I only just stumbled over a very telling, if confusing, article from 2006, titled “Muslims Address Silence on Europe Attacks,”in which the AP asked Muslims in Amsterdam, Paris and London why so few of them have publicly condemned the train and bus bombings in Madrid and London, and why so few spoke out against Theo Van Gogh’s murder.

Dutch Muslim rapper Yassine SB wrote a song about his anger over Van Gogh’s murder but scrapped plans to perform it out of fear of being ostracized by the Islamic community. He also turned down requests by a popular Amsterdam radio station to sing a song against terrorism.

“If you sing that, it’s like you choose the Dutch, not Muslims,” said Yassine SB…”People will say ‘you are a traitor,’” said the 20-year-old musician.

Given this stunning admission, the next Muslim excuse that the AP reports doesn’t quite add up:

Why, many Muslims ask, should they have to speak out against, or apologize for, actions of radicals who do not represent them — people they do not even regard as true Muslims?

We just got done hearing that there is pressure by the Islamic community on a Muslim rapper to not condemn terrorism or Van Gogh’s murder, and now we’re being told contradictory information that such murder and terrorism have nothing to do with the Islamic community.

Many find the very idea of being asked or expected to denounce such acts “extremely offensive and insulting,” said Khurshid Drabu, a senior member of the Muslim Council of Britain.

This is probably because they are very ambivalent. Which is the problem.

“I’m British,” said Tuhina Ahmed, 24, a British-born Muslim in London whose family came from Gujarat in India. “I could have been blown up as well.” Why, she asked, should she have to make a public statement to prove her objection to terrorism?

Uh, because that’s what every immigrant, ethnic and religious community in the history of the Western world has done when one of their own assaults the host society — let alone when thousands of their own assault the host society. As I wrote in 2006:

Every other group trying to secure its place in Western society has instinctively personalized and internalized the crimes of its own — feeling a sense of embarrassment for far smaller-scale crimes than what Muslims and Arabs inflict on their host societies. Who can forget the Jews and the Italians out-praying each other in the hope that the Son of Sam killer wasn’t “one of ours”? When we learned his last name was Berkowitz, the Jews plotzed. Then we found out he was an Italian adopted by Jews, and the Jews breathed a sigh of relief (”He’s adopted! He’s adopted!”) while the Italians cringed.

Yet the first group that feels it has nothing to prove also happens to be the deadliest immigrant community in modern history. If even the mainstream media, such as the AP, are asking why Muslims are so quiet, I’d say there’s definitely something to prove.

What a difference from how Jews would be handling something like this. Not that Jews would ever be in this position, but imagine if it had been a group of 19 Jews who got together and bombed the World Trade Center and/or Pentagon. Every Jew — practicing or not — would be walking around clutching his head, saying, “Oymygod, I don’t know how this could have happened. I didn’t know the boys personally…they must have come from bad families. Oh I feel just terrible. Excuse me, Officer — would you like to check my bag? Here, please — check the bag already! You know what, I can’t take this. Would you please just arrest me? Here, have you met my mother-in-law? You can arrest her too. We’re not busy.”

Back to the AP article:

“They say we should go into the streets and condemn what happened so they see us as good Muslims,” said Karima Ramani, a 20-year-old Dutch born to an Algerian father and Moroccan mother. “I don’t feel it’s my duty. I’m not responsible for the death of Van Gogh.”

In which case, how does one explain the Muslims who are also asking why Muslims are so silent — that tiny minority of vocal moderates:

Yet the Internet is filled with blogs — mostly from Westerners but also by some Muslims — asking why Muslims are not expressing revulsion at the attacks. They see the silence as giving the terrorists strength.

“Isn’t silence, justification, fear and hesitation in condemning terrorism, a factor in the encouragement of these individuals to appear on numerous platforms and satellite channels and claim that they represent a religion in the absence of active influential groups and institutions?” asked a blog entry by Ahmed Al-Rabei, a Kuwaiti journalist who works for London-based newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat.

“Isn’t it a tragic crime to label the millions of European Muslims as guilty because of the rhetoric of a few professional lunatics, while the rest remain silent and wallow in self-pity? We have to admit that Islam has been hijacked particularly in European countries.”

Muslim leaders say they and other Muslims have marched in a number of anti-terrorism rallies in Europe — the largest was held on the first anniversary of Madrid’s 2004 bombings — and Muslims can’t be expected to pour into the streets every day. They also say they have condemned the attacks in the media.

So where does that leave the ones who just finished telling us that it’s not their duty? And why do others feel it is their duty — such as this shrink’s patients, who apparently do feel guilty:

Sue Vogel, a psychologist who practices in Muslim-populated Bedford, in central England, said that after last year’s bombings in London there was a great sense of guilt among some of her Muslim patients. “I had to do a lot of work to convince them that I saw them as people, rather than as Muslims,” she said.

Lamia Hamdoun, 33, a teacher at a boys’ school, emigrated to England from Tunisia 12 years ago. Last year’s London bombings were so overwhelming for her, she says, that she prefers to remain invisible.

“When these incidents happen, I’m always scared. … I shrink,” said Hamdoun…She said she fears that her husband may be arrested in a police sweep just because of his looks or name. “I wish we could change his name so people don’t know…”

All the more reason to be as vocal against Muslim terror as possible and get photographs of her husband at a rally with a placard against radical Muslims, so that if he ever gets swept up in a rendition or something, there will be quick and easy documentation to send the government that they’ve got the wrong guy.

Many of Europe’s best-integrated Muslims say their lives are so far removed from those of the radicals that it simply has never occurred to them to protest.

Alia Kdeih, 50, came to Paris in 1977, at the height of a civil war in her native Lebanon…Kdeih said she will not go into the streets to condemn the attacks even though she’s appalled by them — pointing out that her identity is not defined by Islam.

“It’s not something I want to stress,” she said. “I don’t feel responsible for what happened even if they are Muslims.”

So except for the few who do protest and who wonder why more don’t, it sounds like every Muslim has a reason for not protesting:

These people don’t represent me.
I feel too guilty.
They’re not true Muslims.
I’m too far removed from Islam.

The confusion was highlighted by the first Muslim Miss England in 2006, Hammasa Kohistani from Uzbekistan. Not that beauty queens are much help in sorting things out to begin with, but her mixed message didn’t sound too different from what the AP article tried unsuccessfully to get to the bottom of:

“Even moderate Muslims are turning to terrorism to prove themselves. They think they might as well support it because they are stereotyped anyway.”
…
Miss Kohistani said: “Tony Blair addressed Muslims in particular, telling them that they need to sort out the problem within. That was a huge stereotype of the Islamic community. Even the more moderate Muslims have been stereotyped negatively and feel they have to take actions to prove themselves.

???