The Problems and Perils of Muslims Condemning Terrorism

Abstract

Calls for Muslims to condemn terrorist attacks are commonplace in the United States and Europe. These calls emanate from public figures and media outlets across the political and ideological spectrum. This article briefly surveys efforts primarily from Muslim scholars, leaders, and organizations to heed these calls and to communicate, in word and in deed, their rejection of terrorist attacks supposedly carried out in the name of Islam. The article raises questions about whether these efforts make a difference in improving attitudes toward Muslims who live in the United States and Europe. The article argues that Muslim attempts to condemn terrorism inadvertently reinforce Islamophobia, in part because such efforts involve tacit acceptance that Muslims should be presumed guilty of harboring violent tendencies and terrorist sympathies until proven otherwise, in part because such efforts keep the focus on Muslims and violence so that white and white Christian Americans and Europeans need not come to terms with their own violent past and their ongoing complicity in a violent world order.