Earlier this month, the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) announced a “Muslim Mapping” program that the LAPD said was meant to identify enclaves in the region which might be susceptible to “violent, ideologically based extremism”. When pressured, the department said that their plan was to “deepen ties” with Muslim communities.
The plan would have had data assembled by the
The good news is that within days after the announcement, LAPD, after being pressured by Muslim organizations and ACLU scrapped the program, stating that it was “dead on arrival”.
The bad news is that this shows that Muslims in general are constantly being stereotyped as being the “troublemakers”.
Another piece of good news is that Muslims in southern
The bad news on the other hand is that this type of an idea, which according to the perception built in the media, was meant to be very invasive in nature in the type of data that was to be collected about Muslims living in the region.
Muslims do wonder whether they will keep paying the price for the heinous actions of a few. Muslims living in western countries wonder more of this simply because the “greener pastures” that they saw on the western side supposedly offered more justice, equality and human respect than being offered by some of the countries where they migrated from –
Muslims also wonder with amazement about such programs not only because most of them have lived peacefully in such countries for decades but also have raised children to be useful citizens of western societies by raising them as doctors, engineers, teachers, lawyers and more.
So, what is the root cause of this?
Is it really because of the actions of a few Muslims or is it because a few natives and non-Muslims of western countries simply do not want Muslims in their homelands and rather than seeing them citizens of their countries see them as trespassing their sovereignty and their cultures?
As they say, the truth may very well be either both or in between. But the fact is that if this has to change, Muslims MUST take a proactive step to start educating the non-Muslim public about Islam. Educating about Islam is not about being defensive but to teach others about Islam what they do not know.
So, whether it’s LAPD or others, the problem really is lack of knowledge about the message of Islam or more appropriately it’s the spreading of false message about Islam by a small minority of non-Muslims.
And may be – may be one day the non-Muslims of western societies will be able to distinguish between the few Muslims who claim to be the right torch bearers of their religion, the few non-Muslims who spew hatred about Islam, and the vast majority of Muslims who believe in a peaceful way of life as they understand their religion to promote.
What are your thoughts?
Perhaps the reason for some of this thought is the fact that there have been 10,067 islamic terror attacks across the world since 9-11, including, but not limited to, beheadings, blowing up cars and trains, sending the heads of murdered babies back to their families served on a bed of rice, slitting the bellies of murdered christian women who were married to muslim men open in order to extract their unborn (in your eyes, muslim) baby so that they can and must be buried separately.
Perhaps it is because the muslim community has done so very little to combat this abhorrent evil from within it’s community, yeah, from high up in it’s religious hierarchy.
When a non-muslim hears the words “religion of peace”, these words ring very hollowly in one’s one. One is no longer inclined to trust muslims at all and is sick and tired of the anti-jew and anti-christian hatred that literally oozes out of the muslim world.
And since every religious muslim has that opportunity, actually, the obligation to invoke Taqquia in order to deceive us infidels, perhaps one can understand why practically no non-muslim in the USA trusts muslims.
Instead of criticizing others for the horrors coming out of Islam, perhaps you should look inward and fix your own problems. Christianity did and Judaism did. Oh, but I forgot: in your eyes, these are not religions.
Assalam al aikum
I want to say that Muslim community living in the US should invite Non muslim bretheren for a dialogue and introduce ISLAM in a simple method which they can understand it
Muslims across the world should have the courage to denounce, in strong terms, the extremists among us. They, indeed
make non-muslims develop hatred towards muslims generally. It is high time muslims start using intellectual means to
respond to real and perceived wrong done to us. By so doing the west will start to respect us. This idea of resorting
to violence each time we are provoked will not help matters, instead it will continue to erode confidence of the western
world as regards Islam. ANGER WILL NOT SOLVE THE PROBLEM.
The extremists amongst us should change tactics. When an army is fighting and their efforts yield no good results, they
change tactics. Therefore, it is high time the more vocal and aggressive amongst us should CHANGE TACTICS. Let us be
wise. Yes, the west will continue to provoke muslims because they know what our reaction will be (anger and violence).
When this happens, they a quick to point to islam or muslims as extremists, rerrorists, etc – and rightly so. I can
bet my life for it, if we start responding to provocations with calm, candour and intellectual superior arguments, the
west will have no choice but to respect islam and muslims.
As a student of politics, I know that the genesis of the conflict between the west and the islamic world is the
Isreal/Palestinian question. To bring this conflict to an end will require the change of attitude of the Palestinians
towards their Isreali neighbours. The palestinians have struggled for decades without success through the use of
suicide bombings and other non-conventional agitative methods without success. Why not change tactics? Believe me,
complete use of peaceful methods will bring about SUCCESS in shorter a time than they will ever imagine. When they do this,
the west, and indeed, the whole world will become sympathetic and understanding.
THE ISLAMIC WORLD SHOULD PLEASE GROW UP. We taught the world science, and now we have been left behind. It is high time we start from where we stopped and do it all over again. The Prophet (SAW) enjoined us to pursue knowledge. We did it
at a time and stopped. Now it is time to start again. To do it, ANGER, EXTREMISM must not be used, and the petrol
dollars must be used to start pursuing peace, development and scientific advancement of the ISLAMIC WORLD.
MASALAM
SEGIRU SULE
(IBADAN-NIGERIA)
Mark’s response is very irresponsible. He writes that Muslims are anti Christian and anti Jews. That is a completely false statement. On the contrary, his remarks make him an anti Muslim.
AS salam Alykum,
Mark’s remarks are nothing but proof of ignorance and deceiving the other from the true picture of Islam. the figures 10,067 he mentioned must be inclusive of Iraq incidents,which is nothing but an internal issue of sovereign country. The Iraq problem have nothing do with Islam and it is a simple equation, action vs reaction.therefore as a foreigner we should not indulge in internal affairs of sovereign country,nor the Mark has the right.
“When a non-muslim hears the words “religion of peace”, these words ring very hollowly in one’s one. One is no longer inclined to trust muslims at all and is sick and tired of the anti-jew and anti-christian hatred that literally oozes out of the muslim world”
The above quoted statement from Mark is silliest remark I have ever heard. Did Mark try to do some homework to find out how many Muslims are terrorist? Did he took in consideration the magic formula of democracy “Majority rule?” Are Majority of Muslims terrorist? Are not there “Bad Boys” in Christianity and Judaism? Are they all “angles”? come on Mark be a good boy and let us find a solution, do not try to label terrorism on single community. We know history and therefore aware of each nation’s blunders,
See response in this post “The Media bias against Muslims“
As Salaamu Alaikum Brothers and Sisters,
I feel sad when we point fingers at each other instead of developing and implementing new ways to introduce others to the real simplicity and elegance of true Islam. Insha’Allah, we can begin with our most simplistic but original teaching of changing the condition of our people. It is true that we present mixed messages to Non-Muslims with our actions, reactions, and attitudes when we can do so much more with examples, as demonstrated for us by our Beloved Prophet (SAAW). Insha’Allah, we can use our teachings to guide our hearts, once again!
W’Salaams,
A concerned Sister!
AS Salaamu Alaikum,
I am a Muslim, born and raised in North America, however, I come from a Christian background and reverted back to the true religion of my Ancestors. We of different faiths are given a responsiblity to live our lives according to what we have been taught in our Holy Books, mine being the Quran, and to been seen in this light at all times. As Muslim we have the responsibility to settle our affairs acording to the Quran, which we have a duty to learn and teach others. We have to come out of our comfort zone and continue to give Dawah (spreading the word of Islam), get to know our Neighbors and bridge the gap that exist between our communities to foster understanding going beyond just tolerance of each other to accepting and embracing each other as fellow HUMAN BEINGS. This is the only way our children wont be faced with the same separatist mentality we cling to today.
[The blog has received numerous and lengthy comments on this subject. For a threaded long
discussion on this topic, please post a comment on the Islamic Forum at http://www.HilalPlaza.us]
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See response in post Harun Yahya – Islam Denounces Terrorism
Assalamalaikum – Muslims and non-Muslims can benefit from a worldwide Islamic TV broadcast in multiple languages. This can help in spreading the peaceful message of Islam better.
I am a Muslim who was born and grew up in Pamir Platuea (sinkiang) Asia, included in the Chinese
territory later. The huge muslim community (over ten million) living in this
communist regime face a situation where people are instilled with nothing but socialist ideas, and
are not allowed to speak of any religon — Islam, Christianity, or Judaism…
So it’s quite worse here than some other countries…These people have the image of Muslims or other people of
religion from manipulated propeganda by the authorotarian regime, and think that west is promiscuous
and middle eastern are terrorist out of sheer ignorance.
To summarise, it is because these atheist people have little knowledge about Any religion here.
BY the way, here we dont even have enough knowledge about Christians or Jews as i grew up in
a place where only Muslims and Atheists live. I can read hatred in Mark’s post above and i always
wonder why some people are so hostile towards Islam.
Wassalam!
The ignorance of many shows us that it is true that the True message of Islam has not reached most of the world. It also shows us that how Muslims are backward in spreading the Religion of Truth. I know many people with lots of hatred, who are mislead by the information from biased media and other wrong sources for their vested interests, and when these people get the real picture of Islam, they become Muslims (bowing their will to the Will of God). Just see how many priests and preachers of Christainity are accepting Islam at http://www.islamreligion.com/
No one hates these terrorist attacks more than Muslims….
May Allah (Swt) guide all those who are seeking the truth to the straight path. Ameen.