This post originally appeared on ClashDaily.com
Well, as has been the norm for some time, those pesky “Islamists” are once again capsizing things around the world. Unconvinced? I give you these jihadist gems: the Iranian government; Hezbollah; Hamas; the Houthis; Nigeria’s Fulani Tribesmen; militants marauding the African Sahel; recent physical attacks by Muslims on activist Jake Lang and journalist Nick Shirley; a pair of lately foiled Isis-related terror plots on American soil (New York/Pennsylvania).
The list could roll on …
In assigning blame for the above misdeeds, you’ll note I use — advisedly — the descriptor “Islamists”; as opposed to “Muslims” or “followers of Islam”. The former, we are gravely and regularly instructed, are the true villains when it comes to heinous acts carried out in the name of “Allah”.
Meanwhile, other Muslims? Regular ones? A nervous public is self-confidently informed these disapprove when their “religion of peace” is hijacked by nefarious “radicals”. Ayaan Karan, borrowing a phrase coined by British writer Alistair Horne, designates non-violent, normie devotees of Islam as “third force Muslims.” And the overriding desire of this group? Presumably, merely to work their jobs, raise their families, observe their religious traditions, pass their lives in a civil, orderly manner.
How about American Muslims? Why, they’re certainly not a problem either, we’re mollified … neither to the nation’s general tranquility or its constitutional form of government.
All that said, there remains a formidable challenge to these breezy dismissals: A clear-eyed survey of world history indicates Muslim-adjacent atrocities are nothing new. Recall their part in the Crusades, the Umayyad incursions into the Iberian Peninsula and Frankish territories, the Ottoman Turks, the Barbary pirates, attacks on the Khobar Tower (1996) and U.S.S. Cole (2000), Madrid (2002) and London (2005) bombings, et al.
And, this 25th Anniversary year of 9/11’s horror, need I mention the fallen World Trade Center, attack on the Pentagon and a plane downed in a Shanksville, PA field?
So-called “moderate” followers of Mohammed may bridle at unflattering portrayals of their faith, but this millennia-spanning track record is hardly a comforting one. An alert observer could almost conclude violence and mayhem are an ingrained Islamic habit.
A couple months back, podcaster Ben Shapiro put it succinctly, if piquantly: “Islamic terrorism goes all the way back to the Quran.” (Circa 630 AD)
A few days after 9/11’s infamy, my wife had a brief interaction with a fellow soccer mom. This Muslim lady was disconsolate over the possibility non-Islamic members of the community might think she in any way approved that atrocity. Her words struck my wife, in every way, as unimpeachably sincere.
A fellow I know has spent a good deal of time in a Muslim-majority country, living and working among scores of Islamic faithful. He tells me most of those he dealt with despised the extremists. These did nothing but make life more difficult for workaday Muslims who were only trying to make a go of things. He was convinced they were being straight with him.
These are reassuring anecdotes to be sure; at least for me. The reality however? They’re a woefully insufficient response in the face of present conditions.
Fact is, centuries of bloody Islamic militancy and accounts of similar viciousness stubbornly cramming contemporary headlines have exerted a sledgehammer impact on the sensibilities of millions of kuffar (“unbelievers”). Multitudes upon multitudes — for a not inconsequential period of time — have suffered heartache, had their lives upended, been traumatized by the depredations of belligerent Islamism. All that is not going to be neutralized by the occasional Muslim squeaking out regret over same.
Come to that, why only “occasional”? Again, Ayaan Karan,
As the writer Pradheep J. Shanker put it …, “those Muslims that want to live peacefully are silent, because they are scared to speak because of extremists in the community.” … [Islamists] within their own community suppress them. The third force Muslims are … characterized by a general disdain for extremism and fundamentalism, as well as ideologies that ruin the image of Islam as a religion of peace. [They favor] pragmatism and [are] suspicious of movements that promote violent uprising. …So why are these third force Muslims absent from the conversation? To their political loss, third force Muslims—like many pragmatists—lean quietist. Their levelheaded disposition toward politics leaves them unable to organize effectively.
Meantime, results of recent polling aren’t going to help the cause of alleged Islamic harmlessness. Pew found a rattling thirty-seven percent of American Muslims support Hamas and Palestinian terrorism; that is against fifty-eight percent who give thumbs down to the murderous group which engineered October 7, 2022’s animalistic assault on Israel.
Here we have one of those good news/bad news situations. The good piece: a majority of Islamic U.S. citizens reject slaughterous, Hamas-style tactics. The bad news? Over one-third of that cohort continue to smile on them.
Team “Third Force Muslim”, you have a problem.
And it’s one that cannot be satisfactorily answered by amicable Meccan enthusiasts’ staying mum, keeping their heads down, sequestering themselves to the sidelines. That unpleasant reality may be a bummer in a burqa for many — most? — Muslims; but that’s the way it is.
What is required? Consistent, full-throated, public-facing condemnation toward those they claim have shanghaied their religious ideology; unalloyed opposition to those wreaking havoc on society in the name of “the Prophet”.
Risky? Could be. Dangerous? Perhaps. Easy for non-Muslims to demand? Granted. But, unfortunately, that’s the way the halal cookie crumbles.
Those who profess Quranic allegiance in 2026 bear a concomitant obligation to repudiate any iteration of their faith which strikes at the basic, indispensable peaceable underpinnings buttressing Western Civilization. For American Muslims specifically? That would include undiluted endorsement of the values comprising a constitutional republic.
That no-nonsense, plain-spoken prescription is a tough one; but the current crisis ineluctably calls it forth. The alternative? A sizable share of the global population will continue automatically regarding Islam — whatever its form — with suspicion; even hostility.
Those Muslims whose primary reaction is truculent defensiveness, whose overriding concern is their hurt feelings, are rather missing the point — and underscoring it at the same time.
This post originally appeared on ClashDaily.com
