In contrast to the Muslim Council of Britain and many other British Muslims, the Muslim Public Affairs Committee's founding spokesperson Asghar Bukhari went on British Television and after saying that British Muslims were right in condemning the Woolwich terror attack essentially said that the killings were justified and understandable.
Since the Muslim Council of Britain is an umbrella group that supposedly represents the MPAC, this is particularly noteworthy.
Bukhari, who has said in the past that "Muslims who fight against the occupation of their lands are 'Mujahadeen' and are blessed by Allah," blamed British foreign policy and the British government for the attacks saying, "The government can't admit that it's their policy that's driving the anger". He also accused other Muslim organizations in Britain, saying they have "washed their hands" of Muslim youth and are not teaching them other ways of achieving change in British society.
While Bukhari was careful not to step too far over the line, the MPAC's Facebook page tells a different story and put out this statement to is 11,000 followers:
"I absolutely despise such pathetic reactions to the incident that has taken place today. We all understand that murdering human beings is wrong, so that's not breaking news for any of us.
However, we must understand and acknowledge that the media is painting this as an irrational, crazy and barbaric act committed by a Muslim for no other reason apart from the fact that their religion teaches them intolerance and "barbarism – this is the enemy's narrative.
They have told the world that Muslims are a people who come from a barbaric and savage past, whose existence is violent, whose religion teaches them nothing but horrifying extremism.
By apologising in such a stupid way these pathetic Muslims are reinforcing the enemy's narrative, which is telling the world that these murderers did what they did because their religion makes them inherently violent and evil. They are acknowledging this fraudulent narrative, reinforcing it, supporting it and also apologising for it.
What they are doing is basically standing up and saying "I'm sorry our religion makes us violent, but we're not all like that". No! Our religion has nothing to do with it.
Muslims are the most oppressed people on earth, we have been denied our freedom, we have been denied our equality, we have been denied any justice, we have even been denied the right to tell the world our own story.
This incident today was horrific, but it was not because Islam teaches barbarism, it happened because it was an extreme reaction to an extreme situation. These people did what they did because they wanted to get a message across, a message that tells the world that they are sick of being oppressed, colonised, demonised, killed and murdered, simply for being Muslim.
I know it was done in a WRONG and IMMORAL way, I will never condone such a thing, but no one has the right to ignore the message, because it's the only way terrorism will end - on both sides.
Our government doesn't look so noble crying about terrorist acts when it commits terrorism abroad on Muslim lands."
Another statement, from Raza Nadim (another MPAC spokesperson) said, "So many damn Muslim orgs coming out to apologise about Woolwich - why do I need to apologise? I didn't do anything. Is the attack bad? Of course, but why have Muslims got to apologise?"
Interesting...Islam had nothing to do with this, but the two killers claimed they were doing this in the name of Islam and screamed 'Allahu akbar ' while they were beheading a British soldier?
And one might think that there's a difference between condemning something done in the name of your religion as evil and 'apologizing' for it, but maybe that's just how I see it.
Whether the MPAC and their friends like it or not, the Woolwich murders do reflect on Islam, because of the fact that the kind of violence towards non-Muslims that happened in Woolwich yesterday is relatively commonplace around the world. A real giant step for a substantial number of Muslims worldwide andespecially in the West would be to take a real look at Islam and think about why so many of its followers commit violence and terrorism around the globe in the name of their religion and what they could change to stop that rather than blaming others.
But I hold your breath waiting for it to happen.Because it's quite obvious that there's a substantial number of Muslims who continue to think killing non-believers in the name of Allah is just fine and dandy, and that the Qu'ran and Hadiths justify it. Sometimes, they just feel its prudent to make the expected noises to distance themselves from that politically.
What's sad is how that affects Muslims who want no part of that agenda and merely want to live their lives in peace like the rest of us.
Muslims are the most oppressed people on earth, we have been denied our freedom, we have been denied our equality, we have been denied any justice, we have even been denied the right to tell the world our own story.
ReplyDeletethe only thing missing is the sura number. because that is the source of their own oppression.