Lunchtime Reads: 4/1/13 - "The Rush to Judgment" and Islamic Law and Terrorism

Here are two posts well worth reading concerning the rush to judgment concerning Muslims and the Boston Marathon bombing. The thing that I feel we need to remember is that even if the perpetrator of this crime is a Muslim he or she does not represent all Muslims. It would be the same if the perpetrator was a white Christian he would not represent all Christians or Caucasians. The first post is from Tasbeeh Herwees a freelance writer and producer in Los Angeles. She is also the co-founder of Kifah Libya, an independent, online magazine about Libyan political, social and cultural affairs. The post appears at Truthdig. Here are the opening paragraphs:

The first tweet I saw when I checked my Twitter account Monday afternoon was a one-line plea: “Please don’t let it be a ‘Muslim.’” That’s how I knew something terrible had happened. Not long after, the hashtag “Muslims” was trending worldwide on Twitter. Press releases from local and national Muslim organizations began to appear in my inbox within two hours of the explosions that devastated the Boston Marathon on Monday. “MPAC Condemns Heinous Terror Act,” read an email from the Muslim Public Affairs Council. “This is a horrible crime, and we call on all of us as Americans to work together to bring those responsible to justice.” And then another email, this one from the Council on American-Islamic Relations’ Nihad Awad: “American Muslims, like Americans of all backgrounds, condemn in the strongest possible terms today’s cowardly bomb attack on participants and spectators of the Boston Marathon.” Continue Reading

The second post also appears at Truthdig and is by Juan Cole.Top Ten Ways Islamic Law Forbids Terrorism the post originally appeard at his website Informed Consent. Again the opening paragraphs E

rik Rush and others who hastened to scapegoat Muslims for the Boston Marathon bombing are ignorant of the religion. I can’t understand why people who have never so much as read a book about a subject appoint themselves experts on it. (Try this book, e.g.). We don’t yet know who carried out the attack, but we know they either aren’t Muslims at all or they aren’t real Muslims, in the nature of the case. For the TLDR crowd, here are the top ten ways that Islamic law and tradition forbid terrorism (some of these points are reworked from previous postings): 1. Terrorism is above all murder. Murder is strictly forbidden in the Qur’an. Qur’an 6:151 says, “and do not kill a soul that God has made sacrosanct, save lawfully.” (i.e. murder is forbidden but the death penalty imposed by the state for a crime is permitted). 5:53 says, “… whoso kills a soul, unless it be for murder or for wreaking corruption in the land, it shall be as if he had killed all mankind; and he who saves a life, it shall be as if he had given life to all mankind.” Continue Reading

When I think about it must be very unsettling to say the least to be a Muslim in America these days, just as it must be, to be an American, in some Muslim countries.... In this case what the world needs now is LOVE and tolerance!