Last week in Philadelphia, Edward Archer walked up to a police car and shot 11 times at the officer inside. The officer survived, and Archer was soon arrested, telling detectives afterward, “I follow Allah. I pledge my allegiance to the Islamic State, and that’s why I did what I did.”
Newly elected Mayor Jim Kenney’s response?
The shooting has “nothing to do with being a Muslim,” he said.
Kenney then came under fire from figures on the right such as Rush Limbaugh and presidential hopeful Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida; the latter called the mayor “delusional.”
Who is right? Do violent acts represent Islam? Joel Mathis and Ben Boychuk, the RedBlueAmerica columnists, debate the issue.
JOEL MATHIS:
Philadelphia is my city. I was horrified by the attack on Officer Jesse Hartnett and grateful for his survival. These days, though, I’m just a bit exasperated that the whole affair has become fodder for the culture warriors.
Mayor Kenney tried, albeit awkwardly, to accomplish something admirable. He was trying to keep the pundits from fracturing our community. And he was telling an important truth: Archer may have been inspired by the Islamic State and its take on the Muslim faith, but that doesn’t mean, as many have suggested, that he represents Islam.
How can Kenney know this?
The answer - my answer as a citizen of Philadelphia - is this: Lived experience.
Muslims are a large community within our metropolis. Hijabs and beards are a common sight on our streets; some observers estimate that there are 200,000 Muslims living in the city and its environs. That might be on the high side, but the estimate reflects the truth that Islam is not so exotic here.
My butcher is a Muslim and a valued family friend. The guys I buy breakfast from most mornings: Muslim. Some of the ladies who check us out at the grocery store: Muslim. Some of the families that my son goes to school with: Muslim. If Edward Archer truly represented Islam, Philly would be in big, big trouble. But our daily interactions - in our businesses, classrooms and friendships - provide ample evidence to the contrary.
On Tuesday night in Philadelphia, about 100 Muslim Americans marched in support of police. You probably didn’t hear about it in the national media. Why would they not represent the true face of Islam?
Some readers will no doubt send letters quoting exhortations from the Koran and argue the passage prove that violence is inherent to Islam. So what? Fred Phelps of the Westboro Baptist Church quoted scripture for years in support of his argument that “God hates gays,” but almost nobody thought he represented true Christianity. In truth, Christianity encompasses a diverse array of people and ideologies - Southern Baptists to Episcopalians and everything in between. Islam is no different.
We Americans have enough trouble on our hands dealing with the Islamic State and other extremist groups that truly are violent. Let’s not compound our problems by lumping in violent extremists with the quiet, everyday citizens who want to live with their faith, and their families, in peace.
BEN BOYCHUK:
What does Jim Kenney know that Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, Osama bin Laden, Abubakar Shekau, Ayman al-Zawahiri, Anwar al-Awlaki, Nidal Hasan, Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev, Syed Rizwan Farook and Tashfeen Malik did not?
Mayor Kenney described the nonfatal (thank God) attack on Officer Jesse Hartnett as “abhorrent,” which it surely was. But then he added: “It is terrible and it does not represent the religion or any of its teachings.”
Any of its teachings? That’s a bold statement. The leaders of the Islamic State, al-Qaida, Boko Haram, and the terrorists they lead and inspire would beg to disagree.
“This is a criminal with a stolen gun who tried to kill one of our officers,” Kenney continued. “It has nothing to do with being a Muslim or following the Islamic faith.”
But that isn’t what the shooter said. He told the police, over and over, he followed Allah, he had pledged allegiance to Islamic State and “that’s why I did what I did.”
Obviously the Philadelphia shooting had something to do with Islam.
So did the mass murder last month in San Bernardino, Calif. And the November attacks in Paris. And the Boston Marathon bombings in 2013. And the shooting spree by a U.S. Army major at Fort Hood in 2009.
Al-Qaida took down the twin towers and struck the Pentagon in 2001 in the name of Islam. The Islamic State controls large swaths of Syria and Iraq in the name of Islam. Boko Haram in Nigeria murders and enslaves Christians in the name of Islam.
Now comes the part where we need to reiterate, yet again, that just because all jihadists are Muslims doesn’t mean all Muslims are jihadists. Shouldn’t that go without saying?
We’re living at a time when “either-or” has utterly annihilated the possibility of “both-and.” We must say that attacks in Philly and San Bernardino and Paris have absolutely nothing to do with Islam, lest we run the risk of tarring all Muslims with the same brush and unleashing a tsunami of violence against innocent people. It’s insulting.
Could it be Kenney simply doesn’t know what he’s talking about? That’s one possibility.
The other possibility is he thinks we’re stupid. (And he’s not the only one.)
I’m betting it’s both.
This piece originally appeared in Tribune News Service
This piece originally appeared in Tribune News Service