Former President George W. Bush and President Barack Obama have persistently affirmed: "We are not at war with Islam," trying to assure 1.7 billion Muslims that the military actions of the so-called "war against terrorism" do not constitute belligerence against Islam or Muslims.
This incessant message of denial is hard to swallow by many sectors of our society, and the world at large, since the United States has engaged in multiple wars of occupation in Muslim countries including Iraq and Afghanistan. In addition, it conducts routine military incursions and bombardment campaigns on Pakistan, Yemen, Libya and other Muslim countries. Furthermore, thousands of Muslim citizens around the world are subjected to arrest without formal accusations or due process of law. Incarcerations and even torture takes place at a network of international secret prisons and "black hole" locations operated or accessed by the CIA and other intelligence agencies.
Unfortunately, in the American political arena there is also the perception that the government security and intelligence agencies and military apparatus are at war with Islam and Muslims. They substantiate this notion with continuous discriminatory and prejudiced policies affecting American Muslims and their institutions. Let us take, for example, the harsh experience New York Muslims are undergoing with the NYPD. They are subject to widespread and ongoing espionage policies from their own police department, which include the opening of dossiers based on ethnic and religious profiling. This openly unconstitutional practice is not based on suspiciousness of them committing crimes or being engaged in an ongoing criminal enterprise. Rather, the information recorded documents the restaurants they frequent, the books they check out, and even the times and places where they conduct their daily prayers.
Evidently, the constant Islamophobic discourses have resonated to the military branches, resulting in the offering of multiple training courses with discriminatory, bigoted and offensive materials. Some of these academic materials recently discovered are taught at the Joint Forces Staff College in Norfolk, Va., in which mainstream Muslim persons and organizations are characterized as radical, violent extremists. The course even calls for treating the Muslim civilian population the way the Japanese were dealt with at Hiroshima, with nuclear attacks on the holy cities of Mecca and Medina and wiping out civilians. It promotes a total war on Islam affirming that there is no such thing as moderate Islam. The military training course participants are encouraged to think of themselves as a "resistance movement to Islam." Other various training courses with xenophobic and bigoted content offered to the FBI have also been exposed. These are not isolated and unique classes, but multiple trainings held at numerous venues to hundreds of military officers and intelligence agents that are responsible for the safety and security of our nation. Notwithstanding the military and FBI's promises to review their courses and purge the training curriculums of Islamophobic materials, we need ask ourselves: How many other courses (most of them classified as "Secret") have been offered and, perhaps, are still being offered in these highly secured and secret agencies without public exposure?
The sad reality is that our nation has institutionalized vigilance based on stereotypical ethnic and religious profiling. Let us just examine for a moment the recent incident at Fort Lauderdale International Airport, where an 18-month-old toddler, a daughter of American parents of Middle Eastern descent, was ordered off a plane by Jet Blue Airline's officials who claimed she was on the TSA's "no fly" list: a list obviously fed with the names of people selected based on ethnic and religious profiling. The toddler case is not the only one of its kind, as another 500 American citizens are also in these puzzling and sinister lists in the absence of due process. The lists are not only ineffective, but openly unconstitutional because individuals are included without notification or being told why they are on the list and without the chance to rebut the basis of their inclusion.
What will our political leaders do to try to erase the idea that the Nation is engaged in a war against Islam and Muslims? The major challenge they confront in this task is that the more time elapses, the more discrimination, oppression, persecution and injustices cements against American Muslims and their institutions.
President Obama still has the option and opportunity to rise to the occasion and confront this most delicate situation at the level it merits. He might, perhaps, start cleaning and straightening the Executive Branch from head to toe. The president should take steps that truly guarantee the elimination of racial and religious profiling exercised by law enforcement agencies and should swiftly end all the futile wars on Muslim countries once and for all. Perhaps, he should follow the Executive Order he signed back on Jan. 22, 2009, mandating the "Closure of Detention Facilities at Guantanamo" and the "Immediate Review of All Guantanamo Detentions." Only such decisive actions will sustain the hollowed presidential words: "We are not at war with Islam."
Follow Wilfredo Amr Ruiz on Twitter: www.twitter.com/AnalistaInter
What American idea is this?
"Islam is not welcome in America.
Separation of church and state?
"If Muslims come to America then the must conform to Americas political system and not that of which their Quarar [sic] propigates."
And the Muslims that are born in the USA. Do they have special rules?
"If" they come? We are already here, my friend. And since I'm a white man born and raised in Alabama, from a family thats been in America since the 1600's, I think I'll be staying, insha'allah. American Muslims have participated in (not "conformed to") the American political system since the beginnings of the nation. A very large majority of us, for example, voted for Barack Obama in 2008. We sit on school boards, city councils, in state legislatures, and even in the US Congress. We serve with distinction in the US Armed Forces. Quite a few of our own died on September 11, 2001, alongside our fellow citizens of Christian, Jewish, and other faiths.
"Muslims of their book..."
The Noble Qur'an is a book for all of mankind. It does not belong to Arabs, or Africans, or Asians, or Americans. I invite you to study it and consider its message, which is the message of Almighty Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala as given to his Messenger Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa salaam.
Muslims are not your enemy, even if you choose to make them yours. I urge you to reject the teachings of the Islamophobes and study Islam for yourself...or at least get to know some actual Muslims. Visit your local Islamic Center. Talk to the Imam. Inform yourself.
Islam is a religion. Only a people can be at war with something.
What makes you think we are at war with the human race? I am not at war with anyone. i try to bring peace to everyone and everything I come into contact with. Islam was created to turn people away from violence. Quran says all humanity is a family of tribes who were created to get to know one another. We love God and all God created and believe all of us are on spiritual journey given by God. We believe killing one innocent person is like killing all humanity. We believe in helping the poor, believe God considers men and women equals. We also try to be kind to animals, are rewarded even for planting a tree that feeds a bird or another animal.
Quran tells us to be peacemakers and to teach people that peace is always preferable to violence.
A few terrorists are the enemies of human kind. They are doing their best to fool people into thinking what they do has anything related to Islam. Their actions are forbidden in Islam.
Give peace a chance, my friend. You may be at war with us based on your beliefs, but we are not at war with you.
Peace be with you.
Wilfredo Ruiz mentioned "Pakistan, Yemen, Libya and other Muslim countries."
We can't very well discuss all of theses countries in one comment. So let's take Yemen.
How did Islam turn Yemen into an Islamic country?
Well the answer is:
Islam made Yemen Islamic in the usual way: by committing war crimes.
One of the very last raids ordered by Muhammad before he died was an expedition into Yemen:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expedition_of_Surad_ibn_Abdullah
It resulted in a slaughter of the people of the town of Jurash, who had never threatened Muhammad in any way.
Yemen differs from Pakistan and Libya in that Muhammad himself ordered the first raids on it.
Yes, ladies and gentlemen, Islam has spread by means of war crimes. And Muhammad himself was the one who established this tradition - of which modern-day Yemenites, fourteen hundred years later, remain among of the victims.
Yemen, Pakistan, and Libya are all sad chapters in the same tragic history, of which its modern citizens are still victims.
Wow. You've REALLY got a LOT to learn about Islam, dude....!
Btw, the Nation of Islam had NOTHING to do with 9/11 or the OKC tragedy (even though a pseudo-terrorist ex-pert claimed that they were involved. That dud was COMPLETELY WRONG!! Btw, that was Steven Emerson.....general Islamaphobe.
but the problem is when they jail you, you or your family are not even given a reason why. It should happen to you than you'll understand.