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May 27, 2013, 6:40 p.m. ETNew to the job Islamist terror go bust, option just about of assurances that it had nil to do with the religion of calm.
By AYAAN HIRSI ALI
I've seen this before. A Muslim terrorist slays a non-Muslim subject in the West, and compilation of the Muslim community rush to disconnect themselves and their depend on from the dreadfulness. Behind schedule British warrior Lee Rigby was hacked to death sure week in Woolwich in south London, Julie Siddiqi, pro the Islamic Interest group of Britain, precisely stepped before the microphones to attest that all good Muslims were "sickened" by the go bust, "make even enjoyment somebody extremely."
This happens every time. Muslim men killing suits and ties, or women killing voguish headscarves, are sent out to quiet period the world that these attacks take no place in real Islam, that they are aberrations and corruptions of the true depend on.
But subsequently what to make of Omar Bakri? He too claims to speak for the true depend on, despite the fact that he was hard at it for cameras in England sure week at the same time as the Islamist group he founded, Al-Muhajiroun, was not on in Britain in 2010. Instead, he talked to the media from Tripoli in northern Lebanon, everyplace he now lives. Michael Adebolajo-the accused Woolwich bloodthirsty who was seen on a video at the prospect of the execute, dialogue to the camera to the same degree displaying his brutal hands and a extract cleaver-was Bakri's supporter a decade ago, before his group was not on. "A low down man, very shy, asking oodles of questions about Islam," Bakri recalled sure week. The tutor was imprinted to see in the chilling video how far his shy follower had come, "standing taut, chivalrous, brave. Not management to the left."
Bakri to boot told the press: "The Prophet understood an infidel and his bloodthirsty moral fiber not perform in Hell. That's a attractive saying. May God award [Adebolajo] for his undertakings... I don't see it as a transgression as far as Islam is concerned."
The post-mortem requiring an upshot at this stage in history is clear: Which group of leaders really speaks for Islam? The with authorization allowed spokesmen for the "Muslim community"? Or the manic technique preachers of supporting Islam, who beat, defend and train the killers-and subsequently bless their bloodshed?
Islamic Interest group of Britain/Reuters
Julie Siddiqi, executive elder of the Islamic Interest group of Britain; Omar Bakri, a breakthrough Muslim high priest obtainable from Britain.
In America, too, the post-mortem is full of meaning. Who speaks for Islam? The Parliament on American-Islamic Those, America's main Muslim civil-liberties advocacy organization? Or one of the a variety of Web-based jihadists who take stepped in to store the place of the dead Anwar al-Awlaki, the American-born al Qaeda recruiter?
Some turn down even to attach importance to that this is the post-mortem on everyone's custody. Astonishingly, definite the litany of Islamist attacks-from the 9/11 daydream in America and the London bombings of July 7, 2005, to the slayings at Stronghold Tough guy in Texas in 2009, at the Boston Marathon sure month and now Woolwich-some restrain to disallow any interlock along with Islam and terrorism. This week, BBC supporting editor Nick Robinson had to compensate for saying on the air, as the facts in Woolwich underprivileged, that the men who murdered Lee Rigby were "of Muslim contour."
Shade to the BBC: The killers were din "Allahu akbar" as they struck. Yet when complaints rained down on the BBC about Mr. Robinson's word condescending, he felt obliged to atone. One can simply wonder at band who can be so gracefully interested in defensive Islam's family name yet so completely desensitized to a macabre execute colorfully bold in the name of Islam.
In the income of the Boston Marathon bombing and the Woolwich execute, it was good to stick lexis of dreadfulness and insight from Islamic spokesmen, but everything a cut above is severely required: determined positive feedback of the delivery with Islam.
Muslim leaders necessity ask themselves what as it should be their empathy is to a supporting evolution that encourages children men to burst and injure on spiritual argue. Inspiration of the Tsarnaev brothers and the way they non-discriminatory the bedlam they caused in Boston. Ponder meticulously the words sure week of Michael Adebolajo, his hands marked with blood: "We be adamant by almighty Allah we moral fiber never cut out court case you. The simply protest we take done this is at the same time as Muslims are dying every day."
My friend, the Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh, was murdered in 2004 for having been poorly deferential on the way to Islam. In the courtroom, the bloodthirsty looked at Theo's mother and understood to her: "I condition hold promptly that I do not empathize with you. I do not noise your torment.... I cannot empathize with you at the same time as you are an unbeliever."
And yet, overdue reasonably a decade of united rhetoric from Islamists approaching the world, sure week the Curator essay could nonetheless run a route quoting a Muslim Londoner: "These poor idiots take nil to do with Islam." Really? Nothing?
Of course, the muggy market leadership of Muslims are not terrorists or indulgent to terrorists. Equating all Muslims with terrorism is thickheaded and patchy. But acknowledging that give is a interlock along with Islam and terror is abide and critical.
On apiece sides of the Atlantic, politicians, academics and the media take away mind-boggling survival as the lingo of Islamist terror attacks continues. Time was Business leader Obama gave his early aside about the Boston bombings, he didn't hint Islam at all. This week, Rudimentary Priest David Cameron and London Mayor Boris Johnson take ordered the kind statements of the Muslim leaders to the effect that Lee Rigby's execute has nil to do with Islam.
But a variety of expected band stick such statements and fumble their heads in bewilderment. A murderer kills a children flinch to the same degree yelling "Allahu akbar" and it's got nil to do with Islam?
I don't challenge Western leaders. They are pretense their best to mass the lid on what could become a meltdown of devotion along with market leadership populations and Muslim minority communities.
But I do challenge Muslim leaders. It is time they came up with a cut above influential dialogue points. Their communities take a invincible delivery. Basic band, some of whom are not innate hip the depend on, are person passionate up by preachers using basic Islamic scripture and mobilized to lay a wager jihad by breakthrough imams who pull themselves as open Muslim clergymen.
I wonder what would list if Muslim leaders enjoyment Julie Siddiqi started a joint and relentless revenge to dishonor these Islamist advocates of bedlam and execute. Not make even uttering the regular laments overdue option vile go bust, but making a endless, high-status challenge to moment the world that the preachers of be revolted by are dishonest. Behind schedule the bordering supporter has killed the bordering martyr of supporting Islam, claims about the "religion of calm" would ring truer.
Ms. Hirsi Ali is the inventor of "Nomad: My Trip from Islam to America" (Shapeless The media, 2010). She is a fellow at the Belfer Heart of Harvard's Kennedy Institution and a visiting fellow at the American Interest Flinch.
