From time to time, I run across an opinion piece so compelling I have to share it, not only on my own social networks, but by writing about and and sharing it with the millions of Daily Kos readers and other social media outlets. Today, I read a commentary by Rana Elmir which I found riveting. The headline caught my eye and curiosity, but the content blew me away. Here are some excerpts from Rana Elmir’s piece.
As an American Muslim, I am consistently and aggressively asked -- by media figures, religious leaders, politicians and Internet trolls -- to condemn terrorism to prove my patriotism.
I emphatically refuse.
Make no mistake: The terror imposed by those who sympathize with Daesh (an Arabic acronym for the Islamic State militant group), al-Qaida, Boko Haram, al-Shabab and other groups is just as foreign to me as the terror advanced by mostly white men at the alarming rate of one mass killing every two weeks in this country.
Therefore, just as I have never been asked to condemn Dylann Storm Roof's attack on parishioners of a historic black church in South Carolina, Robert Dear's attack on a Planned Parenthood facility, the murder of 20 children at Sandy Hook Elementary School, or the slaughter of moviegoers in Colorado or Louisiana, I will not be bullied into condemning terror perpetrated by psychopaths who misrepresent and distort Islam for their deranged purposes.
In her piece, Elmer asks the question, who really are the victims of terrorism?
Since 2000, the majority of terror attacks have occurred in five countries -- Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Nigeria and Syria, all Muslim-majority countries. Close to 90 percent of the victims of Daesh are Muslims. A 2009 study conducted by the Combating Terrorism Center (CTC) at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point concluded conservatively that al-Qaeda has killed eight times as many Muslims as non-Muslims.
Muslims across the globe are not threats. They are threatened.
Elmir poignantly talks about how Muslim vulnerability is not just contained abroad. Hate crimes seem to be in the norm here in the States, and she gives examples of crimes, threats and harassment against American Muslims:
The list goes on, with even children in the role of both target and perpetrator. A Muslim girl in New York was put in a headlock, punched repeatedly and called ISIS (an alternative acronym for the Islamic State) by her classmates. An aggrieved mother reported on social media that she had to comfort her 8-year-old daughter because she began packing a bag after she heard “someone with yellow hair named Trump wanted to kick all Muslims out of America.”
Elmir believes some Muslims may be contributing to their own oppression by believing, “if we just apologize, then the anti-Muslim rhetoric will end. And it never does.” Her work with ACLU of Michigan proves she takes human rights seriously.
I will always do my part and fight for justice.
But terrorism is not mine. I will not claim it, not even through an apology.
Visit Syracuse.com to read Rana Elmir’s full opinion piece. It’s concise, captivating, engaging, and brief. By sharing her words, it may change the thinking and misunderstanding of many.
Thank you, Rana Elmir.
Rana Elmir is the deputy director of the ACLU of Michigan and lectures on issues related to Islamophobia, free speech and the intersection of race, faith and gender. You can visit Rana Elmir on Twitter/@elmirana.