Islam and Terrorism

We see different reactions to acts of terrorism by Muslims. They run the gamut from seeing the attacks as the true face of Islam to assertions that they are contrary to Islam. Since I am no expert on Islam, I have been interested to read several recent articles by people who appear to be we'll informed. I hope they can contribute to a better understanding of what Islam has to do with these attacks.

Perhaps most useful is this article by an evangelical Christian who grew up in the Muslim world. He gives a thorough analysis of various streams of Islam and makes what seems a strong case that the terrorists are acting in ways contrary to all mainstream forms of Islam. They may base their actions on various things in the Quran and other writings, but they are taking on an authority for themselves that they do not possess.

An article in the New Yorker makes the point that the terrorist jihadis are attacking Muslims too, as much as they are attacking non-Muslims.

Approaching it from another angle, there is this piece, about royal succession in Saudi Arabia (the king is over 90), making the point that the royal family has the delicate task of trying to modernize the country without provoking a rebellion from a population which is more conservative that they are. Perhaps we should not be too impatient. As deficient as Saudi Arabia is now, the alternative may not be more rapid growth in human rights, but worse repression.

We hear calls for "moderate Muslims" to denounce Islamic terrors. I've seen two types of response to this call. One is pointing out the numerous Muslim leaders who have denounced terrorism. http://theamericanmuslim.org/tam.php/features/articles/muslim_voices_against_extremism_and_terrorism_2/ and http://www.dallasnews.com/news/columnists/jacquielynn-floyd/20150108-should-mainstream-muslims-denounce-terrorism-they-do.ece and http://kurzman.unc.edu/islamic-statements-against-terrorism/ and http://peoplesworld.org/muslims-worldwide-denounce-isis-but-islamophobes-aren-t-listening/ Finally, here's an encouraging piece in a mainly Christian publication. From the author's first name, I gather she is Muslim. So to claim that Muslims don't publicly oppose Islamic terrorists is simply false. A second point is that it is not reasonable or just to equate silence on the part of the ordinary Muslim citizens with support for terrorists. Furthermore, it's perfectly understandable that people who do not favor the terrorists are hesitant to put themselves in a position where they become targets, just as some of our media decided not to publish the Charlie Hebdo cartoon so as not to make themselves targets.

We have examples of Muslims protecting non-Muslims, such as this from Paris last week. It's also noteworthy that the man was working in a kosher deli to begin with.

What I get from all of this is that while the terrorists are motivated by their understanding of Islam, their version of Islam is extremist. It is a distortion to see Muslims in general as threats. What happens is that when we see and hear so much about Islamic terrorism, terrorism becomes our image of Islam. It's a prejudice we need to be aware of and try to overcome.