FAITH FRONT
Five questions non-Muslims would like answered
By Dennis Prager, Dennis Prager's nationally syndicated radio show is heard
daily in Los Angeles on KRLA-AM (870). He may be contacted through his
website:
www.dennisprager.com.
THE RIOTING IN France by primarily Muslim youths and the hotel
bombings in Jordan are the latest events to prompt sincere questions that
law-abiding Muslims need to answer for Islam's sake, as well as for the sake
of worried non-Muslims.
Here are five of them:
(1) Why are you so quiet?
Since the first Israelis were targeted for death by Muslim
terrorists blowing themselves up in the name of your religion and Palestinian
nationalism, I have been praying to see Muslim demonstrations against these
atrocities. Last week's protests in Jordan against the bombings, while
welcome, were a rarity. What I have seen more often is mainstream Muslim
spokesmen implicitly defending this terror on the grounds that Israel occupies
Palestinian lands. We see torture and murder in the name of Allah, but we see
no anti-torture and anti-murder demonstrations in the name of Allah.
There are a billion Muslims in the world. How is it possible
that essentially none have demonstrated against evils perpetrated by Muslims
in the name of Islam? This is true even of the millions of Muslims living in
free Western societies. What are non-Muslims of goodwill supposed to conclude?
When the Israeli government did not stop a Lebanese massacre of Palestinians
in the Sabra and Chatilla refugee camps in Lebanon in 1982, great crowds of
Israeli Jews gathered to protest their country's moral failing. Why has there
been no comparable public demonstration by Palestinians or other Muslims to
morally condemn Palestinian or other Muslim-committed terror?
(2) Why are none of the Palestinian terrorists Christian?
If Israeli occupation is the reason for Muslim terror in
Israel, why do no Christian Palestinians engage in terror? They are just as
nationalistic and just as occupied as Muslim Palestinians.
(3) Why is only one of the 47 Muslim-majority countries a free
country?
According to Freedom House, a Washington-based group that
promotes democracy, of the world's 47 Muslim countries, only Mali is free.
Sixty percent are not free, and 38% are partly free. Muslim-majority states
account for a majority of the world's "not free" states. And of the 10 "worst
of the worst," seven are Islamic states. Why is this?
(4) Why are so many atrocities committed and threatened by
Muslims in the name of Islam?
Young girls in Indonesia were recently beheaded by Muslim
murderers. Last year, Muslims — in the name of Islam — murdered hundreds of
schoolchildren in Russia. While reciting Muslim prayers, Islamic terrorists
take foreigners working to make Iraq free and slaughter them. Muslim daughters
are murdered by their own families in the thousands in "honor killings." And
the Muslim government in Iran has publicly called for the extermination of
Israel.
(5) Why do countries governed by religious Muslims persecute
other religions?
No church or synagogue is allowed in Saudi Arabia. The Taliban
destroyed some of the greatest sculptures of the ancient world because they
were Buddhist. Sudan's Islamic regime has murdered great numbers of
Christians.
Instead of confronting these problems, too many of you deny
them. Muslims call my radio show to tell me that even speaking of Muslim or
Islamic terrorists is wrong. After all, they argue, Timothy McVeigh is never
labeled a "Christian terrorist." As if McVeigh committed his terror as a
churchgoing Christian and in the name of Christ, and as if there were
Christian-based terror groups around the world.
As a member of the media for nearly 25 years, I have a long
record of reaching out to Muslims. Muslim leaders have invited me to speak at
major mosques. In addition, I have studied Arabic and Islam, have visited most
Arab and many other Muslim countries and conducted interfaith dialogues with
Muslims in the United Arab Emirates as well as in the U.S. Politically, I have
supported creation of a Palestinian state and supported (mistakenly, I now
believe) the Oslo accords.
Hundreds of millions of non-Muslims want honest answers to
these questions, even if the only answer you offer is, "Yes, we have real
problems in Islam." Such an acknowledgment is infinitely better — for you and
for the world — than dismissing us as anti-Muslim.
We await your response.