Violence and Silence

The recent string of Islamic motivated terror attacks in Europe bring one major question to mind:

Where are the mass protests by Muslims against the murders taking place in the name of their religion?

Imagine 100,000 Muslims (and others) marching through the streets of London to protest the murders that took place recently.  How powerful would the image of millions of Muslims (and others) across the globe walking through the streets in every major city?  The effect it would have on the conscience of a torn religion could be incredibly positive.

I have a friend who says there have been many mass protests against the terror attacks by fellow Muslims, saying that Twitter and Facebook is abuzz with people saying “not in my name” and similar catch protest slogans.  My follow up to her answer: “is that’s it?”  A tweet or photo is all the effort that Muslims en masse are putting together for all of the death, defenseless killing of women, children and even other Muslims in the name of their religion?

Protests?

It’s not like Muslims don’t mobilize to protest.  Hundreds of thousands of protesters gathered over the past decade to decry

• Danish cartoons (2005)
• Dutch movie that criticized Islam’s holy book, the Koran (2008)
• and the Chalie Hebdo cartoons in France (2015)

Egyptian President Abdul-Fattah el-Sisi

During these protests, students and others chanted “Death to America” and “Long live Al Qaeda.”  Over 200 lawmakers in Kabul, Afghanistan publicly shouted “Death to the enemies of Islam” outside the country’s parliament.  Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh was killed in 2004 by a Muslim  for insulting the religion, as were most of the staff working in the offices of Charlie Hebdo in Paris.  The criticism for that extremism?  Most media in the US and around the world refused to publish the cartoons out of political correctness and fear of offending, and just as likely, out of safety concerns.  It’s easier to hear thunderstorms on Jupiter than criticism of Islam in the main stream media.   

If Christians were responsible for as many deaths (hundreds of thousands) in the past decade as Muslims, would the media cover those murders with the same tepid reporting?  And more importantly, if Christians groups had murdered as many people as Muslim groups in the last decade or so, do you think Christians would not publicly protest, and completely condemn those acts?

“Those who are good to the evil, will be evil to the good” – Dennis Prager

Lower Standards

The Left holds Islam to a different and much lower standard than Christianity (and any other religion for that matter).  Christianity is a punching bag for the Left in the US and around the world, constantly criticized in articles, television, film and other media.  Examples are easy to find:

• Anti-Semitic Sculpture Outside Luther’s Church (2016)
• Banksy’s anti-Christan Art (2011)
• The Piss Christ statue (2012)

and many more….

The main reason for the popularity of anti-Christian art and media is that they generally don’t fight.  They take the criticism, and many actually pray for those brining the critiques against them and the religion they love.  Meanwhile the defacing “art” and artists who produce it is not only accepted, it’s often characterized as being “bold”, “strong”, “powerful” and “impactful”.  Further, have you ever heard those who criticize Christianity as being Christianphobic?  The term is used as much in every day conversation as 3rd century Sanskrit.

Islam, however is much more protected via the media an the Left, and any criticism of it is immediately overwhelmed with chants of intolerance and “Islamophibia” by a chorus of those on the Left and in the media.  There is also a very real physical and other threats for anyone opposing or criticizing Islam.  I find it very strange that those people who protest loudest for women’s equality, human rights, social and racial justice are the most silent in their critiques of the most repressive areas of the world where Islam is not only the major religion, but the governing rule of law (Sharia).  I also find it odd that people who cannot criticize the problems within Islam are dong so because they hold that religion to a different and lower standard than other religions like Christianity and Judaism.

Ayaan Hirsi Ali

Courage, Clarity, and Conclusions

And those who do speak out against Islam, such as Ayaan Hirsi Ali (a former Muslim herself) and others like her, face continuous and unending death threats even for speech against Islam.  What does that say about this supposed tolerant religion of peace?  And for those practicing Muslims who do think their religion needs reforming, such as Egypt’s President Sisi (2015) did publicly, are they Islamophobic too?

There is a lower standard given to Islam and Muslims from the Left and media in the US and throughout the world.  That is a given.  But that lower standard is insulting to those Muslims who want change and who seek out reform within their own religion.  Creating a vapid intellectual base to promote change, the Left and world media not only insult the intelligence of other Muslims who seek reform, but do harm because they actively slow if not reverse the course of change when it is most needed.  The vast majority of Muslims are peaceful, but even if the percent of those who support extremism is 1% that’s still 10,000,000 people.  Even support for a fraction of 1% is much too lethal.

On his daily radio show, Dennis Prager recently asked an important question:  Why isn’t every inam in every mosque around the world telling its practitioners that if you commit evil in the name of Islam, you will go to hell?  Other muslims, probably now in the millions, have overwhelmingly been the target of Islamic terror.  Those fearful of providing a path for Islamic change and reform are morally subsidizing current and future terror.  

Not matter how large or disgusting the terror attack, the Muslim protests lay idle and sit unformed and silent.  What will it take for Muslims to protest the killing and mass murder being done in their religion’s name?  Islam needs reforming, but most people around the world need to stop holding it to a much different, and ultimately lower, standard than other religions.

Ayaan Hirsi Ali Photo credit: Gage Skidmore