Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

Where I stand:

The time is now to root out Islamic extremism

“Good morning, rabbi, my heart is full of rage this morning.”

I was having breakfast Friday morning with Rabbi Sandy Akselrad, discussing the outrageous murders earlier in the week at Charlie Hebdo in Paris and the hostage taking and killing of innocents early Friday morning at a kosher supermarket, when he got this text from a congregant.

It is a text that I imagine was sent or considered to be sent by almost every decent person, to anyone (clergy or otherwise) who might be able to console them, provide answers or even some perspective about the slaughter of people — this time it was Paris, but next time it could be in the United States — who did nothing wrong.

Yes, people are enraged. And they are scared. Perhaps not for their own safety, but certainly for the safety of their loved ones and friends who are being targeted by radical Islamic terrorists who care not about societal norms or the sense of moral decency that has until now distinguished most peace-loving people on the planet.

I was just a bit reluctant to use the word Islamic when describing the radical terrorists who, as best I can tell, were brought to justice Friday morning by French authorities. The idea of tarnishing the name of one of the world’s oldest religions by associating it with murdering thugs is not particularly fair or American. But, it is hard to ignore the fact that the people who are killing innocent people by blowing them up or gunning them down are Islamist fundamentalists.

And that is what this world can no longer afford to do. Ignoring this problem will not make it go away.

As Rabbis Marvin Hier and Abraham Cooper of the esteemed Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles said, “The world can no longer pretend that Islamist fundamentalists consist of a few isolated cells. They have millions of adherents around the world of Muslim communities. These horrors will not end until our political leaders come up with a global plan to identify, root out and destroy the cancer of Islamist extremism and until responsible leaders — religious and secular — go on the offensive against their co-religionists who murder and maim innocents in the name of Allah.”

Los Angeles Police Chief Michael Downing said, “Police and intelligence alone cannot win this war. We need the participation of all religious leaders who ... must explicitly condemn such an ideology.”

The great danger, I believe, is that people everywhere will live through these horrific events, which are happening at an ever-increasing pace, to the point where they will conflate Islam with these murderers and thugs. Without the leaders of Islam standing up and speaking out against these terrorists, making sure the world understands that Islam does not condone, but rather condemns, these extremists in all respects, the vacuum will exist and be filled by a world frightened to distraction. What will happen then is predictable, and while it may be what the terrorists want, it cannot be what peace-loving people of all religions demand.

For practically the first time, on the night of the massacre at Charlie Hebdo, I heard Muslim imams condemning the attacks, loudly and publicly. I must admit that it was a welcome reaction to the murders committed in Allah’s name, but it must only be the beginning. And while I understand people are afraid to speak out lest the same fate which befalls the innocents will be visited upon them by these extreme fundamentalists, the fact remains that they must speak out and act out.

I am not sure what can and should be done to prevent these slaughters from happening again. But I am more concerned with preventing those who would violate the innocent’s right to live from succeeding than I am with violating the perpetrator’s rights to privacy or any other right conferred upon decent and responsible people.

That means emails, Facebook accounts, Twitter feeds, Instagrams or any of the myriad ways people express themselves publicly should be open to law enforcement examination. (Besides, I don’t consider anything that can be hacked into by a 12-year old to deserve any expectation of privacy.)

In short, we must be creative. When you are talking about a billion Muslims, a very small percentage of extremist killers can amount to millions of people. The potential for great damage is unfathomable.

But, first, it is time for the condemnation. It is grossly unfair to think that all Muslims are murderers, but it is also unfair for the vast majority of Muslims to expect the intended victims of these terrorist acts to stand by and die with their loved ones without attempting to defend themselves by any means possible.

That is what the bad guys want to happen. The good ones should want something different.

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