The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) today issued a carefully worded statement that is more important for what it does not say, than for what it does. In the statement, CAIR condemned the mutilation of the Americans murdered in Iraq yesterday. What CAIR did not condemn, however, was the murder of the Americans. In other words, from CAIR’s perspective, it is acceptable for Muslims in Falluja to kill Americans so long as they do not mutilate the corpses.
Here is the statement from CAIR’s website:
“… CAIR today condemned the mutilation of those killed in Iraq on Wednesday. Four American civilian contractors were ambushed in their SUV's, burned, mutilated, dragged through the streets and then hung from a bridge spanning the Euphrates River, according to news reports.
CAIR said the mutilations violated both Islamic and international norms of conduct during times of war and called on all parties to the conflict to respect the sanctity of the dead and the sensitivities of their families.
The Washington-based Islamic civil rights and advocacy group cited a tradition of the Prophet Muhammad that prohibits mutilating bodies (Hadith 654.3).
In another tradition, the Prophet (peace be upon him) said, "Do not kill women or children, or an aged, infirm person. Do not cut down fruit-bearing trees. Do not destroy an inhabited place." (Al-Muwatta, Vol. 21, Hadith 9)”
The New York Times reported today, between statements from Falluja residents expressing pride in the murders and shame over the mutilation that the contractors were in Iraq to provide security for food convoys. In other words, Americans were murdered while helping to feed Iraqis, and CAIR doesn't see fit to condemn their deaths.
Of course, it is not surprising that CAIR’s sentiments with respect to the American dead are in agreement with those of Iraqis in a city known for it’s support of Saddam Hussein. CAIR was founded with Saudi petro-dollars and is inspired by Wahibist bigotry. Far better, as far as CAIR is concerned, that Iraqis live in fear of the Butcher of Bagdhad than free as a result of intervention by the Christian West.
The important thing from the American perspective, which should never be confused with the Islamic-American perspective voiced by CAIR, is that we recognize and make public CAIR's unspoken message of bigotry and intolerance.
Posted by publius at April 1, 2004 10:57 PM