Five answers from a Muslim

A while back, Dennis Prager asked five questions for muslims. In the linked article, Maher Hathout, senior advisor to the Muslim Public Affairs Council and a spokesman for the Islamic Center of Southern California, offers his answers.

Some of his answers are extremely interesting.

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"Why are you so quiet?"

Like an urban myth, the idea that Muslims have been mute since 9/11 plagues us. Prager knows that mainstream Muslims have issued condemnations of terrorism ad nauseam, and American Muslim scholars even issued a fatwa against terrorism this summer. ... The problem isn't how loud we are but how deaf some people can be.

Prager, commenting on this piece, noted he should have made this question less amgiguous. For example, "Why are there no demonstrations among the billion Muslims of the world against terrorism?"

This would have been nice, but I think the original quesition is adequate. "Why are you so quiet?" When children in an Israeli pizza parlor are blown up, someone issues a lukewarm denunciation. When the news reports that some non-Muslim may have actually had physical contact with a Koran (so-called "desecration"), riots ensue. Why does a Dhimmi fingerprint on a Koran provoke a riot, and Muslim suicide bombings of children only rate a stern memo?

"Why are none of the Palestinian Christians terrorists?"

Beyond the seemingly deliberate tone of cynicism here, Prager seems to forget that the current spate of suicide attacks was initiated by the Munich Olympics tragedy, which was concocted by a non-Islamic group led by a Christian named George Habash. There is nothing about being Muslim that leads to terrorism. The premise is wrong; so is the conclusion.

One Christian suicide attack, compared with how many Muslim suicide attacks? Declaring the premise wrong does not make it so. Now answer the question.

Why is only one of the 47 Muslim majority countries a free country?

But let's not forget that the colonial powers that dominated these countries found it easier to deal with the dictators they installed than with masses intent on creating their own destiny. Our country is not completely innocent on this score.

Fails to address the question. Many non-Muslim countries are free, or are in the process of becoming free. In many cases, former colonies are freer and richer than their neighbors, because they inherited the English language (useful for international trade) and notions of democracy from their colonizers. But this point forms an interesting contrast to the next answer:

Why are so many atrocities committed and threatened by Muslims in the name of Islam?

Yes, criminals are exploiting the grievances of depressed, oppressed and desperate masses in order to try to justify the unjustifiable. But finger-pointing won't get us anywhere.

Does this include pointing fingers at former colonial powers? Or countries that have invaded other countries to depose dictators and stop the filling of mass graves?

His final point, though, starts to hit the target, and suggests some other questions:

What we need now is to enable robust, mainstream Muslim organizations to expose this minority, isolate it and rid us of this scourge. Casting doubt about Muslims only adds to the haze and confusion that allow extremists international prominence. Innuendo only makes it less likely that any religion will be respected or its followers accepted.

Question: What would enable these robust, mainstream Muslim organizations to "expose this minority, isolate it and rid us of this scourge"?

Finally:

Why do countries governed by religious Muslims persecute other religions?

What makes you so sure they're "religious Muslims"?

Um... how about the fact that no "robust, mainstream Muslim organizations" have taken any visible steps to "expose this minority, isolate it and rid us of this scourge"? When a contestant in a beauty pageant says Muhammed might have married one of the contestants, there are riots. When this woman is threatened with death for daring to use Muhammed's name in that context, someone writes another stern memo.

I'm not absolutely sure myself, but based on the available evidence, I know what conclusion I'm inclined to draw.