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| Doing Allah's Bidding | |
Many Muslims across the
world, including officials in Indonesia have labeled any
future US-led attack on Iraq as an attack on all
Muslims. A politically
powerful statement, and a powerful threat, but perhaps a little impolitic in
the light of their other positions. While the leaders of the Coalition of the Willing (Bush, Blair and Howard),
have been quick to distance the actions of a few fundamentalist Muslims from
the body of Islam, it seems that many Muslim leaders have been a little more
reluctant to do so. While stating that they shouldn't be judged on the actions of a few
terrorists, they are quick to be seen as standing as one - as one of their
psychotic brethren is threatened with force in Iraq. While the Bush Blair and Howard team are anxious to avoid this to become a
war of ideologies (between Western freedom and Islamic repression), many
Islamic nations are keen to see it become just that. Apparently
- any attack by a Muslim is an isolated incident; but
- any attack on a Muslim is an attack on all of Islam.
Thank heavens for cultural
relativism. How else could we ignore apparent contradictions such as these?
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