Posted on: Tuesday, June 8, 2004

ISLAND VOICES
Faces of evil hijacking our religion, values

Hakim Ouansafi is president and chairman of the Muslim Association of Hawai'i.

I watched in horror as the terrorists shouted "Allahu Akbar" ("God is great") as they decapitated the American hostage Nicholas Berg. I was shocked and outraged by this barbaric, brutal and cold-blooded murder, not only because he was a fellow American, but also as a Muslim hearing the noble phrase "Allahu Akbar" used by those evil people while committing such a satanic, un-Islamic, un-religious and inhumane act.

I join my fellow Muslims in Hawai'i and around the world in condemning such action. This cold-blooded murder was committed supposedly in the name of Islam, whose basic tenants stand for peace, love and forgiveness. I strongly reject all those who commit such acts of mindless violence in the name of religion.

Even the most literalist interpreters of the Quran must reject the claim that this was a legitimate revenge for the abuse of detainees in Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. No amount of previous animosity can justify killing a civilian whose only crime is being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Muslims and Arab and Western specialists on Islam unanimously condemned this crime as totally out of line from the Islamic faith, which clearly equates taking the life of one person to taking the life of all humanity.

These terrorists are not only our enemies as Americans, they are also the enemies of Islam, civilization and humanity as a whole. Whatever their agenda is, it certainly includes defaming Muslims and Islam and instigating hate toward Muslims. If the satanic followers who committed such evil acts escape the human justice on this Earth, they will surely face a severe punishment in the hereafter because Allah (God) is indeed Akbar (great), and no such crime will go unpunished.

Similarly, I strongly condemn the rape, torture and sadistic humiliation of the prisoners in Iraq by some of our soldiers. This widespread horrible pattern of human rights violations in our U.S. detention facilities worldwide is a disgrace to us as Americans and is not what we stand for or condone.

I was especially outraged, as were people around the world and in our country, because it is something you do not expect from trained professionals. The yet-to-be-released photographs showing U.S. guards raping female prisoners strikes at the fundamental sanctity of Muslim and Arab culture in a way other photographs don't. This is so horrible that one simply cannot imagine what will happen next.

In Islam, the woman is the bearer of family honor. Even to look at her in an ill manner is a crime. Hence our government should not show any more pictures of the rape and other atrocities committed by our soldiers in Iraq as such graphic images would serve as recruiting posters for terrorists.

Our government should promptly get to the bottom of these atrocities and not use these few soldiers as scapegoats. The secretary of defense bears the ultimate responsibility for the impact this scandal has had on our nation's image worldwide, for the brutal and humiliating actions of American troops, for the poor handling of the scandal by the military establishment and for fostering an atmosphere in which the traditional rules of war and norms of international law are treated as excess baggage.

How damaging are these pictures? Even my own uncle back in Morocco, the country where I was born, did not want to speak with me anymore because I was trying to explain to him that, similar to the fact that a few terrorists calling themselves Muslims do not represent the 1.3 billion Muslims, those few soldiers do not represent the majority of the 300 million law-abiding, peace-loving Americans.

I was disgusted with those lawmakers who publicly said to the world the appalling phrase that they were "outraged by the outrage." They should be ashamed for trying to minimize the harshness of torture and rape of the prisoners by saying boys will be boys and equating such horrible acts to hazing incidents found on some college and university campuses.

Telling the world that the prison's abuses are not that bad because Saddam and the terrorists have done worse is irresponsible and disgusting and at best insensitive. Such comments by our lawmakers and others anger people around the world and put our soldiers in further harm. For them to judge the severity of our soldiers' actions by comparing it to that of the terrorists is just amazing and speaks volumes about these people's morals.

Hawai'i Muslims and Muslims in America in general are facing a great challenge. It seems that whenever any horrible act is committed by our soldiers or by terrorists calling themselves Muslims, Islam and American Muslims are blamed for it because we are both Muslims and Americans. There is without a doubt an ongoing propaganda against Islam by many radio talk show hosts and other supposed experts on Islam, but I must admit that some of these criminals calling themselves Muslims do not help either.

It never made sense to me when I received calls at the mosque here in Honolulu from ignorant individuals blaming Muslims in Hawai'i for an act committed thousands of miles away, especially that such acts are in complete contradiction to what Islam teaches and what we follow as law-abiding Islam-loving Americans. These same ignorant people are now saying we should not blame all the American people for acts of a few individuals but insist that the entire religion of Islam and all Muslims should be blamed for acts of individuals. It just confirms to me that we have a lot of work ahead of us.

I pray and call on people of all faiths and cultures to work together for peace and reconciliation, not war and destruction.