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April 3, 2006

On Killing for Allah in North Carolina

Topics: Understanding Islam

On March 29, Robert Spencer had a piece on Mohammed Reza Taheri-Azar, the Iranian student that drove a rented SUV onto the campus of the University of North Carolina on March 3 with the intent of running down and killing as many people as he could. In his piece, Spencer says of the incident:

(...) It is abundantly clear that even if Mohammed Taheri-azar acted alone, his view of the Koran is not eccentric among Muslims worldwide. Yet three-and-a-half years after Muhammad Atta and his crew flew a plane into the World Trade Center out of love for Allah, we still don't see any sustained or concerted effort by self-proclaimed peaceful Muslims in the United States or anywhere else to disabuse their coreligionists of this jihad ideology, and its globalist, supremacist, totalitarian political agenda. Such an effort should not be seen as optional or incidental; without it, the very commitment of these self-proclaimed moderates to the United States and its Constitution can and should be called into question.

(...) ...analysts keep focusing on the question of whether or not Taheri-azar was a "terrorist." I don't care if you call him a canteloupe. The real problem here is that anyone anywhere at any time can read the Koran and come to the same conclusion that he did. If American officials were really serious about preventing a future attack, they would address that. If American Muslim advocacy groups were really serious about being loyal, patriotic Americans, they would address that.

(...) Am I saying that the Koran should be outlawed, as was attempted long ago in Calcutta and about which there have been some rumblings recently in Germany?

(...) No, I would prefer to deal more in the realm of what is realistically possible. I'd like to see an honest public discussion of the elements of the Koran and Sunnah that give impetus to violence and fanaticism. I'd like to see American Muslim spokesmen explain how they will specifically address these elements, and teach Muslims to reject them in favor of the principles of the equality of dignity and rights of all people, women as well as men, non-Muslims as well as Muslims. And I'd like to see them follow through on these explanations with real action.

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Posted by Richard at April 3, 2006 8:21 AM

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• On Killing for Allah in North Carolina - Apr 03, 2006