Islamic

The American Muslim community continues to experience numbness and is in deep shock following the shootings at Fort Hood in Texas. Army Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, a Muslim psychiatrist who was born in Virginia to Jordanian parents, is accused of opening fire on his colleagues, killing 13 and wounding 38. The officer, who was commissioned in 2001, provided counseling to help alleviate psychological stressors that servicemen and woman experience. The Muslim community has worked faithfully since the tragic events of Sept.

After years of conflict and killing in the Middle East, Europe and now here, I would like to know who speaks for the nonviolent Muslims? Have they a leadership or a voice that reaches the media? Do they fear reprisals by those whom they should castigate? I keep a close watch on the news, both on television and in print, but I am unaware of anyone of that faith decrying the killings perpetrated by the region's radicals. I wish they would speak up. Otherwise they run the risk of people dropping the word "radical" from the phrase "Muslim radicals" and painting the entire religion with the same brush.

One may wonder what role God plays in the eyes of those proportionally few extremists among the Christians as well as the Muslims if everyone considers himself both judge and executioner and feels impelled to predate the Day of Judgment. It is those very violent extremists, associating themselves with the religion of Islam, who through their actions insult their prophet most. Because the Quran does not imply any worldly punishment for blasphemy, let alone condone vigilantism. Quite the contrary, the Quran states repeatedly "Bear patiently what they say" and also "And when thou seest those who engage in vain discourse concerning Our Signs, then turn thou away from them until they engage in a discourse other than that.

The U.S. public and the government have shown great tolerance toward Muslims after the 9/11 attacks perpetrated by Islamic extremists. However, the other side of the coin is the necessity after a terrorist attack to identify the culprits, determine their reasoning and bring them to justice. Contrary to 9/11, the current situation in Boston does not appear to be an organized assault on our citizenry and culture, as the motive behind it is yet unknown. However, initial indications are that the action was perpetrated by two Muslim brothers, one devout and the other younger and a follower.

It is about time that Americans stop trying to appease a religion and people who simply will not accept any alternative to Islam ("Understanding Arab anger," Sept. 19). The Muslim holy book, the Quran, and the teachings of Islam are very clear: If you are not with them, you are an infidel. The goal of the Islamic faith is to spread Sharia law to the ends of the earth at all costs. If we get in the way we are expendable. The American way is not compatible with Islam. Freedom of speech, no matter how offensive, is not part of its tradition.

On Nov. 1, al-Qaeda members killed nearly 60 worshippers at Our Lady of Salvation Church in Baghdad. As a member of the Ahmadiyya Muslim community, I condemn this attack, for it is utterly vicious, cold-blooded and outright un-Islamic. Islam condemns any such action, as is seen in Prophet Muhammad's letter to the St. Catherine's Monastery in Mount Sinai: "Verily I, the servants, the helpers and my followers defend [Christians], because Christians are my citizens; and by God I hold out against anything that displeases them.

The world is accustomed to Muslims at war with Jews ove Israel and Palestine, which has obscured the longer history in which those two religions coexisted more easily than most. Now other Muslims are persecuted by Christians in Europe, in mass atrocity in Bosnia and small-scale terrorism in Germany. And an extremist Hindu demolition of a 16th Century mosque in the Indian town of Ayodhya has sparked an orgy of Hindu-Muslim slaughters throughout India and backlash against Hinduism in Pakistan and Bangladesh.

Like the ghosts of Shakespeare's Banquo or Dickens' Jacob Marley, the specter of the late commie-hunting congressman from Wisconsin, Joseph McCarthy, will always be with us. It is summoned up today, by some on the left, who use it as a tool to thwart legitimate questions about people and ideologies that seek to destroy America. According to many commentators, the McCarthy spirit has inhabited Minnesota Republican Rep. Michele Bachmann. In several letters to high-ranking government officials, Ms. Bachmann has raised questions about Huma Abedin, a Muslim-American, who is deputy chief of staff to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Sometimes it's hard to tell the power of religion from mere opposition to secular dictatorship. Were the people wanting to turn Algeria into a theocracy, in the Dec. 26 election? Or just to register disgust with the National Liberation Front, which has ruled since independence in 1962 with increasing corruption and ineptitude?In any case, President Chadli Benjedid, who gradually conceded democratic forms after 1988 riots, will carry on until 1993, when an election is scheduled. But the parliament will be dominated by the Islamic Salvation Front, which won a stunning victory in the first round of parliamentary voting last week as it had previously in local elections.

Not so long ago, the young man accused of plotting to blow up a military recruiting station in Catonsville had a mundane job: selling children's clothes at Columbia Mall. When he was hired as a sales associate about a year ago, Antonio Martinez was polite, hardworking — and a newly baptized Christian, a former co-worker recalled Wednesday. He seemed like a typical young adult working a typical retail job. Then one day he surprised co-workers by declaring that he had converted to Islam.

Algerian forces claimed a decisive victory this weekend over al-Qaida-affiliated Islamist militants who took over a giant natural gas plant near the country's border with Mali last week and threatened to kill hostages and blow up the facility. But the resolution of the crisis may turn out to be the classic definition of a Pyrrhic victory - that is, one achieved at such high cost that another like it will likely lead to defeat. The Algerian government reacted swiftly and ruthlessly to the terrorists, eventually capturing or killing all the militants.

Former Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich's recent Op-Ed attempts to paint President Obama as part of our Middle East problem ("As Middle East burns, Obama fiddles," Sept. 30). His suggestion that moderate Muslims help remove the threat from radical Islam to our culture exposes a typically shallow appreciation of the situation. The politically correct mantra that all our problems are caused by a small faction of Islamist terrorists is disingenuous at best. From moderate believers to radical fundamentalists, Muslims of all stripes abhor our promiscuity, women's equality, mixing of the sexes, homosexuality and tolerance for drugs and alcohol.

Political consultants often use the term "optics" to describe how consequential events are perceived by the general public. With regard to the present Middle East crisis, the president's optics are way off course. There was the Las Vegas fundraiser following the terrorist attacks in Benghazi, Libya. This was followed by a "Letterman" appearance while violent anti-American demonstrations were breaking out in Europe, Africa and Asia. Then, instead of a defense of U.S. values, pandering messages to the Muslim world in response to an amateurish anti-Muslim video that almost nobody (including the protesters)

For the past few weeks there has been outrage in Muslim countries across the world because of an anti-Islam video posted on YouTube ("Anti-U.S. protests rock Pakistan," Sept. 22). Yet as a 12-year-old Ahmadi Muslim American, I didn't feel angry at America because of the movie. Why should I? President Barack Obama didn't post the video on YouTube, nor did anyone else in the government. I was angry with the man who actually made the video. He was responsible for hurting the feelings off more than a billion Muslims all over the world.

One may wonder what role God plays in the eyes of those proportionally few extremists among the Christians as well as the Muslims if everyone considers himself both judge and executioner and feels impelled to predate the Day of Judgment. It is those very violent extremists, associating themselves with the religion of Islam, who through their actions insult their prophet most. Because the Quran does not imply any worldly punishment for blasphemy, let alone condone vigilantism. Quite the contrary, the Quran states repeatedly "Bear patiently what they say" and also "And when thou seest those who engage in vain discourse concerning Our Signs, then turn thou away from them until they engage in a discourse other than that.

In "Understanding Arab anger" (Sept. 19), Shibley Telhami, the Anwar Sadat professor for peace and development at the University of Maryland, claims that "the deepest sources of anger against America … pertain to the presence of U.S. forces in the Middle East and to U.S. policy toward the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. " This obscures how a marginal video - or Danish cartoons, a Salman Rushdie novel, or threatened Koran-burning by the pastor of a minuscule congregation - ignite violence throughout the Muslim world.

PARIS -- The presidential campaign season starts with terrorism at the top of the American foreign policy agenda -- even if it's not an issue but Republicans and Democrats merely competing to make the most ferocious promises to do something about it.There is a rousing cynicism in this, since there is very little practical to do, beyond certain self-evident preventive and police measures already agreed, if often unenforced.Terrorism in any case is selectively and demagogically identified.In American politics, terrorism is nearly always Muslim terrorism.

Mujahedeen victory in Afghanistan has given a boost to the disparate factions eager to dislodge unreconstructed communists from power in Soviet Central Asia. The president of Tajikistan has already been deposed and a coalition of Islamic and secular opposition groups is in power. If unrest sweeps the region, old-line communist leaderships in Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan also may experience a challenge by Islamic groups.It may be a long time before the Central Asian situation is sorted out. We are now witnessing the undoing of an empire Russian czars forged in the 19th century.

Regarding the anti-American demonstrations that are rapidly spreading around the world, I find it very sad that the respect the U.S. once enjoyed is fading away ("Violence ebbs, but embassies remain vigilant," Sept. 17). The only way it can be regained is for our country to reestablish a strong military that the rest of the world will respect, envy and fear. If that requires more troops, the U.S. should institute a draft, as it did in the world wars, and accept the fact that we are now engaged in World War III - and have been for some time.

It is about time that Americans stop trying to appease a religion and people who simply will not accept any alternative to Islam ("Understanding Arab anger," Sept. 19). The Muslim holy book, the Quran, and the teachings of Islam are very clear: If you are not with them, you are an infidel. The goal of the Islamic faith is to spread Sharia law to the ends of the earth at all costs. If we get in the way we are expendable. The American way is not compatible with Islam. Freedom of speech, no matter how offensive, is not part of its tradition.