“So Tom De Jong and all other Zionist/Anti-Islam/Anti-Thinking/Redneck/KKK/Nazi’s, ******* off, and you can take those stars as whatever meaning you want to interpret them as, as words cannot describe how disgusting your purpose is. You are so pitiful, that instead of using the time given to you in your life to try and promote something that you believe gives purpose, whether it be Islam or not, your entire existence is based upon hate,”

“…based upon hate”? Well what would I presume you are professing now… Don’t know about hate but definitely I see no respect at the least. Anyways I know at least whom not to talk about Islam.

“dear usman,
its sad to see an empassioned person who is so sensitive to the suffering of his community,justify the violence done to another,perhaps war is the only answer for iyou t then,
you seem to have closed all doors to reason, violence seem the only way for you.”

I doubt that you actually read my long-winded thoughts, and just came to a conclusion by skimming over them, so let me deliver an answer to your charge with somethings I already said.

Usman says:

“I want to re-inforce that I condemn all acts of terrorism, but in my opinion if you really want to end terrorism, then you have to eliminate the environment that breeds terrorism, and that is injustice.”

“yes there are wrong things happening on both sides, you can’t just look at the injustice of one, and then ignore the other.”

“Brother Tom, i would not condemn terrorism, unless I absolutely, completely, believed that it is wrong. And i think, that truly if someone really hates terrorism, and wants to see an end to it, then they would objectively analyze the root causes of the problems therein, whether they are muslim or non-muslim”

Now all that being said, I have no idea what you’re rambling about.

i really dont think usman was justifying the violence. Rather, he was showing how it was conceivable that someone could even be in the state of mind to commit a terrorist act. if i gleaned anything from his responses, it was that he is would be fully committed to finding a peaceful solution.

I couldnt help but think about some stuff after I saw the picture of one of the mumbai attackers from a security camera or something…he looks like a kid going to school…except he has an AK-47 and a bag full of grenades.

I feel like as muslims we talk alot about the plight of the people that actually commit these acts, and what they must have gone through to get to the point where they are ready to indiscriminately kill civilians. That makes sense. And I am totally cognizant of the role that western policies have had in creating some of these situations. But I wonder if there isnt a way, all of us who find these acts so abhorrent, to also turn the heat on the groups and supposed religious leaders who not only make it ok, but actively recruit these kids with so much pain and tell them to channel it into terrorist acts.

It is absolutely right that we can never rid the world of people who have undergone extremely horrible situations, but cant we do a better job of controlling the people who take advantage of that pain to further whatever perverse goals they have?

A kid in palestine who has seen his whole family die doesnt go and make his own suicide vest and blow himself up, hes recruited and coaxed and brainwashed into channeling all that grief into a suicide mission and then given a suicide vest by some organization there that is using his grief for their own gain

I just feel like I know what western governments have done, and how we are supporting governments in places around the world that are inflicting so much pain. But just shooting and blowing up people indiscriminately, really? thats what muslims are doing? it just seems like a response that is so below us, and we shouldnt just condemn it with our words, we should try to figure out what part of our societal structures, whether it be the home, the mosque, the school, the government that is encouraging the use of terror as a goal and do whatever we can to stop them.

Last musing: what does it accomplish? Even if one were to believe these people who say killing innocent civilians on purpose is an okay response to everything that is going on, what does it accomplish? I dont see the any country in the muslim world doing better off. I dont see any less pain being inflicted. I dont see any attitudes being changed, if anything were creating a generation of non-muslims who will grow up correlating islam with terrorism. is all this stuff really happening just to make “the enemy” feel our pain? How is that not our first and foremost argument for anyone who promotes these acts?

Disclaimer: everything I wrote was kind of just a free flow of thoughts, maybe not completely reflected on yet, I know i prob made alot of generalizations and I know so many muslims are active, whether it be in blogs or out in the world, in combating the idealogies of these fanatic groups, but i just thought it was important to note that there are more concrete areas we can target in our desire to end terrorism that just blaming the west.