Moderate Muslims need to
speak against cartoon violence

What is going on with the violent reactions of so many Muslims to the Danish cartoons caricaturing Mohammad?
I certainly understand their being upset, speaking out and writing letters. But violence, bloodshed, death and destruction? What is going on?
Since Sept. 11, 2001, I’ve gone through a crash course in Islam. I’ve read the entire Quran (some of it twice), some of the hadiths (authoritative stories from the life of Mohammed), lots of material from the Council on American-Islamic Relations and, of course, kept up with the news.
I’ve learned that Muslims of different brands and geographic regions can be more different from each other than Southern Baptists are different from Unitarian Universalists.
Many Muslims are fine friends, neighbors and citizens. They devote themselves to the five pillars of Islam and are people of prayer, generosity and high moral standards. They, too, are disturbed by the violence breaking out.
However, if we are to be honest, we must recognize the religious roots of the recent violence.
The Quran nowhere prohibits depictions of Mohammad, though Muslim tradition has tended to avoid such pictures. Merely picturing Mohammad isn’t the problem.
“There’s a difference between respectful drawings and those aimed at degrading people, such as the ones that appeared in the (Danish) newspapers and which constitute an aggression against the feelings of Muslims worldwide,” one Saudi Shiite cleric said.
That phrase “constitute an aggression” is very important. Keep that in mind as you read one of the verses from the Quran often quoted to show Islam is a religion of peace: “God does not love aggressors. … Fight not against them near the Inviolable House of Worship unless they fight against you there first.” (Surah 2:190-191)
The Saudi cleric suggested the cartoons constituted aggression, implicitly creating justification for violence and even warfare in response.
Read the Quran, and you will find literally dozens of verses calling for oppression, violence, warfare and bloodshed against non-Muslims and sometimes specifically against Jews and Christians.
While the Bible contains stories of war and violence, they are all set in particular historical settings and don’t give generalized commands for holy war. The Quran, however, includes no specific historical settings, and it does read as generalized commands.
Too many Muslims read those verses in just that way.
Now is not the time for us to remain silent, nor to pretend in the interest of tolerance that our differences don’t matter and that down deep we all really believe the same things. Even all Muslims don’t believe the same things.
The world needs our “moderate” Muslim friends to speak out more loudly, more clearly and more often against the violence of extremist Islamists and to get very active in teaching a different understanding of these verses from the Quran.
Otherwise, things are going to get even messier than they already are.