A Wake-up Call for Muslims

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Coming to Terms: Muslims must confront their terrorists ...
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12:09 AM CDT on Thursday, September 9, 2004



The world crossed a Rubicon last week in Beslan. The torture and massacre of children by Muslim terrorists are forcing a number of people to come to terms with an agonizing truth. The prominent Arab Muslim journalist Abdel Rahman al-Rashed said it bluntest and best: "It is a certain fact that not all Muslims are terrorists, but it is equally certain, and exceptionally painful, that almost all terrorists are Muslims."

Mr. al-Rashed made his agonizing observation in a column published Saturday in the London-based Arab-language newspaper Al Sharq al-Awsat (and reprinted today on our Viewpoints page). His was a courageous cri de coeur by a Muslim believer who says out loud what many non-Muslims have been thinking for some time as they see over and over again Muslims perpetrating acts of terror, and quite often doing so in the name of Islam.

One often hears that this or that political factor justifies Islamic outrage. But nothing in heaven or on earth justifies targeting children. Besides, many populations suffer greatly from the political situation under which they live – think of Tibetans or Palestinian Christians – without turning into mass-murdering religious fanatics. Why?

In 1993, the Harvard political scientist Samuel Huntington caused a firestorm by pointing out "Islam's bloody borders," citing overwhelming quantitative evidence showing that Islamic populations are far more involved in violent conflicts with their neighbors than any other group. Wrote Dr. Huntington: "Muslim bellicosity and violence are late-20th-century facts which neither Muslims nor non-Muslims can deny."

There was, and has been, furious denial, and not only from Muslims. It has been considered taboo of late in right-thinking Western circles to notice the role the Islamic faith plays in driving terrorism. But the Beslan atrocity seems to have been a watershed event. Let us hope so.

And let us hope that the millions of decent Muslims here and abroad share Mr. al-Rashed's disgust and outrage and that they resolve to stand up, speak out and fight hard to purge their faith of suicide bombers, cutthroats and child killers. "Islam is a religion of peace," we keep hearing. If an increasingly skeptical world is supposed to believe that, Muslims of good will must quit blaming others for their travails and take their religion back.