Stop Asking Muslims to Condemn Hamas

Right here we go once more. We’re about to go into 2024, and but, little has modified for the reason that aftermath of 9/11. Islamophobia is again in full swing (not that it ever left). Since that tragic day over 20 years in the past, a inhabitants of almost 2 billion Muslims worldwide have needed to reply for the actions of simply 19 hijackers, who by the best way killed Muslim People working within the Twin Towers that day too. The folks requested to reply for these heinous acts embrace myself, a Muslim American U.S. Marine veteran and kids who weren’t even born on the time like my very own.

In a traditional world, this is able to sound ridiculous. However who says we’re residing in regular instances? I imply, why should not two billion Muslims should reply for the actions of simply 19 people?

Think about for a second, proper right here in America, the place the overwhelming majority of mass shootings have been carried out by younger white males, we began going round asking younger white males across the nation, hey, do you condemn mass shootings? Sounds ludicrous, proper?

These 19 hijackers had been terrorists plain and easy. They usually did not simply terrorize People with their horrendous and inhumane acts; their terror prolonged to anybody who’s ever referred to as himself a Muslim by hijacking a whole Islamic religion, which in its very core tenets teaches peace, love and concord.

Quick ahead to the latest Hamas assault of October 7 and we’re seeing a rerun. Muslims like me are as soon as once more being requested repeatedly to denounce Hamas’s horrific bloodbath towards Israeli civilians.

I get it, after all. The Palestinians are largely Muslim and Hamas lives amongst them, which implies it solely is smart to affiliate all Muslims with Hamas—actually all Gazans, despite the fact that Hamas membershipof roughly 20,000 to 25,000 folks quantities to lower than 1 % of Gaza’s 2.2 million Palestinians. And since Hamas is a chosen terrorist group and accountable for the October 7 assault on Israel which resulted in almost 1,400 Israelis lifeless, it stands to purpose that each one Muslims should be terrorists too.

Scratching your head? Welcome to my world.

You’d by no means dream of holding all Jews accountable for Israel dropping 6,000 or extra bombs within the final two weeks alone on a metropolis roughly the dimensions of Detroit or Seattle. And this despite the fact that Israel is the Jewish state.

It might nonetheless be outrageous to demand each Jew denounce Israel for its civilian causualites, lots of them kids.

So why are we asking random Muslims (and even Jews for that matter) to sentence one thing everyone knows deep down their faiths would by no means condone?

It is the very premise of this query that I personally discover offensive, which all Muslims and Jews ought to too. If condemnation is one thing that should be sought out, think about posing the query to the management of Hamas.

So far as Islam is worried, being Muslim and hating Jews is akin to not being Muslim. Moses, who Jews maintain expensive and base their teachings on, is revered in Islam. The Muslim Holy Quran states, “Allah (God) stated, O Moses, I’ve chosen thee above the folks of thy time by My messages and by My phrase,” (7:145) and in one other verse, “And verily, We gave Moses the Guide and triggered after him Messengers to comply with in his footsteps; and to Jesus, son of Mary, We gave manifest Indicators, and strengthened him with the Spirit of holiness” (2:88).

Briefly, in accordance with Muslims, Moses is among the many biggest prophets to have ever walked this earth.

The underside line is that this: After we use phrases like Muslim and Hamas interchangeably, we play into an especially harmful narrative that hits straight on the feelings of Muslims worldwide. Equally, when Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu makes use of phrases like Jews and Israel interchangeably, conflating the religion of Judaism along with his personal politics, he stirs spiritual discord and pits folks towards one another. Lowering this ongoing battle to Muslims vs. Jews or Jews vs. Muslims is dishonest and misleading.

The peaceable teachings of the Abrahamic faiths of Islam and Judaism by no means have and by no means will advocate for the killing of the harmless.

So please cease demanding I and different Muslims condemn the actions of Hamas. You possibly can assume we do till in any other case knowledgeable.

Mansoor Shams is a Muslim American US Marine Veteran, the founding father of MuslimMarine.org and a public speaker. He additionally serves as a Time period Member on the Council on International Relations (CFR). Comply with him on Twitter: @mansoortshams.

The views expressed on this article are the author’s personal.