To get to the bottom of Muslim Alienation

The New York Observer tries to understand

by Joachim Martillo (ThorsProvoni@aol.com)

 

http://www.nyobserver.com/2007/nypd-keeps-tabs-terror

The department's report should be the first of many such attempts to get to the bottom of Muslim alienation. Hopefully, those reports will inspire creative responses from policymakers. Not every suicide bomber will be identified, and not every jihadist will be assimilated. But New Yorkers cannot simply react to those forces that seek our destruction. We must understand, and we must anticipate.

After helping Boston Muslims with the Roxbury Mosque issue, I can fairly safely assert that nothing infuriates Muslim Americans more than being told that being anti-Israel is anti-American, and if they are anti-American for voicing a legitimate opinion, why not go all the way?

As long as the Israel Lobby prevents any sort of civil discussion of the US relationship with Israel, only uncivil discussion is left, and these ongoing attacks on Muslims like the Roxbury Mosque controversy and the Stop-the-Madrasa campaign as well as attempts to create false consensus by attacking Muslims as terrorists can only create disaffection. 

David Harris (AJCommittee) and Abe Foxman (ADL) have probably done more to create an awareness among Pakistani and Indian American Muslims of the Palestinian issue than all the efforts of Arab, Pakistani or Indian Muslim religious leaders.

After working in the Occupied Territories, I am always amazed that Muslims (American or otherwise) are not angrier.

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