Muslim Americans condemn the savage murder of Nicholas Berg

As the world recoils from the horror of the atrocious murder of Nicholas Berg, it must grapple with some troubling questions. One simply cannot dismiss this as an aberration, because the same cowardice was perpetrated on The Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, also a Jew, only two years ago in Pakistan. One must resist the temptation to blame it on a religion, Islam in this case, as the right-wingers in the US have done. No religion allows the murder of the innocents. Mass murderers like the perpetrators of 9/11 and the butchers of Daniel Pearl and Nicholas Berg do not belong to any religion. Mass murder of the innocents is the only religion they practice.

While religion may not be to blame, no civilized society can afford to allow this malignancy to spread in its midst. These criminals are law unto themselves. While every religion advises the faithful to be moderate, patient, humble, compassionate, generous and to respect the dignity of human life, these criminals are extremists, impatient, arrogant, and cruel and find satanic satisfaction in destroying innocent human lives. While paying lip service to religion, these murderers violate every tenet of the religion they profess to practice. A society that does not stand up to these monsters and destroy them is going to pay an enormous price when these monsters spread their tentacles. We hope that the murderers of Nicholas Berg will be apprehended, tried and sentenced to die through beheading!

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While every Muslim American that the writer knows feels the same way as the writer, that is not what the Americans are being told by the conservative, neoconservative and the Zionists in the media who dominate several television and most radio talk shows. They stress that Muslims in general and Islam in particular are responsible for what happened to Nicholas Berg, just as they refer to 9/11 as "Islam's attack on America" (Did Bangladeshi Muslims, followers of Islam, also attack America?) To make their point, one of them, Zionist Michael Savage of New York's WOR 710 AM recently replayed the audio of the heart-piercing cry of Nicholas Berg as he was being butchered, over and over again until the listeners were sick to their stomachs! Mr. Michael Savage ridiculed Islam for claiming to be a "religion of peace," denounced "the need of Muslims" to feed Nicholas Berg to "this Allah." Mr. Michael Savage warned America of "the enemy within" (Muslim Americans), expressed disgust at the presence of mosques in the US and pronounced anyone with a headscarf ("Hijab") as an enemy of the US! Apparently, Federal Communication Commission's (FCC) legal protection does not extend to Muslim Americans under savage attack in the form of hate mongering and incitement to violence by the right-wingers like Mr. Savage. Is Mr. Savage immune to prosecution? Is the FCC afraid of the right-wingers like Mr. Savage who know only to spew hatred of Muslim Americans? Listeners of Mr. Savage's programme should remember that like the butchers of Nicholas Berg, nothing good ever comes out of those who know only how to hate!

Any time atrocities like the Nicholas Berg murder occurs, there is a hue and cry in the right-wing media decrying the absence of Muslim American condemnation of the act. These are the same zealots who, in their talk shows, define Islam and the Muslim Americans in a way indistinguishable from Hitler and the Nazis, without ever inviting Muslim Americans for rebutting and correcting them. By defining the Muslims as followers of Satan to the American people, the likes of Mr. Savage have prepared the American people for the necessity of the destruction of the Muslim American community, should, God forbid, another atrocity like 9/11 occur. The fact is, the fledgling, mostly first generation Muslim American community is far too preoccupied with establishing themselves in this country to have time for anything else. Sophisticated and media-savvy, they are certainly not! Their tormentors like Mr. Savage, knows it. The average Americans do not. That is why the Zionists like of Mr. Savage feels free to devilishly misrepresent the American Muslim community to advance their Zionist goals, while secure in the knowledge that there is absolutely no chance or capability of retaliation from the Muslim American community. Of course Muslims condemn acts of barbarism by those who profess to be Muslims. Two years ago, the writer had written a piece in The Daily Star denouncing the murderers of Daniel Pearl, not because right-wingers had demanded it, but because the writer's humanity compelled him to. These right-wing ideologues are not interested in Muslim apology; their only interest is to denigrate Islam by linking Islam to every act of terrorism perpetrated by anyone with a Muslim-sounding name.

President Bush is correct in saying that the prisoner abuse that took place in Baghdad's Abu Ghraib prison does not represent American values. If fully trained American soldiers representing the American government can sometimes commit atrocious acts, why should the world be surprised when five hooded scoundrels, who are afraid to show their face, who have not been trained by any government and who represent nobody but themselves, commit the heinous murder of Nicholas Berg? No one blamed American values or Christianity for the way American soldiers humiliated Iraqi prisoners in Abu Ghraib. No Muslim American organisation or Muslim nation abroad, as far as I know, has asked individual Christian Americans or Christian American organisations to apologise for Abu Ghraib. Yet, many Americans and most conservatives, neoconservatives and Zionists are demanding that Islam and Muslim Americans take responsibility for, condemn and pay a price for what those hooded barbarians did to Nicholas Berg! It appears that to prove their humanity Muslim Americans must apologise on demand!

Former Presidential candidate, Vietnam War hero and prisoner of war, and the sanest voice in the US Senate these days, Republican Senator John McCain, said the other day that there is a fundamental difference between a soldier on the battlefield and a prisoner of war. On the battlefield anything goes, because soldiers on opposite sides are trying to kill each other. Once a soldier is taken prisoner, he or she is defenceless. That is why the Geneva Convention (which should really be called Medina Convention, because it was Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) who first stipulated that captured soldiers are entitled to human rights). The violation of the Geneva Convention through the mistreatment of prisoners by a few American soldiers is what appalled the world about Abu Ghraib prison.

In the face of the vicious verbal attacks by the right-wingers like Mr. Michael Savage, Muslim Americans feel as defenceless as the prisoners of war. Muslim Americans see their religion blasphemed, their customs ridiculed, their presence and immigration resented and their patriotism questioned. Muslim-Americans see their American-born children threatened. What are they to do? The best course for the Muslim Americans to follow is to ignore the Zionist taunts and remember why they came to America in the first place: to make a better life for themselves and their children and to love America. Muslim Americans have a tremendous advantage: they are here to make America a better place, and not to use America for the benefit of another country. Muslim Americans are the true patriots. Because, Muslim Americans can honestly say a resounding "Yes" to America, and a thundering "No" to the exploitation of America for the benefit of another nation, such as Israel!