As to the first claim, Newsweek offers not a single reason in their report why Muslims might be one of our "greatest strengths," but of the claim of how "vulnerable" they are, Newsweek drones on and on. Naturally, Newsweek puts the onus on Americans to bend over backward for Muslims, but doesn't once take Muslims to task for their barbarities and radicalism.
This "special report" starts out with a Muslim American from Cleveland, Ohio demanding of George W. Bush at a meeting in that city that the US take stronger measures to stop anti-Muslim sentiment from spreading in this country. "It's the young people I'm concerned with," Fareed Siddiq gravely claims.
Yes, Mr. Siddiq. I agree. It is the young Muslims who we are all concerned with as they are the ones that are most liable to wage Jihad on their fellow Americans in answer to your Muslim causes across the globe as was seen with the Lackawana Six. So, yes, Mr. Siddiq, we worry about the Muslim youth, too... but for a different, more legitimate reason than you.
Siddiq's bloviation is especially hypocritical in light of the fact that Pakistan, the country of his birth, is nearly as radical and supportive of Jihad across the world as Saudi Arabia with Pakistan ranking as one of the world's most active terror exporting and supporting countries.
Newsweek goes on to claim that Muslims in the USA consider themselves "Americans", not radical Muslims. But, Newsweek fails to bother balancing their report with so many easily found anti-western speeches by Muslim Imams across this country. From the Nation of Islam to the common Muslim Mosque radical speeches are far more common than Newsweek wants to let on. Granted the anti-western ranting here is not yet nearly as bad as it is in Europe, still, like elsewhere in the world, we see few Muslim Imams forcefully standing against terrorism and radical Islam.
Newsweek next approvingly quotes the first Muslim Congressman, Keith Ellison of Minnesota, about how great this country is, wholly skipping over his recent claims that we are like the Nazis. In fact, this Newsweek report is filled with glowing praise for American Muslims with little said of their lack of denunciation of terrorism.
One thing that the magazine says, though, is too true.
It wouldn't be too much of an exaggeration to say that on September 10, 2001, the Muslim American universe was largely invisible. The only Muslims most people here knew by name were Malcolm X, Louis Farrakhan and Muhammad Ali. If their doctor or accountant was Muslim, the average American probably didn't give it much thought.
That nonchalance cost this country nearly six thousand dead and counting. So, yes, in the 9/10 world, few Americans paid much attention to Islam. It cost us dearly, too.
But of radicalism here in the states, Newsweek tires its best to tone it down or turn away from discussing it. For instance, of the replacement of a more moderate Imam in Quincy, Massachusetts with a new one, all Newsweek can muster is that he was replaced with a "more conservative Imam." But they do not bother to inform us what that might mean. What does "more conservative" mean? Why do they not take time to explain why the previous Imam was "moderate" and the next one “more conservative?” Do they want to avoid something here?
Next this "special report" ridiculously seems to blame Americans for the increasing numbers of Muslim women who are now wearing the veil here in the USA post 9/11.
The relative peace that came with invisibility disappeared after 9/11. When Muslims became objects of fear, "people who had never recognized and seen themselves as Muslims had no choice but to see themselves as Muslim," says Muzaffar Chisti, director of the Migration Policy Institute at the New York University School of Law. Young women who had never before worn the traditional Islamic head covering—and whose mothers saw it as a symbol of the backwardness they had left at home—put on the veil. According to a 2002 study from Hamilton College, more than a third of Muslim American women now wear the veil every day.
So, we evil Americans have somehow forced Muslim women to begin degrading themselves and wearing the Muslim veil? What absurdity!
Then there is Newsweek quoting a Muslim in California who imagines that Islam is "under assault" by Americans in the USA. "Where do I stand?" they quote Razi Mohiuddin, a native of India, as saying. "Either I walk away from the faith or I become more involved in defending the faith, which [is] under assault."
Nowhere in this report, however, does Newsweek prove that raving Americans endanger Muslims, nor do they show statistics that convincingly prove they are increasingly in danger anywhere in this country. Newsweek does lovingly praise CAIR for attacking American traditions and laws, as well as approvingly cites American Muslim's attempts to combat "discrimination" here, though... again all without citing any statistics to prove this supposed growth in "discrimination."
To their credit, Newsweek does wonder aloud about the dangers of foreign Imams coming here from radical countries like Saudi Arabia, but seems to claim that no effect from their radical teachings has taken root. The concerns expressed by Newsweek about foreign Imams, however, seem to be the only sensible warnings in the entire self-flagellating story.
Also to their credit Newsweek deflates the canard that only being poor or uneducated leads to radical Islam, an idea that conveniently forgets that the 19 hijackers of 9/11 were middle class or well off Saudis. Poverty certainly didn't lead to their heinous acts. Islam did.
The most amazing thing about this "special report" is that even in this story all the hate, fear, ignorance, fire and danger seems to be coming from Muslims in America, not the rest of us. They even quote the American born son of a Muslim from Bangladesh as saying he was glad 9/11 happened. The boy is quoted as saying, "... I remember thinking that I didn't care that it happened. A lot of my friends didn't care. I think it's because we're Muslim." Yet all the while, as Newsweek cites such dangerous talk and separatist feelings among Muslims in America, they are claiming that it is the average American, rather than the Muslims living here, that is at fault. They refuse even to heed their own evidence that their finger pointing at America is in error. They refuse to even broach the possibility that Muslims might take responsibility for their fellow's evil actions.
Where, Newsweek, is your call for Muslims to stand up against terrorism as a community?
No, to Newsweek, the average American is just a racist, hater.
In the end, this "special report" seems more like an apologia for radical Muslim reactions, fear mongering on their part, and a general desire to fall back into their own, enclosed communities while tsk tsking at non-Muslim Americans for their evil, racist attitudes.
But, one thing is certain. Newsweek’s report certainly makes one understand how easy it was for this country to ignore the things that led up to 9/11 and reveals that we are headed right back to a 9/10 attitude, paving the way for the next outrage perpetrated by these "discriminated" against Muslims to occur.
So much for Muslims being one of America's "greatest strength." Newsweek makes the claim but doesn't spill one drop of ink to prove it.
