"Islam is the problem and the failure to address that out of a well-intentioned commitment to tolerance is making the problem worse."
When the writer of this text - a self-critical Muslim from Singapore - posted this comment on Facebook he was addressing people like Mark LeVine (BOYCOTTER IS NO SCHOLAR claims to be a professor) "I want to thank well-meaning non-muslims who, in the wake of these attacks, have mephasised that they have been carried out by a small, twiste minority. A terrorist's goal is to sow hatred and discord, and by not giving in, you are defeating their plans.
But I want to say that as a Muslim, I wish that we weren't so quick to emphasize that this
has nothing to do with us. While I personally have never killed anyone and none of my friends and family have ever resorted to violence, radicalism has everything to do with Islam. And the failure to address that out of a well-intentione commitment to tolerance is making the problem worse.
ISIS attackers scream 'Allah hu'akbar' during their attacks.
ISIS recruits cite Qur'ranic verses as justification for the r@pe and enslavement of women.
ISIS soldiers kill archeologist, g@y men and women, and people who refuse to convert to Islam because they are blasphemist.
There are no Christians in ISIS. There are no Buddhists, Jews, Pagans, Taoists, Houngans, Catholics, Wiccans, Hindus or even Scientologists in ISIS. ISIS is a muslim organisation and they kill in the name of Islam.
So don't say that ISIS aren't 'true Muslims' or that they are 'not really Muslims'. Like
any large organisation, ISIS exists in a spectrum. You have the aimless, restless teenager who never amounted to anything in his life and traveled to Syria because he can't find a job and doesn't know if the Qur'an is to be read from left to right or right to left.
But you also have pious professionals, businessmen, and academics who read their Qur'an cover to cover, pray ever day, who were seduced into radicalism, and truly believe that the Islamic State's goal of conquest is a noble one. The so-called 'Caliph' Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi has a doctorate in Islamic studies.
So if you feel that Muslims are being oppressed or killed in Muslim countries, I expect you too would be just as outraged by ISIS. Because they have killed more Muslims in Iraq, Syria and Jordan than the entire US army. They have done more damage to the name and reputation of Islam than any Western nation. ISIS is Islam's biggest enemy, not the US, not Israel or France or Germany or the Russians.
We have to own the problem. We have to admit that this is a religious problem, and we need to renew our commitment to a secular country, which treats all religions equally. I have believed in the importance of secularism all my life, and whith every day that passes that belief grows stronger. Religion is no way to govern a nation. Not any religion, and not any nation.
ISIS is not America's problem, nor the British, nor the French. ISIS is not Syria or Iraq's
problem. ISIS is a problem for Muslims. And if you can't admit that, you're not really a good Muslim either.
#FreeIceBox
