The title of this post is facetious, of course. In the West, when an Islamic voice speaks critically, one rhetorical device is frequently employed to neuter this comment: “why don’t they ever put this much effort into condemning the extremism within Islam?”
It’s very prevalent, particularly in the smug brevity of letters to the editor, radio talkback and blog comments, but also in more elaborate form in newspaper columns and so forth. It’s a nasty little trick because it’s taken on the aura of truth for a great many people, taking as self-evident that Islamic voices don’t put much effort into condemning Islamic extremism. And to be quite honest, a surface reading of the culture lends credibility to this claim – you could search a lot of newspapers and TV bulletins before you came across an Islamic voice condemning Islamic extremism.
Of course, the claim is also meritless. The absence speaks more of the limitations of our media and our memory than anything else. The truth is that Muslim grassroots and religious leaders have for many years been energetically condemning violence, denying any religious legitimacy to violent jihad, and working for interfaith community. And finally someone has identified and pulled together these many strands into one short report. The U.S. Institute for Peace has issued a special report, Islamic Peacemaking Since 9/11, which is loaded with evidence that these criticisms are baseless.
I’m glad this report exists, because evidence is helpful in shooting down that claim about Muslims failing to condemn violence in the name of Islam. That claim is actively harmful to peaceful discussion. It takes away any presumption of good faith and presupposes a combative relationship between Islam and “the West” (a.k.a. “civilized people” a.k.a. “me”). Countering it is important, and this report is a key tool for doing so.