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Statements By American Muslim Organizations On Violent Protests

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Following are the statements by some major American Muslims Organizations.

Statement by ICNA

“ICNA strongly condemns the violent attacks on American embassies in Egypt and Libya. Nothing is worth the cost of a human life, and we firmly believe that there is no honor or faith in committing such violence.

We extend our deepest condolences to the families of U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens and the other three American personnel at this tragic time. Today we lost diplomats and friends to the people of Libya; we commend Amb. Stevens and U.S. envoys in Libya and elsewhere for their dedication to peace.

We are disturbed that the perpetrators of these attacks are claiming to defend the Prophet Muhammad’s   honor. The Prophet   was a man of peace and mercy; to engage in such violence and senseless killing is to truly defile his legacy. We implore Muslims in the region and around the world to remember the Prophet’s   teachings and honor his life by following his example of kindness and love in the face of hostility.

We appeal to Muslims in the Arab region and elsewhere to ignore cheap attempts for publicity by hateful bigots. By engaging in violence Muslims are not only harming innocent lives but also falling in the trap set up by bigots.

We also appeal to the larger American public to be wary of such attempts by individuals and groups, who, in most cases, have foreign ties and engage in such hateful projects that not only endanger Americans’ and others’ lives overseas, but incite hate attacks against minorities in America as well.”

Statement By ISNA 

“The Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) unequivocally condemns the killing of U.S. Ambassador to Libya Christopher Stevens, and his staff and condemns the attack on US Embassy in Cairo. Reports indicate that those who killed him did so as a reaction to a video depicting the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) in a profane manner. Although we believe that this video is hateful and bigoted, this could never be an excuse to commit any acts of violence whatsoever. The Prophet (peace be upon him) is loved and respected by hundreds of millions of people across the world, and no one take this from our hearts. No one should fall into the trap of those who wish to incite anger. The Prophet (peace be upon him) should be our example in everything we do, and even though he was attacked and insulted many times throughout his life, he always reacted with compassion and forgiveness, never with revenge or violence.”

Statement By CAIR

“We condemn the disgraceful killings of the American diplomats in Libya in the strongest terms possible. We also condemn the attack on our nation’s diplomatic facilities in Libya and Egypt. The actions of the attackers are totally inexcusable and un-Islamic.

“We agree with Secretary Clinton, who said that ‘violence like this is no way to honor religion or faith.’ The extremists who carried out these attacks deserve punishment, and the extremists who produced and promoted an intentionally inflammatory film deserve condemnation.

“Islamic traditions include a number of instances in which the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) had the opportunity to retaliate against those who abused him, but refrained from doing so.

One tradition, or hadith, states: ‘You [Muhammad] do not do evil to those who do evil to you, but you deal with them with forgiveness and kindness.’ (Sahih Al-Bukhari)

“Muslims are also taught the tradition of the woman who would regularly throw trash on the prophet as he walked down a particular path. The prophet never responded in kind to the woman’s abuse. Instead, when she one day failed to attack him, he went to her home to inquire about her condition.

“In another tradition, the prophet was offered the opportunity to have God punish the people of a town near Mecca who refused the message of Islam and attacked him with stones. Again, the prophet did not choose to respond in kind to the abuse.

“We must not let extremists control the political or religious discourse. That means that people of all beliefs should repudiate those who would commit acts of violence in response to intentional provocations and repudiate those whose only goal is offending religious sentiments.”

CAIR yesterday called on Muslims in the Middle East to ignore the distribution of the “trashy” anti-Islam film, clips of which are circulating online, that resulted in the attacks in Libya and Egypt.

CAIR is America’s largest Muslim civil liberties and advocacy organization. Its mission is to enhance the understanding of Islam, encourage dialogue, protect civil liberties, empower American Muslims, and build coalitions that promote justice and mutual understanding.

Statement By ADC

Washington, DC | www.adc.org | September 12, 2012 — The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) strongly condemns the brutal attack on the U.S. Consulate in the Libyan city of Benghazi that erupted during protests last night. Four Americans were killed in the attack, among them the U.S. Envoy to Libya, Ambassador J Christopher Stevens.

This senseless act of violence occurred amidst angry protests decrying an anti-Islamic film produced in the U.S. that appeared on YouTube. Thousands of Egyptians also protested the film at the U.S. Embassy in Cairo yesterday. The film is highly insulting to the religious sentiments of Muslims.

While ADC is committed to the right enshrined in our nation’s Constitution of free speech, there is no question that the purposeful provocation of any religious group is divisive and reprehensible. However, responding with violence only plays into the hands of those who seek to divide us and inevitably leads to painful loss.

ADC extends its deepest condolences to the family, friends, and colleagues of those killed; and urges Muslim Americans and Muslims around the world to always react with reason, not anger, against any ignorant attack on Islam.

 

Shahid Khan: The New Face Of The NFL And The American Dream

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With sweat and smarts, Pakistan-born Shahid Khan built a $3.4 billion manufacturing juggernaut from the ruins of an Illinois auto parts maker. To celebrate, he just bought one of the worst teams in the NFL, with the pledge of a similar turnaround. Only in America, folks. Click link below to read the full article:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/briansolomon/2012/09/05/shahid-khan-the-new-face-of-the-nfl-and-the-american-dream/

Why is the Muslim world so easily offended?

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By Fouad Ajami, Published: September 14

In this analytical article the author argues that the root of anger in the Muslim world at large and Arab World in particular is deeper than simple protest against offensive movie.

Describing the historic perspective the author writes;

“Time and again in recent years, as the outside world has battered the walls of Muslim lands and as Muslims have left their places of birth in search of greater opportunities in the Western world, modernity — with its sometimes distasteful but ultimately benign criticism of Islam — has sparked fatal protests. To understand why violence keeps erupting and to seek to prevent it, we must discern what fuels this sense of grievance.

In the narrative of history transmitted to schoolchildren throughout the Arab world and reinforced by the media, religious scholars and laymen alike, Arabs were favored by divine providence. They had come out of the Arabian Peninsula in the 7th century, carrying Islam from Morocco to faraway Indonesia. In the process, they overran the Byzantine and Persian empires, then crossed the Strait of Gibraltar to Iberia, and there they fashioned a brilliant civilization that stood as a rebuke to the intolerance of the European states to the north. Cordoba and Granada were adorned and exalted in the Arab imagination. Andalusia brought together all that the Arabs favored — poetry, glamorous courts, philosophers who debated the great issues of the day.

If Islam’s rise was spectacular, its fall was swift and unsparing. This is the world that the great historian Bernard Lewis explored in his 2002 book “What Went Wrong?” The blessing of God, seen at work in the ascent of the Muslims, now appeared to desert them. The ruling caliphate, with its base in Baghdad, was torn asunder by a Mongol invasion in the 13th century. Soldiers of fortune from the Turkic Steppes sacked cities and left a legacy of military seizures of power that is still the bane of the Arabs. Little remained of their philosophy and literature, and after the Ottoman Turks overran Arab countries to their south in the 16th century, the Arabs seemed to exit history; they were now subjects of others.

The coming of the West to their world brought superior military, administrative and intellectual achievement into their midst — and the outsiders were unsparing in their judgments. They belittled the military prowess of the Arabs, and they were scandalized by the traditional treatment of women and the separation of the sexes that crippled Arab society.

Even as Arabs insist that their defects were inflicted on them by outsiders, they know their weaknesses. Younger Arabs today can be brittle and proud about their culture, yet deeply ashamed of what they see around them. They know that more than 300 million Arabs have fallen to economic stagnation and cultural decline. They know that the standing of Arab states along the measures that matter — political freedom, status of women, economic growth — is low. In the privacy of their own language, in daily chatter on the street, on blogs and in the media, and in works of art and fiction, they probe endlessly what befell them”

Click on the link below to read the full article:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/in-the-arab-world-why-a-movie-trailer-can-lead-to-violencewhy-cant-the-arab-world-accept-offenses-without-violence/2012/09/14/d2b65d2e-fdc8-11e1-8adc-499661afe377_story.html

The Provocateurs Know Politics and Religion Don’t Mix

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By Robert Fisk

This article was shared by Azeem Farooki;

It only takes a couple of loonies a few seconds to kick off a miniature war in the Muslim world

“With the help of our wonderful new technology, however, it only needs a couple of loonies to kick off a miniature war in the Muslim world within seconds. I doubt if poor Christopher Stevens – a man who really understood the Arabs as many of his colleagues do not – had ever heard of the ‘film’ that unleashed the storming of the US consulate in Benghazi and his own death. It’s one thing to witlessly claim that the US would go on a “crusade” against al-Qaeda – thank you, George W. Bush – but another to insult, quite deliberately, an entire people. Racism of this kind stirs many a crazed heart.”  To read full article click on the link below:

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/09/13-0