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| Brigitte Gabriel (left) and Rep. Peter King (right) |
Source/Credit: Miami Islam Examiner
By Mansura Minhas | March 9, 2011
U.S. Representative for New York's 3rd District, Republican Peter King initiates congressional hearings on Islamic radicalization on Thursday. Concurrently, Brigitte Gabriel is drawing crowds with her Anti-Islam Message.
By painting Muslims as a monolithic and homogenous group, they ignore the diversity that exists within the American Muslim community. Indeed, a certain segment sympathizes with the hardliners. However, a vibrant, dynamic group within Islam, the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community strongly denounces the violent tactics of the radicals and categorically rejects the bloody Jihad and propagates the need for rational discourse as a viable solution to divesting Islam of fanatical encroachments. AMC has a strong presence in the United States and is the oldest Muslim organization here, established in 1920.
Peter King needs to do his homework before the hearings. If he is indeed sincere in his efforts, he should involve the Muslim community and get their feedback on the issue. He will be surprised that even within the Muslim world, certain segments share his concern for the threat from radicalization. Liberals, moderates and minority sects within Islam are constantly threatened by these hate-mongers.
Identifying the common enemy –hate- is crucial to eradicating terrorism. The ideology of hate transcends borders and it must be tackled with caution.
When Brigitte Gabriel stokes the fears of the American public by spearheading a campaign to defame Islam, it exposes her warped understanding of a faith followed by 1.6 billion people worldwide. She undermines her credibility by painting the whole Muslim world with a single, sweeping brush. Furthermore, it doesn’t help her cause when overwhelming support for her organization ‘ACT! for America’ is garnered from partisan groups like the Tea Party, Christian Coalition and other similar groups.
Narrow-mindedness and bigotry transcends borders. It finds recruits worldwide for its cause; the task is made easy when myths prevail and information gaps persist. King and Gabriel should not be relied on for filling that void. Americans are overwhelmingly rational and capable of going better.
The national survey by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, conducted Feb. 22-March 1 among 1,504 adults, finds that most young people reject the idea that Islam is more likely than other religions to promote violence.
http://people-press.org/report/714/
This encouraging news will surely undermine the efforts of King and Gabriel.
Read original post here: Politics of Fear
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