I am not a member of Al-qaeda. I do not have any desire or intention to kill innocent women and children. I don't know any other Muslims that have such intentions or desires.
Your constant publicized condemnations of those misguided young Muslim men who you describe at the various points as divorced from reality, dupes of the CIA, and morally culpable for their bloody anarchistic ideology, betrays a grave misunderstanding of the real reality.
While many young men do flare up in passion and anger at the wrongs they see committed by the U.S. , to reduce them all to merely a bunch of young fanatics who are willing to make attempts to kill innocent Americans is a gross oversimplification. And as such your letter only accurately addresses a sliver of individuals who actually exist and who are probably just in need of mental health care. But the majority of the brothers and sisters, yes there are many sisters, that you paint together with the crazed straw man you have built have much more potent and persuasive reasoning. But your letter, alluding to some worthless formal arguments rotting on a server somewhere, fails to address any of the real issues and conveniently so. A more personal and effortless touch is easier to go viral.
I too will avoid formal arguments and a true analysis of the issues as they are complex and beyond the scope of a mere letter. However, I want to address a much bigger and more destructive group of Muslims, the flag-waving, U.S. Constitution upholding, proud citizen, law-abiding, tax-paying Muslims of America, whom I will refer to as the current collaborators of oppression. Not as catchy as would-be mujahids, but the best I could do.
Dear Collaborators,
I liken you collaborators of oppression to abolitionists who purchased clothes made from cotton picked by slaves.
You condemn the killing of innocent life and proclaim yourselves to belong to a peaceful religion. I agree Islam is a peaceful religion, but the questionable thing is whether we really belong to it. Now I am not making takfir, this is a message to myself first and foremost. I am questioning how authentically we belong to something called Islam. This ummah we constantly talk about does not seem to really exist to me.
If you observe our behavior we take the oath of citizenship much more seriously than we take a shahada by a new entrant into Islam. We loosely and casually just trust that everyone pays the zakat they owe, it is between them and Allah we say, but do not cheat on your federal income taxes, that is a serious offense. We spend so much effort to take care of immigration matters and protecting “rights” of Muslims, not the rights derived from Islam, but those from the U.S. Constitution. We make fancy arguments to show how Islam really is compatible with the American way of life and some buzz word called democracy which is not actually what the United States even really is. Some Muslims serve in the American military and never have I seen CAIR or any other mainstream American Muslims organization condemn this violent activity, but every other week they are performing hasty damage control when their crazy “brothers” supposedly do some stupid &*%@. Of course, and you even admit this in your letter paradoxically, many of these operations are in fact conjured up and planned and sometimes executed(especially overseas) by the US. Government itself.
So then who are all these terrorists really?
Is your letter really addressed to a bunch of undercover hypocrites who do not even realize everyone they are working with is also an paid informant or operative? O, except of course, for those few dupes who happened to join the wrong masjed circle and who get the jail time and the media condemnation?
Really of what use is your letter? Why don't you go chat with your neighbor instead about how great it is to live in on land stolen from the tribes of north america who were almost completely wiped out and who still to this day are marginalized on reservations and how great it is that you got away with it.
Because here is a typical definition of terrorism :
The unlawful use or threatened use of force or violence by a person or an organized group against people or property with the intention of intimidating or coercing societies or governments, often for ideological or political reasons.
Now, I don't know how someone could deny that if any entity fits this definition, it is the U.S. Government, but I am sure you can try. But your arguments are wasted on me and in fact I have no say in the matter ultimately anyway. Many of you, especially the above mentioned flag-waving variety of Muslims are upset with the Patriot Act and its violation of civil liberties. But I want to notify you of something much more worrisome than the patriot act. Something so all-encompassing that no amount of liberal campaigning can surmount it. It is the absolute truth and justice of Allah. If in fact, you are supporting the U.S. And if in fact the U.S. is a terrorist organization according to Allah, when the time comes to be held accountable, are you going to hire one of your liberal democrat friends to be your defense attorney then?
You see, because you live in America and do not see violence on daily basis, you believe that you are peaceful. But in actual fact, you have a share in the most deplorable and efficient and ruthless violence and oppression in the whole world. You outsource your violence which ultimately returns to you in the form of a wonderful safe life in America, quaintly referred to as the American dream. Yes, it is true violence is as much, if not more responsible for the existence of prosperous America than ingenuity and innovation. Do you relieve believe its wall street's financial genius that is the only thing that enables Americans to pay such low prices for gasoline?
You are deceiving yourselves everyday. Your way of life is destroying not only the lives of humans but of every living thing on the planet. And the worst part is that it is being exported to every nation on the planet. I haven't traveled everywhere, but so far every place I have been on several continents has their own garish version of the material worship that America literally pioneered. And this is not about America bashing or west bashing, I don't buy into that false dichotomy. I see many non-Muslims in the west and America who have a better sense of injustice and principles than you consumer Muslims with your “halal” logo products and Eid fun fairs complete with magicians.
The problem I am addressing is not a lack of willingness to fight jihad, whatever jihad means nowadays. No, many of the would-be mujahids also enjoy the comfortable lifestyle of the U.S., at least the insincere ones that just like to talk about it. The problem I am addressing is simply is a lack of willingness to sacrifice. Why must we live in the suburbs and manicure our lawns? Why must we get all our food from a supermarket? Why do we need electricity and plumbing? Why can't Muslims in America live like the Amish? Why do you even have to live as a citizen in the United States? Why does the United States have a say who lives on the North American continent anyway? Because let us be honest, you are not there to do dawah, at leas not the overwhelming majority of Muslims in the U.S. Assimilation is not dawah. Isolation is not dawah. But if you live there the chances are that almost certainly you are still relying and depending and contributing to an oppressive government. O, there is no where else we can go, you say. All the other governments are just as oppressive and in cahoots with the U.S. Government anyway. Well, that is not actually true, but even if it were, the answer then is clear. Fight. I don't mean blow yourself up on a bus, I mean quit your job, stop paying taxes, make a true sacrifice. Renounce allegiance to the U.S. and fight the soldiers, that is not terrorism. Instead you merely hold fancy banquets to raise funds and other useless activities to delude yourselves into thinking you are accomplishing something.
But here is the final note if you are more afraid of the Americans and their “reaction” to supposed Muslim violence. Your argument implies that if these would-be mujahids somehow were truly touched by your letter and all renounced all forms of violence and started going to inter-faith programs and running for office like good american Muslims, that suddenly things will be good for Muslims in America. But this does not follow. Your advice is ineffective. Deterring young men and women from effective and necessary violence does not offer a real solution to the problem you anticipate as members of a scapegoat minority. If the resource and systemic concerns of the future of the U.S. are indeed realized and federal government power wanes or reverts to xenophobic echoes of the past, then I can warn you that being a Muslim in America will be a very bad experience even if there are no more of these would-be mujahids. No amount of letters to imaginary people will be effective in addressing that problem. Actually, it may be even worse, it is suggested by some studies of the Holocaust that the Jews who fought in the ghetto resistance had a much higher survival rate than the general Jewish population. Read the history of black people in America only during the 50s and 60s when things were just “modernizing”, if you think it can't and won't return to that then ignore my letter. Just dismiss me as another crazy radical, even though I clearly stated up front that I in no way shape or form believe in killing innocent , men, women and children, which is not something I am even supposed to have to defend myself with. Why is the default assumption that I believe in radical crazy bombings because I support the true and authentic resistance fighters whether they be in Afghanistan, Chechnya, Gaza, or even Chiapas Mexico. Yes, although not in agreement with the ideology of the Zapatistas, I respect and admire their resistance. And finally, the brothers and sisters out there who are resisting are certainly not perfect people, they make mistakes and it is wrong for us to require some romantic and unattainable vision of who is capable to be mujahideen. This argument of course, leads to the notion that none of us is worthy to be a true mujahid. This of course leads to the absurd result of no one being able to fight against oppression. There is no sacred knowledge you need, before you are allowed to fight. It is simply about fighting what is wrong. Just do it.
Sincerely,
A concerned Muslim who does not know the way to resolve this.
P.S. O, and if you are afraid of tactical nuclear weapons, then just realize that the weapons will only get more sinister. Just see what nano-technology and monsanto have in store. It makes more sense to stop this nation right now.
I welcome and encourage critical responses because that is how we move forward in the dialectic.
I sincerely apologize for the rudeness expressed in this letter, it is merely for style because more people will read it if it is written this way and to demonstrate that such rude letters do not have a beneficial impact. I believe the letter to would-be mujahids is unbecoming of Imam Zaid and suggest it be recanted. I actually and honestly have a great deal of love for Imam Zaid and this letter was written out of love for all humans beings if you believe it or not.
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