Certainly not after the head of the Organization of Islamic Countries gets the UN to again condemn "defamation of religion"

The world's top diplomat for Islam called on Friday for an end to what he termed efforts to equate the religion with terrorism and said the 'demonization' of Muslims around the world must be fought.

But speaking soon after the U.N. General Assembly passed an Islamic-sponsored resolution condemning "defamation of religion" for the fourth year in a row, Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu said his group was committed to respecting freedom of expression.

There was a "rising tide of incitement to religious hatred and discrimination and intolerance targeting Muslims," he told a meeting called by the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) at the United Nations in Geneva. The 57-nation OIC, based in Saudi Arabia, represents 1.5 billion Muslims.

"Attempts to equate Islam with terrorism should be stopped. Stereotyping and demonization of Muslims should be combated," said Ihsanoglu, a Turkish history professor who became OIC Secretary-General in 2005.

Frankly, I wish that we didn't have to link Islam and terrorism. Unfortunately, these folks do.

Given that each and every one of these indicted terrorist fugitives is a Muslim, I don't see how we can avoid making a connection between their religion and terrorism -- especially when they themselves make that connection, claiming to engage in their foul acts under the rubric of "jihad", which is the duty of every Muslim.

For that matter, there is this comment, too -- making a clear statement about how terrorism will get you into heaven if you are a Muslim, from a spokesman from a major Muslim organization.

The Muslim Public Affairs Committee (MPAC) is one of the media's favourite Muslim organisations - radical and outspoken but not extremist, we're led to believe. One of its spokesmen, Asghar Bukhari, is a particular favourite of the BBC, whose Asian Network describes how he has "set up Media response workshops to educate and engage Muslims about dealing with the media" .

So I was interested to see how Bukhari would "deal" with me when I rang him to ask about an interesting discovery by The Centre for Social Cohesion, in my opinion the most formidable of the think-tanks monitoring Islamic extremism, which has been rooting around Facebook discussions.

In one recent thread, Bukhari says: "Muslims who fight against the occupation of their lands are 'Mujahadeen' and are blessed by Allah. And any Muslim who fights and dies against Israel and dies is a martyr and will be granted paradise ... There is no greater oppressor on this earth than the Zionists, who murder little children for sport."

Well, Bukhari didn't evade the question. He confirmed that the Facebook discussion was authentic, and said: "I stand by that [his comments], and I think any Muslim in the world stands by that ... if you think I'm going to tap dance for you and say 'These Muslims are really bad and should sort their own house out', then I'm not going to."

Indeed, he added, if that was my view then I could "p--- off".

Seems like this Bukhari shares a view of Islam with the terrorists above, but not with the OIC.

But I'm prepared to make a deal with Professor Ihsanoglu -- when his religion quits producing the overwhelming majority of terrorists and its apologists, I'll quit drawing a connection. Until then, I'll stand by the position that there is clearly something dysfunctional in a faith that produces a disproportionate number of terrorists.

Posted by: Greg at 12:16 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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