It's become a pattern now. Every time September comes around, our society pulls the bandages off our collective wounds and insists on poking sticks in it. The self-torture has come to the point where some news outlets are broadcasting their original footage from that fateful morning, uncut, in order to ensure that everyone relives the horror at the same time. Surveys of all kinds show that each year, hope for a normal life diminishes, and anger at "the other" continues to grow. Far from being healed, the wound is infected, and threatens to spread to areas previously healthy.

Some of us want to forget the nightmare and move on. Others indulge themselves, wanting to recharge the batteries of anger in order to prepare for another year of war, whether virtual, verbal, or very much real. As Muslims, we've been caught in the middle for five years now - unable to escape responsibility for actions of people far away who claim to share our faith, and incapable of stemming a tide of increasing hatred being directed at our community. When I look into the eyes of my non-Muslim friends, I see honest people trying very hard to separate what they see and read about from the person standing before them. I can only wonder what goes through the mind of those who don't have the benefit of having a Muslim friend to create some restraint against the natural impulse to blame a collective enemy.

I'm naturally an optimistic person. Each year, I think to myself that I've seen the worst of it. And each year, I recall events from the past 12 months that tell me otherwise. Muslim extremists emerge from the shadows, poking around our defenses for an unreinforced soft spot. Anti-Muslim extremists, fresh from mining our religion and history for any piece of information that can be used to defame and incite, grow bolder in their calls for the removal of Muslims from their midst. This year, I saw a first: a call for an all-out war on Islam and Muslims, even if millions of innocents die in the process. I'm reminded of the history of European Jews and Rwandan Tutsis, of how entire populations were desensitized in advance of genocide using similar campaigns. Could it happen again?

Five years later, jihad-minded Muslims such as al-Qaida still have the nerve to think of themselves as some sort of vanguard of defense for Muslims. In fact, their actions have done more to bring curses upon the Prophet and hatred toward our faith than anything in the history of the religion. It is a powerful form of anti-dawah, something for which I pray they will be held accountable for in this life and the next. The central problem for Muslims is that some of the disaffected among us are unable to express dissent in a constructive, nonviolent, and lawful manner. As small a group as they might be, they have caused, and continue to cause, incalculable damage.

Still I hear the refrains: "Where are the moderate Muslims? Where is the condemnation of terrorism?" I and many other Muslims involved in public service feel like we've been screaming in the middle of the ocean. How are we expected to compete with 24-hour TV news and a blogosphere that gives Muslim malcontents a magnitude of PR that money can't buy? How are we supposed to respond when a community of 25 million Muslims in the West is served by institutions that have a relative handful of full-time advocates, most still trying to learn how to defend themselves against a media onslaught? One example of our inability to properly respond to the trauma inflicted upon the American psyche was the way the "Islam is a religion of peace" refrain, so common among Muslim spokespeople in the days after 9/11, was chewed up and spit back in our faces. We needed to address very real fears of Islam, but could only offer up only simplistic platitudes.

None of this is to say that the decline is irreversible. There is still hope that we can stem this decline. Recent surveys suggest that even though hostility towards Muslims has increased since the days of 9/11, those numbers drop significantly for those Americans who count Muslims among their friends. Rather than funding multi-million dollar public relations campaigns, a grassroots effort, it seems, is in order. If everyone in America had a Muslim friend, the poll numbers and attitudes towards Islam would be very different than they are now. And we need friends now, more than ever.

The recent involvement of Muslims in the West in directly stopping planned terror attacks should be an example for those who continue to think that mainstream Muslims do not care about our collective safety. We should be emboldened by this. We can be self-critical and vigilant about extremism without falling into the trap of apologetics or being ashamed of who we are. I believe that non-Muslims are very interested in seeing that we are acknowledging and working on our problems, which counters the impression that we are thoughtless automatons following orders from beyond. Perhaps in traditional Muslim countries, airing of internal issues and problems is seen as a sign of weakness. In the West, it is seen as a strength. Muslims living here should take note of that.

Next year, we will might find ourselves again wringing our hands about the escalation of tensions between the West and the Muslim world. It's also possible that we may finally decide to leave the bandage on the wound so that the real healing can begin. Our actions between now and then will determine that outcome.

Personally, I'm not at all optimistic that the chasm between Muslims and non-Muslims can be reversed.

In fact, as we move forward, I think that Islam is going to become a greater and greater threat to the "civilized" world.

I think that Muslims worship a religion that promotes intolerance, violence and hatred and not peace and understanding as so many "moderates" would have us believe.

Frankly, I'm hard pressed to think of what predominantly Muslim nations / Muslims contribute to the world in the 21st century other than oil, dates and terror.

Please enlighten me as to the great gobal scientific/ cultural/ social contributions that originate from the Muslim world.

I understand that Islam is the fastest growing religion in the world today. Honestly, the thought that a religion that promotes such hate and intolerence and violence is growing so rapidly scares the hell out of me.

To think that everyday, hundreds of young Muslim children are being born to become terrorists and killers and suicide bombers.

This is the world that my poor children are going to grwo up in - being targets simply because they happen to be "infidels".

Frankly, I wish Muslims would just stay in your own middle eastern countries and and kill each other as they're doing in Iraq today.

Mark, I think you need to go make a Muslim friend.

No joke, bro. Before you circle the wagons up, find out what's really outside the camp. I mean find out for yourself.

This article itself is a big hint.

Your "civilized world would not exist had the Muslims not taught Europe to be civilized my friend.

Heh, Look at the Sears Tower, the architect is a Muslim buddy.

Muslim countries made your clothes, harvested your food, assembled your electronics and other items at near slave wages so than you can live like a king.

Mark you talk about how intolerant our religion is, but reading your post you are all about intolerance. Total Hypocrisy.

"Could it happen again?"

Never Again.


As for the first comment, not even going to give it any attention, just another idiot roaming the net...

Salaam Shahed, you know I don't understand why people would believe us over the terrorists. Why should people think we are representing Islam when we are enjoying the good life while other people who sacrifice thier lives and thus look much more credible when they say they did it for Islam?? I don't know...but apparently people believe them over us.

Shahed my dear friend I take issue with a key point in your posting.
"...for actions of people far away who share our faith..."

Shahed - These folks may call themselves muslim and pray 5X/day - but they do not share my faith.

Let's do a thought experiment:
Assume a group of muslims "A" decide to kill another group of muslims "B". Assume both groups live in muslim countries.
Assume "A" does the killing.
Assume the folks in "A" are caught.

The issue of group "A" being muslim is not relevant. What is relevant is a crime has been committed and those who did it are criminals. In virtually every country - if you commit a crime - you are a criminal.

As a muslim, I have no right to say to another muslim "you are not a muslim." That is for God to decide. But I can look at behavior, actions, and dogma and say "what you are doing is un-Islamic and profane." I can properly call these people criminal and their methods reminiscent of an organized crime family.

Criminals do not share our faith Shahed - they are criminals.

"Mark, I think you need to go make a Muslim friend"

Well, if I ever feel compelled to build a bomb or design a suicide vest packed with nails and explosives, by all means, I will definitely seek out a Muslim "friend".


"Mark you talk about how intolerant our religion is, but reading your post you are all about intolerance"

You're right - I have a very low / nonexistent level of tolerence for a religion that extols their congregation to fly planes into buildings / blow up trains in Spain / blow up buses and trains in London / murder filmakers in Amsterdam / issue death threats against writers / blow up discos in Bali - all in the name of Allah..!!

Yeah - my lack of intolerence is a real character flaw..!!

mark,
not sure if your Christian, but I can guarantee you that I can find more violent, patriarchal, inhumane passages in the Bible than what you might find in the Quran. Does this mean that I think all Christians are violent, chauvistic lunatics? Of course not, even though non-muslims commit acts of terror, rape and murder everyday. Only Muslims are asked to defend themselves for acts committed by lunatics to whom they have no connection. I am sick of the hypocritical double standards that we have in America. I am sick of my children being subjected to the most vile, hate filled propaganda about their faith and ethnicity, every minute of their young lives. The Muslims I know have bent over backwards to show that they are peaceful, hardworking, caring, giving people. At the end of the day, alhumidillah, I have to remind myself, that the only judgement that counts, is GOD's alone.

You forgot your other intolerance Mark.
You are intolerant of people who have a different eye color, skin color, and religion other than your own .

Now you tell me what is so great about about a religion, that can only spam attack the innocent muslim people and websites(multiple accounts : markgpl, markbrandon), and not speak of anything good about others or what they have to offer.

PS you forgot the other things muslims have done in your list.

Such as the many mosques that opened their doors to hindus during the tsumani in India, the muslims who opened their homes to the Catholic Tutsis to save them from ethnic genocide while people of their own faith but different ethinicity slaughtered them. Oh, as well as the mosque that sheltered the Jews in Paris from genocide of germany during WWII.

Your mind is like a glass, if the glass is already full you will never be able to take in anything new. Empty your glass a little, you may learn something that will benefit you in this life and the hereafter.

I invite you to honestly look at the teachings of Islam with a clear mind. Allah (God) is the Most Merciful, submit to him and only him and you will find peace in this life and the life hereafter.

Well said Shahed. Mark you're a disease, creatures like you are the reason terrorism and hatred thrives. Slither back to LGF and take your reich wing conspiracy theories with you. While you're at it, invest some time looking at a world map. You may find that there is more to the world then pigment challenged lemmings in an outhouse in West Virginia.

Thank DrM. For your inciteful addition to the dialogue.

>Thank DrM. For your inciteful addition to the dialogue.<

You're welcome bud. Just doing my bit to build bridges.....but only halfway waiting to see if theres a place to built it to.

markgpl. I was once in your place. I once equated religion to the striving nationalism that has been reaped in Eastern countries post-imperialism. Only until I separated "radical Islam the political machine using the miseducation of others" from "Allah's divine will on the people that is completely anti-terrorism and pro-pluralism" did I understand what was going on. It was also when I saved my soul.

It's a funny thing - I don't see Buddhists flying planes into buildings - I don't hear Jews being told that if they strap on a belt packed with exposives and go out and kill lots of innocent women and children, they'll go to Paradise and enjoy the company of 72 perpetual virgins for all of eternity. I don't fear Baptists when I visited London last summer and rode the tubes.


"creatures like you are the reason terrorism and hatred thrives"

Yeah - right..!!??

The Muslim / Arab world has been filled with a seething rage / envy for many, many years now. They hated us in the west long before people like me despised Muslims

The Muslim world is poor, notwithstanding the fact that it is sitting on the biggest cash cow on this planet - oil - because Islam has rejected modernity. They want modern things but not the values that enabled the modern world to create modern things. They want nuclear weapons but not freedom of inquiry. They went biochemical weapons but not freedom of religion. They want huge mechanized armies but not the liberation of women. They want high tech societies in which memorizing the Koran is what passes for education. They want modern things and a medieval society. So they are poor because of the choices that they have made, not any malice on our part. They can't handle that. They prefer to blame us for their screwups. They prefer envy to honesty and responsibility.

Losers are like that - they always have been. It's easier to blame all of their screw ups on the great satans - the USA and Israel .


Muslims are something like celebrity stalkers, seething with homicidal rage towards cultures whose success illuminates the failures and inadequacies of their own lives and cultures.

They deny the humanity, the intelligence, the creativity of half their population, the female half, so how can they not be poor ? Like losers they live in a fantasy world about a golden past instead of taking grownup responsibility for the present. How can they not be poor ? Oppression ? Towards Christians, Jews, and Hindus, Islamicists operate like the Ku Klux Klan. Their only problem with oppression is that they aren't dishing it out.

So they hate us. Well, it is not within our power to change that. Merely to defeat it.

I do have a serious question, though, Let's say the suicide bomber is female. Will she enjoy 72 virile, endowed men for all eternity..??

One a zionazi, always a zionazi. I see Mark still has his head stuck in the lgf toilet.

Obviously Mark came here to vent. He's done so. Now he's gone.

>Obviously Mark came here to vent.<

If he had asked politely I would have forwarded Dr.Kevorkian's number. Grab a copy of "Final Exit"and go for it.

>Now he's gone.<

He will not be missed nor mourned.

(Long post ñ Part 1)
Mark is venting out of anger and frustration. You will not change his mind. He will have to change it by himself. I believe he will soften with time. I did.

You should not discount him or right him off. He represents a significant number of the American and British population. You can tell by his writing that he has some intelligence. Hopefully he is here for the same reason I am, to get information as to where peopleís heads are at and whether or not Muslims in our countries are patriots first or Muslims first.

This is a big issue for many of us non-Muslims. We look at the collective Muslim community in our neighborhood with suspicion because we wonder if we can trust them to stand with us. You have to understand though that our views of Muslims as individuals is different that the view of the collective. Because I am in the IT industry I have had several Muslim friends and worked with several others. I liked them all. But can I count on them to look out for me when I am threatened by someone who claims they are attacking me in the name of Islam? You see, the difference between the crimes committed by most of the people in this country that are similar to the crimes committed by Terrorists is that they are not claiming they do these things in the name of some religion. Only these Terrorists are claiming a religious right to their actions.

I am an American. All of my ancestors where in this country before it won its independence from England. As you can guess I am a very patriotic American. Are you patriotic about your country? This is not a challenge, but an open and honest question. I also want to know if someone can truly believe in the Koran and the Bill of Rights. For instance do you believe in separation of church and state?

I want to believe that we are all in this together. I need your (someoneís) assurances that you will stand with me in an attempt to calm things down, open up for discussion, take responsibility to change yourself and the immediate community around you, and be a patriot to your country. By the way, a patriot does not always agree with what the government is currently doing. The people and the government are related but different things. The people are the country.

(part 2)
I believe the core issue for western counties is that they focus too much on themselves. I believe the core issue for the Muslim countries in general and the Middle East in particular is false pride. I make these generalities because when my county has been at its best is when it turned its attention away from its own needs and selfless tried to help others. I believe that most of the problems that Middle East countries have had since 1492 are caused by false pride. I also believe that these generalities can be assigned to the respective communities (Muslim and other) of people who live in the west and that until they deal with these two things we will not resolve the current problem.

American and British exploitation of the Middle East for their own needs setup the current problem. Muslim false pride and the automatic rejection of first, the Age of Enlightenment, and next Modernism because they were infidel in origin prevented them from keeping up with the West to begin with.

Pride is the killer. Look at your own family dynamics if you doubt it. Pride caused Bin Laden to attack the WTC. He said so. Pride causes honor killings. Pride rejects democracy and secularism. Pride caused this country to react emotionally by striking out and is still causing it to act emotionally. Pride is stopping American and British Muslim communities standing up and acting as a beacon for Muslims everywhere. Be leaders. America has long been and will continue to be a leader in this world, not because of some fictitious ìOtherî who speaks for this country and acts on its behalf, but because individuals stood up and did something on their own. Almost all innovation and social change in this country has been by small groups of individuals, not governments or large corporations.

Sorry for the long note. I would appreciate a fair and unemotional response to my two questions.

People have such short memories. .....Just a short decade ago, Serbian Christians slaughtered the Bosnians, in what every human rights organization called genocide. In Ireland Protestants and Catholics committed numerous terrorist attacks which killed innocents. In the not so distant past, white people in America lynched, terrorized and murdered tens of thousands of African Americans because of their skin color. This did not change because white people stood up to their fellow citizens, it ceased because African-Americans decided they would fight for their rights.
American military have committed heinous atrocities in Iraq and Israel certainly felt no guilt for the innocents that they slaughtered last month. A Jewish man in Florida was convicted for having the plans and the explosives to blow up an Islamic school in Florida (didn't hear much about that in the media, did you?). Why is it that Muslims are expected to denounce the barbaric crimes of nuts like bin Laden, yet we hear no outcry from others denouncing the crimes against humanity that their governments and military partake in?
My point being, humans are capable of heinous acts no matter what their faith. Sometimes the circumstance of their situation affects their judgement (i.e. occupation, oppression, etc.) People of all faiths have distorted their faith and tried to justify their acts with their own logic (i.e. those who bomb abortion clinics.)
Some of the points you make, bely your own misinformation about the religion of Islam. The "virgin" quote is incorrect and out of context from what is actually written in the Quran.
Almost a quarter of the world's population is Muslim, if they were as dangerous you suggest there would be nothing left of this planet. I have met thousands of Muslims over the years, in America, Europe and the Middle East. I have NEVER met even one Muslim who represents the mindset/mentality of Bin Laden and his cronies. America needs an enemy, and the neo-cons have done a good job of making sure that all Muslims are painted with the same racist, bigoted, brush.
We are capable of patriotism just like the next person, but I will not compromise my values to blindly follow idiots who wish to justify unjust wars and policies that destabalize and starve innocent populations.