A rchive Date
[ 01-09-2002 ]
Category
[ International Relations ]
sub-Categoy
[ Muslims ]
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[http://www.canoe.ca/Columnists/mulroney.html
Muslims want safety too
Minister's remark only widens religious rift
By BEN MULRONEYFor the Sun
September 1, 2002
A few weeks ago, Franklin Graham, a leading American Christian spokesman, the man who offered a prayer to the nation on the day of President George W. Bush's inauguration, asked where all the Muslim clerics were to denounce militant Islamic terrorism.
Implicit in the question was the supposition that their silence was tantamount to their endorsement of the terrorist agenda. He went one step farther when he said that Muslims have not sufficiently apologized for the terrorist attacks of a year ago and that they should help compensate victims' families.
While we are at it, we should ask the Russian people to foot the bill for the arms race.
The American administration, from the president all the way down through the ranks, has made it clear that those responsible for the attacks hijacked more than airliners, they forcibly co-opted an entire religion.
Those who would have imams apologize for the attacks are establishing an artificial and shameful link between Muslims and the terrorists. Muslims indeed have responsibilities, and they are in the process of owning up to them this weekend.
The 39th conference of the Islamic Society of North America is being held in Washington, D.C., where tens of thousands of participants have assembled to chronicle the impact that Sept. 11 has had on all facets of Muslim lifefrom personal freedoms to political activism.
This group has the stated goal of furthering and solidifying the Islamic faith within the context of a healthy North American society. The obligation of the Muslim community is to educate and provide support for the members of their community.
Muslims must create a framework in which individuals can adhere to a religious lifestyle while participating actively and constructively in our larger, secular society. If they are successful, the United States and Canada will be bettered.
There have been countless meetings between government officials and religious leaders, who have been cooperating and coordinating efforts on the war on terrorism since day one. But if members of America's religious right require public discourse, they are in the process of getting it, thirty thousand times over.
The Muslim faith is on the cusp of becoming the second-largest religious group on our continent, yet many still view the culture as insular and backward-thinking.
Comments like those uttered by Graham are foolish at best. At worst, they contribute to the widening of a religious rift that has been far too slow to close.
An ironic twist
Let us hope that the 39th conference of the Islamic Society of North America will demonstrate that the Muslim community of North America is as concerned with the safety of our continent as anyone else, and let it close the book on the string of divisive remarks that have nagged at us for too long.
And in an ironic twist that is too sweet to deny, if anyone questions the convictions of the Islamic community of North America, let them be reminded that they are attacking a group that has endorsed only one candidate for president in its historythe man leading our campaign against terrorism, George W. Bush.
Read Mulroney on Sundays. Reach him at bmulroney@canoemail.com.
Letters to the editor should be sent to editor@sunpub.com
 World Fact Book (CIA)]
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