Don’t ask Muslims to condemn terror: Our outrage at atrocities ought to be a given

Read original article by Dalia Mogahed or read the key points below;

1. “I cannot begin to fathom the motivation behind this monstrous violence, but because of my faith and the color of my skin, many suspect me of condoning it. “Why don’t Muslims condemn terrorism?” is the question I cannot escape a public lecture without hearing.”
2. “Anyone with an internet connection and a search engine will find that Muslims have and continue to condemn terrorism. Muslims have issued thousands of public statements, held conferences, seminars, lectures, workshops, created organizations, penned op-eds, written books, taken out full-page ads, held rallies, created television series and even developed video games, all to condemn terrorism.”
3. “Imagine if white folks were collectively suspected of condoning the actions of Dylann Roof, who walked into that black church in Charleston and shot and killed African Americans in supposed defense of the white race. Or Anders Behring Breivik, who slaughtered 77 people, mostly children, in Norway in defense of white Christian Europe against brown and black Muslims.”
4. “When Robert Lewis Dear Jr. shot and killed three people in a Planned Parenthood in Colorado Springs, I didn’t ask my neighbor, a vocal pro-life evangelical Christian, if she condemned it. I assumed she did — because anyone with the most basic human decency would abhor the murder of innocent people.”
5. “In a fascinating study, researchers found that the belief that Muslims are collectively guilty for acts of terrorism carried out by a Muslim was linked to support for discriminatory policies toward Muslims, U.S. military intervention in Muslim-majority countries, and the presidential candidacy of Donald Trump. But the same research found that people could reconsider Muslim collective guilt — not by Muslims condemning terrorism, but when they challenged the exclusive expectation to do so.”
6. “Turns out that “unintentional bias,” as researchers call it, is overcome not by treating it as a given, but by raising it from the part of the brain responsible for “passive autopilot thinking” to the part responsible for active critical thinking. As we mourn the loss of Saffie and the others murdered, let us not allow our pain to be exploited in the service of prejudice.”