PrintWhy American Muslims stay silent.
Stephen Schwartz today has a very interesting take on why US Muslims stay silent on the War on Islamic Terrorism. He argues that in the United States, the Saudi radical interpretation of Islam, Wahhabism, is so powerful and pervasive that Muslims are silenced. Elsewhere in the world, he argues, there is a lively debate between moderate and radical Muslims.
The are two things wrong with this analysis:
1) there must be many US Muslims who are not on the Saudi payroll — it's a big country with lots of Muslims. Saudis are said to be supporting as many as eighty percent of US mosques, an astonishing and profoundly corrupting influence, given the attack on 9/11 by SAUDI—inspired terrorists. Is it really possible that not a single Muslim organization in the United States can state, plainly and decently, that killing civilians is wrong? Because that, after all, is the nature of terrorism.
2) the Saudis fund mosques and madrassas all over the world. Wahhabism is a large force in contemporary Islam, powered by petrodollars.
If US Muslims are so intimidated by the Saudi Wahhabi presence, we are in deep trouble. As more Muslims migrate to this country, the moderates must find their voice or Islamic radicalism will come to pose a clear and present danger to the security of the United States.
