Saturday, December 25, 2010

Peter King - Good or Evil?

Congressman Peter King of New York has been making headlines. In case you missed it, he will be chairing the powerful committee on Homeland Security in the 112th Congress that takes office right after the New Year and has promised to use his powers to hold congressional hearings on the causes of radicalization of American Muslims.

Our friends at CAIR and other Muslim advocacy groups are alarmed by this and are calling it a form of racial profiling.

I spent some time today reading all I could about the Congressman. I must say, I can't find anything objectionable about what he is doing or his positions. I invite you to read an ope-ed he recently penned in Long Island (NY)'s Newsday:

Which of his facts do we disagree with? Which of his positions do we find unreasonable?
  1. Let me address the Congressman and one of his key concerns first. Congressman, there are Muslims who hang their heads in shame by the denials within our community that 9/11 was the work of others. Let this serve as an unconditional apology to the broader community of fellow humans for our failure in what would be our religious duty to bear witness even against our own and ourselves in defense of the truth. Our faith prohibits us from holding our tribal affiliations above the truth but we certainly haven't been living by our faith for some time.
  2. The Congressman's history with the Muslim community and the facts he states about the rampant state of denial among local Muslims leaders in many communities is absolutely on the mark.
  3. Those of us who know the Muslim community well cannot deny he fact that that somewhere deep down in our psyche we always put a BUT when it comes to our position on suicide bombing and terrorism. We see the wrongs done by terrorists and the flaws in the ways of the Radicals, yet we feel the injustices done against Muslims somehow leave room for those reactions. Shame on us. Islam in absolutely unequivocal about fitnah. Until we get past this first step, this cancer is going to devour our communities, here in the US and globally.
  4. Like the Congressman I want to know what in the world is going on. Why was the fool in Portland, OR thinking there was anything noble about killing women and children from an early age? Yes he felt the pain of Muslims around the world, but why didn't his faith teach him to cause a peaceful struggle (the greater jihad) to bring peace to Muslim lands? What about Faisal Shehzad - the man claimed he would love to die many times over for his cause. Why did his brain shrink to such a narrow way to respond to the crisis in Muslim lands? Why didn't he seek a real albeit slow solution that requires constant striving? What about the Zazi? What about the imam who tried to tip Zazi off?
Fact is, Muslims have good hearts but we are LOST in this world. Any nation that fell so far down so quickly would have a crisis of the sort we are having. Many of of our formal and informally placed leaders are steeped in frustration, lack clarity in their thinking and struggle at best on taking a position on issues. This lack of clarity about what our faith mandates us under such circumstances is confusing many in the community-at-large.

There is ABSOLUTELY no room in Islam for random acts of violence against people who are not armed and standing in combat against you. Even in such circumstances you don't fight to cause greater harm to others, you do so to disarm the fool who is fighting you.

Suicide bombing or bombing of civilians is against the most fundamental teachings of Islam. Absolutely no exceptions.

Fellow Muslims, step 1 is to acknowledge we have a problem. Let's get rid of our shabby tribalism and side with the truth, even if such truth condemns us in the short run.

Peter King, go ahead with the hearings.

Our Lord, have mercy on this community and give us leaders who will help us think with clarity and help restore our position as the standard bearers of truth and justice.