Ecumenical collaboration: Friday afternoon I received a press release from a PR firm that caught my attention. It was from a woman with a Jewish name working for a PR agency with two Jewish names that promotes Jewish and ecumenical causes, and it was about an op-ed piece written by the United State’s first Muslim ambassador and printed in the pages of the Washington Times, which is owned and operated by the Rev. Sun Myung Moon’s Unification Church. It started this way:
Hello,
I thought you might be interested in this op-ed written by the first Muslim U.S. ambassador M. Osman Siddique wherein he calls on American Muslims to serve as sentries in their own communities in order to safeguard America and to protect Islam from being co-opted by extremists. It appeared in the Washington Times this morning . If you have any questions feel free to contact Rabinowitz/Dorf Communications.
Sincerely,
Jessica Rosenbaum
Rabinowitz/Dorf Communications
I read the piece, then wrote back to ask why I had been chosen to receive this weirdly ecumenical essay. As of today, I still have not heard from Rosenbaum, Rabinowitz or Dorf.
It’s strange to consider the provenance of the press release and one wonders what all these folks are really trying to accomplish. Do you really believe that these folks are trying to protect Islam from being “co-opted by extremists?” I think Siddique might actually be sincere, if misguided, but the Jews and the Moonies? Hmmmm ….
Siddique obviously is being used as a tool, and the cynics behind this piece of propaganda certainly don’t have Islam’s best interest at heart. Here are some excerpts. Read the whole thing here.
I am embarrassed when I read the names of the terrorists in the newspaper. What must non-Muslims think when some criminal claiming to act in the name of Islam and bearing the same name as the Prophet Muhammad is arrested?
I am also embarrassed that not all American Muslims do all they can to expose those in our community who would commit mayhem or would give succor in any way to those who would cause harm. Too many American Muslims hold back from publicly speaking out against extremist ideologies that threaten us all because they fear being stigmatized by their coreligionists for cooperating with security agencies.
Why is this? In part it is because some Muslim immigrants are relatively recent arrivals from nations in which security forces were corrupt and could not be trusted. Some shy from cooperation because of their immigration status or the status of those around them. Still others hold back because they disagree strongly with American foreign policy. They truly believe that the current administration is fighting a war against Islam under the guise of fighting terrorism. Regrettably, this sentiment is widespread among Muslims, more so abroad but to a substantial degree in America as well.
Our government may act incompetently and unwisely. But I’m confident that it holds no animosity toward Muslims simply because they are Muslims. Sadly, it is Muslims who perpetrate most of the worst terrorist attacks today. As we approach the fifth anniversary of September 11, this reality must be acknowledged by all Muslims.
Oh wait, now I see — the idea here is to get the good Muslims to rat out the bad ones!
If Muslims are to gain the full confidence of non-Muslim Americans they must come forward whenever they sense an extremist presence in their midst. If anything, we must go the extra mile in these suspicious times.
…It’s often said that freedom is never cheap. For American Muslims, the price we must pay is taking responsibility for serving as sentries in our community. Our primary communal allegiance must be to the nation in which we thrive.
In no way do I mean to imply that the American Muslim community is ridden with potential terrorists or that extremist ideologies dominate. But we fool no one, and certainly not ourselves, if we fail to admit that within our ranks are at least some individuals who have the potential to turn on America.
There is no better time to act on this truth than the fifth anniversary of September 11.
So good Muslims — and you know who you are — get out there next Monday and report to the U.S. authorities all the bad or merely suspicious Muslims. Or use the opportunity to get even with your Muslim neighbors you simply don’t like.
Allah, Yaweh, Rev. Moon and George Bush will thank you for it.
The Moonies link is not too surprising, if you read Kevin Phillips’s “American Dynasty”. George Bush’s father has been a long time promoter of the Moonie head, who was even present at an important religious White House event. Then the Bush ties to Israel are well known, this is more White House propaganda, and the never ending search for scapegoats not solutions. It also sounds a lot like the “rat out your neighbours”, often criticised as one of China’s failures to deal with the democratic process, and an example of their totalitarianism, inevitably leading to false arrests and tragic imprisonments.
Well…
I don’t think it was THAT bad. Sure, on the one hand it seemed to be a little overly apologetic. The tone of the piece, at points, teetered towards suggesting that the Muslim community in America DESERVED to be stigmatized for the acts of a few bad apples, or alternatively, for not being more active in “ratting out” bad apples.
But on the other hand… what he was describing is a modern and extremely effective approach to combating “terrorist activity”. John Ashcroft and the right-wing-types tried to put forward a “crackdown” model. Constant monitoring, “total information awareness”, “Operation TIPS”, interrogations, non-warrant search/seizures, etc.
It didn’t really work. It strained relations between police/security personnel and the Muslim community. Nobody likes to be spyed on. It’s an indignity. And where people are feeling indignified… where they don’t trust the police… they’re going to be hesitant to be pro-active in assisting police/security personnel.
But…! When sturdy, personal, trusting and amiable relations are established… Ah, now that’s a different story. When people trust the police, they’re much more likely to be pro-active in helping them.
That’s how we were able to stop the most recent terrorist plot to blowup jets over the Atlantic. While it’s true that many police and security agencies in England have done a bad job at building relationships of trust and goodwill with British Muslims, there were a set of police precincts in London that were actively trying to establish bonds and trust with the Muslims in their vicinity. Those policemen weren’t treated as “the state police” or as “outsiders”, they were trusted. That trust led to British Muslims voluntarily and of their own initiative supplying the police with information that disrupted a deadly plot.
Let’s hear it for diversity. :)
–VJ