What do Muslims Think

Where are the Muslim voices condemning the slaughter of innocents by ISIS and other groups in the name of Islam? They are there, there are a lot of them, and they are loud but they are having trouble being heard. The news program I usually watch has covered the massacre in Paris extensively and featured numerous "experts" on terrorism trying to answer the questions, who are these people and why are they doing this? No expert I have seen has been Muslim. None have blamed Islam either though they don't shrink from the term "Islamic radicals." I would like to hear from Muslims. I understand why they don't like to refer to terrorists as Islamic but let them explain why. Why is this not Islamic? Why is it not in keeping with the passages from the Koran so often quoted by those who would condemn Islam as a violent faith? I think I know why but I would like to hear it from them. They are more than ready to speak up. They are on Facebook. They are issuing statements. Get them on television. Question them about it. Why? For four years I attended a Catholic Bible Study class at the University of Dallas. We went through every book. Some of it I found disturbing, none more than the book of Joshua, a book Catholics share with Protestants. I was warned at the beginning not to interpret passages from scripture literally. At least since Vatican II the Church has taught that scripture must be read in the context of all of scripture, when, why, and for whom it was written, in light of church teaching, and of what different meaning it might have today. Joshua's campaigns in the Promised Land were as brutal as anything any conquering army ever did. Did that justify the wanton slaughter of Muslims and Jews by medieval crusaders? They thought so. Almost all Christians today would say no. That is not the faith we share. There is no question the crusaders were Christians. At least one of them is a saint, Saint Louis, King of France, leader of the Seventh Crusade, and a man who believed the only way to talk to a Muslim or a Jew was at the point of a lance. Something like that is going on in the Muslim world today. The radicals may be a minority but there are a lot of them and like the crusaders they believe they are defending the faith. Some of them, like Saint Louis, are genuinely devout. And as in the Christian Bible, they can find support for it in their scripture if they look for it. Some of them truly believe that, as with Joshua, God has taken the field and will lead them to victory. That doesn't mean they are right. The Muslims I know say they are wrong. They are acutely aware that most of the victims are Muslim but regardless of faith it is always wrong to shed innocent blood. We need a serious dialog about it. Every horrific incident that makes the headlines reinforces the view that Muslims represent a dangerous segment of our population. I would like to think that view is wrong but I'm afraid it is not. It is affecting our national sense of charity and justice. Two governors have announced that Syrian refugees are not welcome in their states for fear that terrorists will be among them. That fear is likely to spread. This has been spiraling out of control for some time now and appears likely to continue. We heed to hear from Muslims what they think about it and, more important, what they think we should do about it.