Muslims condemn Mumbai terrorist attacks, worry about their image

well that only took 4 days to do, if the muslims were truly to condemn these cowardly attacks they should have condemned these attacks 4 days ago, when the rest of the world was condemning the attacks.

Probably took four days of deliberation about whether or not they should condemn the attacks...


But llama, have you ever been to India? THe Hindu-Muslim relationship there is rather "complicated" from what I've seen and heard...

no, sadly I have not left the continent. I guess I just feel there should have been no deliberation, what was do is wrong and they wish to be apart of the international community, they needed to make this voice heard when the attacks first started.

It probably took four days to figure out if the attacks actually had anything to do with people claiming to be Muslims. It wasn't exactly clear who did this right away.

I fully agree, but put yourself in their shoes for a minute...

You want to feel like you belong and that people don't look upon you with scorn, hatred, fear, or apprehension. And yet "followers" of your religion keep doing stupid shit internationally that does nothing for your image, to the point that even when you cry out against the attacks, no one believes you because(as you've already said) the outcry came too late, or people just don't believe you because your religious fanatics are always the ones to blame.

It leaves Muslims feeling ostracized, despite their best efforts. I even talked to an Imam about this in Ottawa, about why the outcry always comes late, or why there seems to be a lack of Muslim outcry, and he got really squirmish and this is what he said: "Well, I don't want to really put the blame on any one particular group, but a lot of us feel it is because of the media. They don't report on us a lot unless it involves the followers of a more fanatical branch of Islam." He was really uncomfortable placing blame on the media, even though that is clearly what he felt.

So because of all this, Muslims end up feeling like they are the only friends and family they've got, which leads to isolation and a lack of understanding and acceptance between Muslims and the ROC. Due to this isolation, it leaves a lot of Muslims starting to wonder if maybe just maybe the extremists have SOMETHING right.


From my experience in India, Muslims and Hindus on the personal and societal level tend to get along. My Aunt lives in Nizamuddin, which is a heavily Muslim part of New Delhi, the Capital of India. People leave Muslim and Hindu temples and shrines alone, and even allow visitation. For all the talk of not allowing infidels to enter holy sites, my cousing Hugh and I along with my Aunt and her daughter had no problem getting into very holy shrines of religious and spiritual leaders. My aunt wore a headscarf, but she's always done that since she's eccentric, and wears Indian clothing, so a headscarf is common for her.

We walked around, and were treated excellently. I got ripped off once on a deal, but I didn't want to cause a ruckus, and it was the equivalent of two bucks anyway, so whatever.

Other than that, my experience and association with Muslims was perfect. I even talked to them about the relationship with Hindus and Pakistan/India conflict up in Kashmir.

The fact of the matter is that the people don't care that much, but the politicians do. Muslims who are in India just want to live in peace and be left alone. Unfortunately however, conflict breaks out. Hindus and Muslims have been either killed or severely beaten simply because of their religion. The greatest known example of this was during India's partition, and there was massive rioting where dozens of Muslims and Hindus had been killed in Southern India. It took Ghandi starving himself to get these people to stop the senseless bloodshed.



It's a very complicated issue over there. The whole "Muslim debate" is certainly one of the more complicated ones the world has seen so far...

I never really looked at it that way...

Just curious, did any government formally condemn the Abu Graib tortures and rape? Was anyone expected to?

There is a lot more to these flagrant show condemnations, by some, than the outpooring of humanity that they would have you believe. Like, has any government condemned the violence and humiliation perpetrated against the West Bank? Nope. It's actually pretty big of those occupied people to do something that I really think we generally can't do of ourselves.

Anyone want to tell me a western nation that has formally condemned the Iraq invasion and occupation? Anyone? The US coup against Haiti? Anyone? The supported coup against Venezuela? Anyone? Illegal bombing in Pakistan killing civilians? Any condemnations out there? I could go on all day. In fact. the people in the article had the USA support a coup against their democratically elected government. What do we do? We turn a blind eye and rest on believing we are more moral.

A four day delay is reasonable, under the circumstances. It took a while to be certain that Muslims were involved in this.

It seems like nothing the Muslim community ever does is good enough. You always get, "Why did it take so long?", or "If they really meant it...", etc.

They're the scapegoats du jour.

I do that every time I talk about this subject.



I think it also leaves them speechless. The media will not speak for the moderates, as it prefers to villify all Muslims with fear and violent images. If you are voiceless, why bother trying to speak up?



You'll find this sentiment pretty much everywhere you find terrorism and warlordism. The perpetrators of violence are almost always a minority.



The western media is largely ignorant of the issue, and seems to prefer to remain that way.