Boston Muslims Struggle to Wrest Image of Islam From Terrorists
This is not about being an apologist or deflecting criticism of extremist elements in Islam—as some would have you believe—it’s about how incredibly frustrating it gets to be expected to answer for extremists that you have absolutely zero control over and/or to carry the burden of guilt for their actions. Emphasis mine:
BOSTON — Yusufi Vali was hunched over his computer at this city’s biggest mosque, where he is executive director, when the first phone call came. The police had killed a man a few miles away. Soon there were reports that the man was a Muslim who had been under investigation for terrorism.
And so the news media inquiries began. More than 100 calls came to the mosque over the next few days. Mr. Vali would explain, over and over, that the young man fatally shot after pulling a knife on the police on June 2 had only the slightest connection to the mosque: He had been hired by a security contractor to guard the mosque during the holy month of Ramadan in 2013.
No, he was not a regular at prayers. No, Mr. Vali did not recall meeting him. No, he could not shed light on any purported plan to behead a police officer, except to say that such a thing would be abhorrent.
“It weighs on you,” Mr. Vali, a rail-slender 31-year-old Princeton graduate, said of the fallout from the latest allegations of terrorist plotting in the name of Islam. “I don’t have control over what these people do. It’s frustrating to have it put on us.” […]
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BTW, the article mentions Charles Jacobs, founder of the non-profit group Americans for Peace and Tolerance (a misnomer if there ever was one), which is mentioned in the article. You might want to read up on his history in case you bump into him in your online travels.
I wonder how many threads I’d have to pull on to find one that leads to connections with other groups and/or individuals in the Islamophobia industry…
I was just re-reading the article now that my mental batteries are recharged, and this paragraph irked the hell out of me:
The accumulation of Boston malefactors makes for a disturbing list, especially if it is now updated with Usaamah Rahim, the man killed by the police this month, and two other men who were charged Friday with plotting with him and supporting the Islamic State. The Boston Globe was prompted last week to ask in a headline, 𠇊re Boston terrorism cases a trend?”
Why is the list so disturbing? Even if you go by anti-Muslim activist Jacobs count, that’s less than 20 people out of an estimated Muslim population of 70,000. If I chose 70,000 members of any group in the U.S., how difficult do you suppose it would be to find 15-20 murderous criminals among them? I’m guessing not very.
I’m not trying to downplay the danger said (terrorist) criminals would pose, but I find it absurd that they seem to be perceived as extra dangerous simply because they’re Muslim. If you’re a citizen of Boston, what do you suppose statistics would tell you about your chances of dying at the hands of a radical Muslim terrorist vs at the hands of a more garden variety American criminal?
How many Bostonians were murdered last year? In the past five years? Ten years? What percentage of them were killed by Muslims? By non-Muslims? How about nationwide—which group is more murderous, Muslims or non-Muslims?
I’m just sayin’.