Qanta Ahmed – Silence is Complicity :: The Investigative Project on Terrorism

Muslim Americans have a duty to "speak up, out loud" about Islamists in their communities, and not hide behind false accusations of Islamophobia, according to an op-ed by Qanta A. Ahmed, an author, physician and medical school professor, in the Christian Science Monitor. Not challenging Islamists vocally is a form of "exoneration" of their ideas and presence among moderate Muslims, she writes, and causes Muslims to "have a hand in Islam's mutilation" by the radicals.

"Denial is cozy. In its inviting comfort, we endorse causality – Islamists and their attacks are explained by alienation, psychiatric disease, disempowerment," Ahmed writes. "Neatly rationalizing our distress, we foxtrot straight into the denial of our own culpability … There, in the heart of darkness, we succeed as accessories to the erosion of our own beliefs."

There's a duty to confront the Islamists and criticize their views and actions, she adds. "Be warned. They cry 'Islamophobia!' while they suffocate only us. Just when 'Islamophobia' seeks to smother debate, we must speak up, and out loud."

This is the latest example of Ahmed's courageous stand to take back Islam from extremists. In an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal, she argued that Muslims have a historic duty to protect the society in which they live.

"According to Islamic law, Muslims are obligated to three entities: the self, God and society. This last has been overlooked too often by Muslims and their adopted societies," Ahmed wrote. "Every faithful Muslim must contribute to the preservation of justice within their society… Exposing nefarious forces at play within our community is a Muslim responsibility—the "bare minimum of faith" for every Muslim man and woman."

Ahmed has also been an outspoken critic of sanitizing martyrdom ideology and suicide bombing among radical Islamists. "When we think of martyr-suicides within a framework of 'suicide is sick' we avoid the more chilling construct of 'suicide is wrong but rational.' By assigning a sick role to the concept of suicide we are spared considerations of its morality and accompanying dilemmas," she noted in a piece for the Huffington Post. "When suicide is seen as sick it is spared a moral judgment -- instead it is seen as essentially amoral. The act is condemned but the perpetrator is not judged, because he or she was 'sick'. Suicide bombing becomes amoral, rather than immoral."

Reader comments on this item

Silence is more terrifying

Submitted by Jack Bechtold, Sep 8, 2014 14:58

Dear Dr. Ahmed, as we grow into our 70s we find our world in its' most sever turmoil much of which connects to religion. For reasons we continue to struggle with Islam has shown a different face to the rest of the world. ISIS has tried to hold the US hostage by bombing ISIS enclaves in Iraq to the point of brutally murdering innocent reporters. They follow those beheadings with reference to their God by shouting Allah aq bah or God is great. Not sure of the spelling. We are Catholics who remain ashamed of their murderous rampage in the crusades and the Spanish Inquisition. That Inquisition involved Christopher Columbus and his murderous efforts to proselytize the Taino Indians of Hispaniola. Columbus is revered by the church today and the church remains curiously silent on his history. The "new evangelism" offered by Pope Francis contains no order to convert at any cost (murder). To confuse matters even more, Pope John II used ecumenism as a tool to convert while Francis ordered evangelism. The terms are diametrically opposed. Silence is really bad in both cases. The Catholic male hierarchy sweeping the monstrous priest pedophilia issue under the rug. For whatever the reason we cannot find a Catholic terrorist. Nor do I see Catholics fighting to take land. The patrons of Allah remaining silent in the face of the outright murder of many thousands of innocent Americans and Arabs. We recall 911 and the hijacking of commercial jets by Islamic terrorists. The many bombings of American property in Saudi-Arabia and middle east nations. The sneak attack on the USS Cole that killed numbers of sailors. Saddam Hussein's brutality of gassing his Kurdish countryman. Then, just recently, Bashar El Assad admitted to using chemical weapons on his own people. We would like to hear from silent US Islamics... Louis Ferracane, Mohammed Ali, the Imams and citizens. We further would ask that the moderate Islamic states, like Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Jordan, Turkey, etc. let their voices be heard by joining the US led coalition to eradicate ISIS. We say "speak up"

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