Proper Response to Islamic Violence

For John, BLUF:  We can't solve Islam's problems for them, but we can hold them to the standards we expect of others.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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In The Wall Street Journal, dateline Sunday evening, Mr. Aly Salem, an Egyptian writer based in New York, says "Let's Talk About How Islam Has Been Hijacked".  The sub-title is "I'm appalled by what is done in the name of my religion. Yet my American friends don't want to hear it."

Yes, the question is, what are we as Americans doing right and wrong in discussions of Islam.

Here is the conclusion of the article:

Compare the collective response after each harrowing high-school shooting in America. Intellectuals and public figures look for the root cause of the violence and ask:  Why?  Yet when I ask why after every terrorist attack, the disapproval I get from my non-Muslim peers is visceral:  The majority of Muslims are not violent, they insist, the jihadists are a minority who don't represent Islam, and I am fear-mongering by even wondering aloud.

This is delusional thinking.  Even as the world witnesses the barbarity of beheadings, habitual stoning and severe subjugation of women and minorities in the Muslim world, politicians and academics lecture that Islam is a "religion of peace."  Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia routinely beheads women for sorcery and witchcraft.

In the U.S., we Muslims are handled like exotic flowers that will crumble if our faith is criticized—even if we do it ourselves.  Meanwhile, Republicans and Democrats alike would apparently prefer to drop bombs in Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan and beyond, because killing Muslims is somehow less offensive than criticizing their religion? Unfortunately, you can't kill an idea with a bomb, and so Islamism will continue to propagate.  Muslims must tolerate civilized public debate of the texts and scripture that inform Islamism.  To demand any less of us is to engage in the soft bigotry of low expectations.

There it is again, that dangerous phrase, "...the soft bigotry of low expectations."

The more subtle point is that ISIL (or ISIS or IS or da'eth) is not going to go away until Islam has its own internal dialogue and those of us outside the faith walk a fine line between unjustly condemning Muslims and mollycoddling Muslims.

And, at the end of the day it is their problem to fix.

Regards  —  Cliff