Islamaphobia

I empathize with Muslims who don't like the term "radical Islam." The few Muslims I have spoken to about it contend the extremists wreaking so much havoc in the name of Islam don't represent their faith and shouldn't be called Islamic. I believe they are sincere and that they speak for by far the majority of Muslims. But they have lost that argument. The problem is that there are too many of the radicals. Even a small percentage of 1.2 billion Muslims is a great many extremists and the number appears to be growing. The violence is certainly growing. Were it not for that most of us would know next to nothing about Islam. I wouldn't. In the years following 911 I did a lot of reading, mostly in an effort to understand what the Arabs were so mad about, and what on earth it had to do with us. I read histories, biographies, commentaries, I even read the Koran. I learned a lot, just ask me about Sykes-Picot. But there is a limit to textual knowledge. I only knew what I had read and I really didn't know much about Islam. I began to wonder if the faith is even compatible with modern civilization, a question a lot of people have asked and answered in the negative. But that didn't seem right. I know enough Christian history to know we have a lot of brutality in our past too, all conducted in the service of God. St. Louis was a man of deep and abiding faith who believed the only proper way to talk to a Muslim or Jew was at the point of a sword. We don't have to go back that far. Most generals on both sides in the Civil War sincerely believed they were doing God's work. Jews don't get off the hook either. Just read up on Joshua's campaigns. So I began to take opportunities to speak with Muslims. I attended a series of classes at our local mosque. I went to several seminars. Lynne and I participated in a small interfaith discussion group with five Muslims and five Catholics. I concluded that Muslim scholars can spend a lifetime studying their holy scriptures and come away with entirely different interpretations of what it all means. I also concluded that Islam is not necessarily an inherently violent religion, and that most Muslims don't think so either. But enough of their co-religionists believe God has issued a call to bloody arms that any effort to avoid associating them with Islam is doomed to fail. Like it or not Boko Haram, ISIS, Al Qaeda, and the assassins at Charlie Hebdo are the face of Islam to much of the world. As long as they dominate the headlines with their brutal escapades no amount of public outreach from my Muslim friends will change that. President Obama's refusal to use the term radical Islam just makes him look silly. The Army's failure to recognize Maj. Nadal Malik Hasan's obvious radicalism for what it was may we'll have allowed his bloody rampage at Ft. Hood to happen. Insistence on calling it workplace violence isn't reassuring. Many people I know are wary of Muslims, maybe most. It is unfortunate but entirely understandable. Even liberal commentator Juan Williams admitted on Fox News that boarding a plane with other passengers in Muslim dress made him nervous. He lost his job at NPR over it. Some of my friends won't go with me to a meeting with Muslims. That may be unfair profiling but it is what it is. As I said, I understand the broader Muslim community's dislike of references to Islam in discussing terrorism, but it is hard to conduct a meaningful discussion without it.