WASHINGTON, DC. (MASNET) Mar. 18, 2010 – A statement issued by Muslim Cleric Anwar Al-Awlaki calls for the categorical opposition by Muslims in America to the government of the United States. This is a sentiment expressed by Muslims who consider America to be the incorrigible “enemy of Islam” and a nation at war with all Muslims in the world.
But the Muslim American Society, and other American Muslim organizations, reject the premise that America is essentially evil, and that our society is committed to the destruction of either Islam or majority-Muslim nations. Indeed, Muslims are an inseparable part of American social history and the fabric of American society. Both our presence in the United States and our aspirations to build a better, more peaceful, and more democratic and morally upright society, are an integral part of what is both right and hopeful for this nation, and our world.
Our organization does, indeed, oppose military violence directed by the United States against the people of Iraq and Afghanistan, as we also call for a different, more peaceful, and more mutually respectful relationship between the United States and the Muslim world. But we embrace the practice and methodology of American Muslim involvement in civic engagement and ongoing dialogue within the diverse community of the United States.
The violence and hostility that underlies the call of Al-Awlaki is simply a prescription for the cancer of mutual hatred, and destruction, that is contrary to the best of not only the history of the United States, but to the best of Islam as well.
The Quran instructs Muslims to incline toward peace, forgiveness, and mutual respect with our non-Muslim neighbors and compatriots (3:64, 21:7). Peace and mercy, not war and enmity, is the true way of our faith.
The “revolt” of Muslims in America should always be a revolt against violence, oppression, and unrighteousness, whether it is committed by the U.S. government or by violent entities in the Muslim world that are, at least in part, responsible for the oppression and destruction of their own nations and people. And in rejecting the call for violence, we affirm our commitment to seek peace and justice for our own community, our nation, and for the global Muslim community as well.
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