra in front Dawaran shubra square, under the slogan “one nation one country one worry” to condemn attacks on Saints church.
Parties and groups who answered the call and declared that they will be participating include Karama Party, El-Amal Islamic Party, the recently formed leftist group Hashd, The National Association for Change, the Justice and Freedom group, The Revolutionary Socialists and the 6th of April movement.
I thought it was great to see Andrew Sullivan post this as a rebuttal to hateful spew that exits Marty Peretz’s head. As far as I can see, Peretz hasn’t added anything or updated his blog in response. Any one with a brain and a computer (this link too)can figure out that this guy — who runs one of America’s biggest “liberal magazines” — is a racist.
Berlinski also makes a point on why acknowledging the veracity of these protests is so important:
It’s pretty damned important to know which group [was behind the bombing]. It matters a lot whether this was the work of al Qaeda or the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood. The implications would be very different.
The answer “Don’t get bogged down in the details, all Muslims are the problem—they’re either doing this or they support it somehow” is not remotely useful to formulating any kind of policy response (and also not true). It does not clarify the picture in some salutary, common-sense way—it just throws ink on the very details that most need to be understood, and understood quickly.
