Muslims are loudly condemning terror, but is the world listening?

Siddiq Bazarwala asks why the burden of denouncing extremist violence is time and again placed only on Muslims, when the voices against terrorism from ordinary followers of the Islamic faith tend to be drowned out

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A man prays at the Kowloon Mosque in Tsim Sha Tsui, on June 1. If terrorism did have something to do with Islam, “Islamic” terrorism would be a centuries-old problem. Photo: Felix Wong

Published: 10:12am, 9 Jun 2017Updated: 6:46pm, 9 Jun 2017

Despite an avalanche of condemnation from Islamic countries, leaders and scholars after nearly every terrorist attack, the entire Muslim world continues to be the scapegoat for the actions of individuals and groups that commit morally repugnant acts in the name of Islam.

In 2014, more than 120 Muslim scholars issued an open letter to Islamic State, meticulously deconstructing the group’s theology. It was not the first time that their ideology has been challenged. Multiple fatwa have been issued against extremism and yet, every time IS, al-Qaeda or any of their ilk commit an act of violence in the name of Islam, a tragically familiar refrain arises: where is the condemnation from the Muslim world?

Last November, 19-year old Heraa Hashmi, a University of Colorado student, decided to put the entire notion to the test. Using Google spreadsheets, she compiled a “712-page list of Muslims condemning things with sources”, which she tweeted. The list included everything from acts of domestic violence to 9/11. “I wanted to show people how weak the argument that Muslims don’t care about terrorism is,” she explained. Within a few weeks, her spreadsheet was turned into an interactive website, muslimscondemn.com.

Yet, every time an act of terrorism occurs, public denouncements and formal condemnations by leading Muslim figures and countries are not given as much due coverage as the vehement demand for such by the very same media and its opinionated readers.

Worse still, the public is continuously misinformed with the same xenophobic implications about Islam and ordinary Muslims, over and over again.

We ‘condemn these inhuman acts’

Buddhist countries are never expected to condemn Myanmese monk Ashin Wirathu or Jewish leaders told to speak up against mosque attacker Baruch Goldstein, the Israel defence forces for extrajudicial killings or incursions by illegal settlers in the West Bank.

The average atheist is also never asked to denounce the actions of deranged killers like avowed “anti-theist” Craig Stephen Hicks.