It is hard not to notice two contrasting stories that have run side by side during the past week. One is the story about the violent protests in the Muslim world triggered by a report in Newsweek (which the magazine has now retracted) that U.S. interrogators at Guantánamo Bay desecrated a Koran by throwing it into a toilet. In Afghanistan alone, at least 16 people were killed and more than 100 wounded in anti-American rioting that has been linked to that report. I certainly hope that Newsweek story is incorrect, because it would be outrageous if U.S. interrogators behaved that way.
That said, though, in the same newspapers one can read the latest reports from Iraq, where Baathist and jihadist suicide bombers have killed 400 Iraqi Muslims in the past month - most of them Shiite and Kurdish civilians shopping in markets, walking in funerals, going to mosques or volunteering to join the police.
Yet these mass murders - this desecration and dismemberment of real Muslims by other Muslims - have not prompted a single protest march anywhere in the Muslim world. And I have not read of a single fatwa issued by any Muslim cleric outside Iraq condemning these indiscriminate mass murders of Iraqi Shiites and Kurds by these jihadist suicide bombers, many of whom, according to a Washington Post report, are coming from Saudi Arabia.The Muslim world's silence about the real desecration of Iraqis, coupled with its outrage over the alleged desecration of a Koran, highlights what we are up against in trying to stabilize Iraq - as well as the only workable strategy going forward.
Read it for yourself.
I would add that Americans attitude about this story is outrage, as it should be if it had in fact been true, too bad for liberal America it isn't, but what if someone had flushed a Bible down the toilet and Christians had rioted? I imagine the Christians would be called hypocrits. What if someone had written a novel about a Islam where they made something up about the prophet Muhammed that went against Isalm teachings?
2 comments:
That is a good article. The author makes a very good point about the silence in the Muslim world about their own people's prejudices towards their fellow Muslims. And you pose a thoughtful question. Christians would face a harsh public opinion if the situation was reversed. But then, if Jesus were here on Earth today, would he encourage Christians to act out against those who had desecrated our faith? I doubt it. But unfortunately, turning the other cheek hasn't worked in a long time, either. It makes me wonder what Jesus would have us do in today's world. It would be hard. As I said - a very thoughtful question.
And yet the biggest story will slip right by - the battle that we all collectively lost when our Secretary of State appeased and pleaded with our enemies that they might show us quarter - and then offer up our freedom in exchange for peace and security?
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