Sheri Oz – Who’s Afraid To Talk About Islamic Terror?
Perhaps you see this video merely as a form of diversion, apologetics, a way to get people to dissociate Islam from terror. On the contrary, I see the video, as well as Facebook pages such as Talk Islam and 1 Million Muslim Voices Against Terrorism, as an invitation to talk about Islamic terror, not to avoid it.
Yet the Western world seems doomed to mire in “Political Correctness” because there are Muslims who are offended by putting together those two words, Islam and terror.
Would PC prevail if, instead of Muslim terrorists, those murderers were all Jews? Would anyone worry about offending us Jews by calling it Jewish terrorism? Given all the lies, distortions and hatred openly promulgated against Israel by supposedly serious press outlets and certainly on social media, I think everyone would have a field day.
But when the terrorists are Muslims, everyone is suddenly afraid to use the word, Islam. God forbid you should be accused of “Islamophobia” as if something is a phobia even when there is some truth to it. I guess one could say that I have gunaphobia, bombaphobia, knifeinthebackophobia. Maybe it would be more succinct to call it terrorophobia. If I was not affected by this these days, I think I could more appropriately be labelled “in denial.”
And “in denial” is how I see anyone who is afraid to call this thing that is happening around the world, “Islamic terror.” This doesn’t mean that all Muslims are guilty by association. Not like how all us Jews would certainly be considered guilty by association, of course, were the scourge of Jewish terror to seep out of its cave and become more prominent on the Israeli and world stages. But let’s forget about us Jews for a moment (the sun really does not revolve only around us) and get back to the issue at hand – Islamic terror.
Muslims who are offended by talk about Islamic terror, and those who give in to this, muzzle necessary discussion and debate.
Have you seen how Obama’s tongue twists and turns inside his mouth as he struggles to find the words to talk about the Orlando terror attack without saying either Islam or Muslim?
“It appears that the shooter was inspired by various extremist . . . [here he pauses and this was where he seemed to work hard to avoid saying “Islamic”] information that was disseminated over the Internet.”
He conveniently sets aside what we know about IS having taken credit for the attack and about the terrorist’s own pledge of allegiance to IS just before the attack. But more important than that – he disqualifies all talk of Islamic terror as illegitimate. He is not as brave as Naima Nas, the Egyptian woman who implored Muslims to take a deep hard look at themselves.
Only if Muslims debate the relevant issues, as more and more have begun to do, will we see mainstream Islam being brought into the modern era, like Judaism and Christianity before it. The Muslim Reform Movement is one such organization working toward exactly that.
Islam will probably have to be dragged kicking and screaming into modernity, and there will likely be many more tragedies before the religion as a whole pulls itself out of its apparent illusion of returning to some glorification of the supposedly wonderful days of barbarity and the dream of global Sharia rule.
One day, perhaps, we will see the pure joy faith can provide when you are happy with what you have and do not feel the need to hand out candies to celebrate taking the lives of others who are happy with something else. (I wish this image was just in celebration of your Prophet and not in commemoration of the boxer. This shows what religion should be – a celebration, not a call to martyrdom.)
Pretending that Islamic terror has nothing to do with Islam is not the way to get there.
This post originally appeared on Israel Diaries.
[Feature Image via Pixabay]
