Frightening silence of the muslim community
We have all grown accustom to seeing images of huge rallies in the Middle East against the US, against the Danish cartoonist, against whatever. In fact, from a point of view of someone who is involved in certain way in the Czech politics, that I am actually surprised how ready the crowds are in the Middle East to march the street to express some kind of an opinion where here in the Czech Republic, where people privately complain a lot, you don’t get almost any big protests.
So I thought to myself that this is just a Middle East thing.
But then I noticed that there are also big protests in Western Europe whenever there is a dispute over some new rule that might interfere with practicing Islam, whenever a Muslim community feels, that their rights to practice their religion is being somewhat suppressed.
So then I thought to myself that it is not just a Middle East thing, that it is the power of the Muslim community to be active in protesting, in other words, active in expressing publicly their disagreement with something.
And again, I have to applaud that, because every time I see a group of people being able to publicly protest I see it as someone being willing to leave their home and TV and stand on the street for some cause.
So as I was living my adult life, for the past 20 years, the world has changed. I learned about the conflict between the Arab countries and the state of Israel. With my jaw dropped down I watched the two planes hitting the twins. I became accustomed that everyone is thoroughly searched at the airports, because there are people who are willing to blow themselves and kill some civilians, who one way or the other have in Western democracies a chance to change anything anyway.As I lived my life and became accustomed to this world, every now and then I would ask my Muslim friends about this and they would tell me that those are people who misinterpret Islam. That Islam is a peaceful religion and that in all human social groups there is always a percentage of evil people.
Yes, I agree. There are pedophiles in the Church who preach love. There are politicians who lie and steel. There are police men and support crime. Yes, we are all humans with a percentage of bad qualities.
But…..and there is a big BUT.
When the scandals come out to the public, there is a protest against the pedophiles in the Church, there is a protest against the crooked politicians, there is a protest against the police men. Because as there is a percentage of bad people in the society, there is a percentage of good people in the society who have to speak out their disapproval. Just like Muslims protest in the Middle East or in Western Europe.
PTherefore, I feel surprised, confused, scared, puzzled, when I see a video on the internet where one human being, under the garmet of Islam, chops another human being’s head off and I don’t see any violent protests in the Middle East or in Western Europe where Muslims march to the street and say “brothers this is too much”, “brothers this is going too far”, “brothers this is not what Islam is about”, “brothers Islam is a peaceful religion”.
It would be a great message to the young Muslims that chopping off someone’s head is not Islam.
It would be a great message to non-Muslims who are afraid that Islam is not a peaceful religion.
But no…..I don’t see any protests.
Why is that?
Being a chess player, I like looking at possible variations, and here I can only think of two.
- The cause is not worth protesting (unlike cartoons)
- Silent approval of the cause
Both of these scare me. Because, I do not want to think of my Muslim friends as people who think that it is not a big deal that someone chops off other human being’s head off, just because that human being’s mother gave birth in one geographical part of the world and even worse, I do not want to think for a second, that my Muslim friends approve it.
We are all here on this rock in empty space together, please speak up!
Jiri George DVORAK
founder of Entrypoint company
