As we continue a public discussion about Syrian refugees being brought into the United States, and the risks we assume by doing so, I have been reading opinions by various people and organizations on the internet about the issue, both for and against the refugee immigration into our communities, and the nature of the terrorists who may be among them.

This morning I saw this comment on an article in the U.K. Independent about how the isolation in the Parisian banlieues fosters terrorist recruits. It is said to be made by a Muslim person in Singapore (emphasis is mine):

bweatherby
I’d like to share an interesting message from a muslim friend in Singapore.

“I want to thank well-meaning non-Muslims who, in the wake of these attacks, have emphasised that they have been carried out by a small, twisted minority. A terrorist’s goal is to sow hatred and discord, and by not giving in, you are defeating their plans.

But I want to say that as a Muslim, I wish that we weren’t so quick to emphasise that this has nothing to do with us. While I personally have never killed anyone and none of my friends and family have ever resorted to violence, radicalism has everything to do with Islam. And the failure to address that out of a well-intentioned commitment to tolerance is making the problem worse.

ISIS is a Muslim organisation, and it is an Islamic problem. Let me say it again to be perfectly clear. ISIS is a Muslim organisation, and they are a cancer at the heart of Islam. And the problem will not go away until Muslims confront that.

ISIS attackers scream ‘Allah hu’akbar’ during their attacks.
ISIS recruits cite Qur’anic verses as justification for the rape and enslavement of women.
ISIS soldiers kill archaeologists, gay men and women, and people who refuse to convert to Islam because they are blasphemers.

There are no Christians in ISIS. There are no Buddhists, Jews, Pagans, Taoists, Houngans, Catholics, Wiccans, Hindus or even Scientologists in ISIS. ISIS is a Muslim organisation and they kill in the name of Islam.

So don’t say that ISIS aren’t ‘true Muslims’ or that they are ‘not really Muslims’. Like any large organisation, ISIS exists in a spectrum. You have the aimless, restless teenager who never amounted to anything in his life and traveled to Syria because he can’t find a job and doesn’t know if the Qur’an is to be read from left to right or right to left. But you also have pious professionals, businessmen, and academics who read their Qur’an cover to cover, pray every day, were seduced into radicalism, and truly believe that the Islamic State’s goal of conquest is a noble one. The so-called ‘Caliph’ Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi has a doctorate in Islamic studies.

So if you feel that Muslims are being oppressed or killed in Muslim countries, I expect you to also be just as outraged by ISIS. Because they have killed more Muslims in Iraq, Syria and Jordan than the entire US army. They have done more damage to the name and reputation of Islam than any Western nation. ISIS is Islam’s biggest enemy, not the US, not Israel or France or Germany or the Russians.

We have to own the problem. We have to admit that this is a religious problem, and we need to renew our commitment to a secular country which treats all religions equally. I have believed in the importance of secularism all my life, and with every day that passes that belief grows stronger. Religion is no way to govern a nation. Not any religion, and not any nation.

ISIS is not America’s problem, nor the British, nor the French. ISIS is not Syria or Iraq’s problem. ISIS is a problem for Muslims. And if you can’t admit that, you’re not really a good Muslim either.”

Muslims organizations in this country, such as CAIR, decry prejudice against all Muslims because of the acts of terrorist organizations.  As this anonymous Muslim person says, if the average Muslims really wish to divorce themselves from the terrorists who share their religion, then they need to loudly speak out against it.

Instead, we see Muslims in this country who speak out supporting Shariah law, and who believe that free speech should not extend to “dishonoring the Prophet”.  Who say they can understand why a terrorist action such as the Charlie Hebdo attack took place.

If Muslims who live here in the United States don’t believe that the same laws that apply to the rest of us should apply to them, or rather that laws that govern them as Muslims should apply to non-Muslims, then what are we to think?

Are there wolves among the sheep?