There has long been criticism that Muslims in the West have not done enough to mitigate or uproot the threat of Muslim extremism. Some Muslims, however, have started working towards peaceful methods of reducing violent religious extremism. In the U.K., Muslim youth (who are particularly vulnerable to recruitment by extremists) attend Summer camps to combat extremism in their countries. Justin Gest, an academic at the London School of Economics and Political Science, says via a USAToday interview:
…the conference would at least expose young people to alternatives of what “good Islam” can be… [i]f it changes one young Muslim’s views about what is real Islam, that’s a good thing… How many of their minds will change I don’t know.”
There are other responses from the Muslim community; a video recently released on YouTube features prominent Muslim leaders advocating peace and denouncing violent extremism, teaching that Islam is a ‘religion of peace.’ Attorney General Eric Holder sympathizes, in an article by Main Justice, with the notion of many Muslims being peaceful and non-violent:
There needs to be more recognition of these efforts and of the losses suffered in the Muslim community here and around the world… Many of the victims of terror attacks by al-Shabaab, al-Qaeda, the Taliban, and other terrorist groups are innocent Muslims.”
We should keep in mind that many Muslims are victims of terrorism, and that many Muslims act to combat terrorism. Muslim Americans are also the best resource in combating extremism within our borders. While I disagree that the Qur’an teaches peace as a general message, and I find virtually all specifically Islamic claims to be either unproven or disproved, I can appreciate the valuable effort many in the Muslim community make every day to work towards peace. Hopefully for all of our sakes, Islam, at least in the West, will have a connotation of violence on par or to a lesser degree than Christianity.
