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:

http://www.house.gov/apps/list/speech/ny03_king/radicalizingmuslimamericans.html

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.

Stupid Meets Stupid

The new year is barely 2 days old I am already indulging in name-calling. Sadly, I don't think I can do justice to my thoughts without stooping low, so please be advised: the word s-t-u-p-i-d features frequently in this post so it's not for the faint-hearted and reader discretion is advised.

On no less than the MAIN page of CNN.com this morning, its top news reports that a family of 9 Muslims was not allowed to fly because some passengers grew concerned over the subject of their conversation as they boarded the flight. There are a lot of little details to the story and you can read it on your favorite news site but I can't help but wonder: you are a muslim, (here I am assuming) an outwardly visible muslim, and in a post-911 America you have just boarded a plane and you are talking so loud that other passengers can hear you (mommy never taught you to keep it down?), and your conversation is about which seat on the plane ("whether the one near the wing") is the safest? Is there a word other than STUPID to describe you?

People around the world joke that the American public is stupid. Well, I don't know that the average American is any more stupid than the average human anywhere else in the world. So when Americans are alarmed by such conversations and report it to flight attendants who call the FBI, it sounds like a case of definitely-stupid meets possibly-stupid? Better stupid calling authorities than sorry - we've been burned before!

I was once traveling in a Muslim country where an official asked me for a petty bribe. When I (in my young, naive and idealistic phase) protested stating he should be ashamed for asking me for a bribe, he smiled and whispered "you self-righteous ba*****, I will lock you up in a jail somewhere and no one will ever know where you are."

In the case of our Muslim family, they had a cordial interview with the FBI which quickly determined that this was all a misunderstanding, and the airline issued full refunds and asked them to go home or take another flight. Will you please show appreciation for a civilized society and tip your kufi/hat/scarf to the US of A? This family is still upset that the airline declined to let them fly on that very flight. Can you be stupid twice in the same week? And then draw attention to your stupidity by going to the national media? And can you be thankless and stupid both at once? You can tell I am annoyed!

Earlier this week I was at Gravely Point, a park north of Washington DC's Reagan National airport from where you can witness breathtaking airplane landings from an amazingly close proximity to the runway. I was alarmed when I saw a Muslim family - hijab, arabic conversations - whose three children were playing with plastic toy guns. I have been there a dozen times, people bring their children to play there...I had never before seen kids playing with toy guns. Let me repeat a line from this blog: you are a muslim, an outwardly visible muslim at that, in a post-911 America near an airport viewing plane landings, and your children are running around pointing toy guns at those planes? Is there a word other than STUPID to describe you? One may ask what is wrong with children playing with toy guns, it's our right...true, but do we have to be so obtuse in the way we seek our rights ignoring the context of the world we live in? If someone gave me a dollar for every time I saw outwardly visible Muslims whose children-in-tow were playing with guns, I would be rich.

Do we have to so overwhelmingly embrace our right in America to be stupid?

I am afraid CAIR and other muslim civil rights organizations might take this case and demand "justice." I urge them not to do so. If we cry wolf at the world's reaction to every stupidity by a Muslim, I am afraid the effectiveness and reputations of our civil rights organizations will be compromised and the numerous cases involving genuine civil rights concerns and abuses will suffer.

As part of "tawasau bil haqq wa tawasau bissabr"(Qur'anic injunction to advise each other to do the right thing and persevere against adversity), and shedding my deplorable sarcastic tone, I wish to say this: We have all done stupid things, we all have bad days. Yours truly is seriously and frequently guilty of it too. But no need to get mad at others when we make a mistake. Our Muslim family from DC area should just move on - it wasn't their shiniest moment but I don't think anyone else has any blame in any of this. And thank God that the FBI and the airline were cordial and respectful to them. To my non-Muslim American/world family-at-large, let's keep those ears and eyes open and err on side of caution when we see someone who could be a terrorist. However, nothing wrong with using a little bit of judgement instead of being, err, obtuse about the way we report these things!