Reply to Are we allowed to say "Islamic terrorists"?

Forum Index » Political Discussion

Reply to "Are we allowed to say "Islamic terrorists"?"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=jsteele][quote=Anonymous][quote=jsteele][quote=Anonymous]How about we take these terrorists on their word? They say they are doing it for Allah. I say we believe them.

[/quote]

I have no problem with that. What I have a problem with is your applying what they say about themselves to all other Muslims.

ISIS has been very clear in its propaganda that one of its goals is to erase the "gray area" that exists between Muslims and the West. Communists use to call this "heightening the contradictions". They want to cause Muslims to choose between groups like ISIS and the West and the more that the West demonstrates that it is anti-Islamic, the more likely Muslims will be to choose ISIS. So, all of you who believe that blaming the entire religion is an acceptable or useful strategy are actually playing into the hands of ISIS. I doubt that is what you want to do. The best strategy is to focus your anger and hatred like a laser on that small number of Muslims behind this atrocity while making it clear to all other Muslims that you do not blame them. That would demonstrate clearly to ISIS that it's strategy has failed.
[/quote]

This is convoluted.  We have been tiptoeing around this since 9-11, careful not to label extremism as a Muslim problem.  Bush was very careful in this respect, noting that Islam is a religion of peace in the days after 9-11.  The West has walked on egg shells not to "offend" moderate Muslims.  I said this in a previous post and either it didn't post or it was deleted, we have secular Persian friends who are vocal about the calls to violence in the Koran.  There are Arabs in Israel who are vocal about stopping the Palestinian incitement of violence.  Yes there are millions of peace loving followers of Islam. But, are they good Muslims in the eyes of their religion?  ISIS and others would say no.

You are blaming the West and its "anti-Islamic" policies for forcing middle of the road Muslims to become extremists.  Are we pushing moderate Muslims to become terrorists because they may be subject to heightened security at airports?  Because they are angry that they can't wear the hijab in certain circumstances? Because they feel that Western society blames them?

We are reading far too much into the psyche of these barbarians.  Their cause is clear, they fear nothing and they are quite successful at killing their own and getting better and better at killing everyone else.  [/quote]

I think in the course of writing your post you nearly came around to my way of thinking. If you want to take ISIS at its word that it is acting in the name of Islam, then why not take the organization at its word that it wants to increase the divide between Muslims and the West? That actually doesn't require looking too deeply. While the issues you mention in your second paragraph are important, they pale in comparison to folks in the West calling for the mass killing of Muslims or burning Mosques (both of which have been done on DCUM in the last several hours).
[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics