Comments

You are naive in writing by looking at this angle. Some 26 % find that suicide bombing is accetpable.

In other words, nearly a fourth of U.S. Muslims, or around 500,000 people, actually believe that suicide bombings of civilians is sometimes justified to defend Islam? I hardly find that a comforting thought.

Just to add a little perspective on the 22% who *might* consider suicide bombing acceptable, how many non-muslim Americans think military carpet-bombing cities is morally acceptable? I'm guessing its similar or higher.

Matt K - Your statement offers little "perspective" on the matter. Please come back when you have a credible poll of results supporting your assertion. Absent that, is your point apologetical -- explaining that support of terrorism and religously directed violence -- a real and growing phenomena-- isn't so bad?

Should that be condemned? If not, how would you address it? By moral equivocation or obfuscation?

I don't make moral equivocation or appologize for Islamic extremeists. All I do is caution the evangelical impulse to deride muslims as violent people, without looking at our own sins as well (Matthew 7.3). I'm not some liberal left-wing nut job who would equate US military with al-queda. That would be intellectually and morally indefensible. I only observe that the propensity towards violence, fear mongering, and moral self-blindness afflicts all of us indiscriminate of our race or religion.

Lets just try to be objective. The body counts alone should make us pause and think.

I'm glad to see another blog on CTI. These blogs are my favorite part of the site in many ways.

So let's be nice to each other, right? Honoring Jesus with our words includes the words we type into comment fields.

I'm hardly perfect in this matter, so I'll ask everyone to help hold me accountable too. But we should somehow agree to be Christian here--of all places. Love is not rude. We can disagree about politics (even theology!) and still be civil with each other.

"I only observe that the propensity towards violence, fear mongering, and moral self-blindness afflicts all of us indiscriminate of our race or religion."

-- Would you agree that such a statement is a starting point, and NOT a conclusion? And, that it doesn't reflect what are considerable differences in behavior --i.e., why there are major variances in belief and actions, and what they mean in behavior; i.e., why people act differently under similar circumstances. And perhaps, what differences in behavior reflect as it relates to adherence to different ideas or belief systems? That seems to be worth considering.

"All I do is caution the evangelical impulse to deride muslims as violent people." -- Of course, we should focus closely on ideas and histories and claims upon truth, so lets do so. But one would need to check his or her "impulse" to reflexively "caution" everyone --and particularly fellow Christians, it seems-- about making statements of moral and intellectual judgment. At what point would the "impulse" you describe become a fair concern, or a conclusion forced upon people? That may have something to do with how familiar are you with Islam, its law, sacred texts, and history. (If you have lived under it, or in Muslim-majority contexts, it does help connect ideas to practice, but one doesn't so much need to do this anymore to experience its violence and demand for submission.

"Lets just try to be objective. The body counts alone should make us pause and think." -- You're absolutely right.

I'm not sure I completely follow your critique, Matthew J. My point is this; the study was of Muslim Americans. As Christians are the dominant culture in this context, we have a duty to be careful to treat the minority fairly. History proves that fear drives dominant culture to do things quite contrary to the commands of Christ.

And for the record, as a student of religion I am familiar with the sacred texts of Islam, I live in a neighborhood full of middle-eastern immigrants, was once roommates with Arab Christians, and have studied in a middle-eastern country. I am not ignorant of Islam.

As an American Muslim, I have to tell you that Islam cannot be judged alone by what few Muslims do or do not do. Same applies to Christinaty, if I may. So, when you have a group who justified killing innocents, you've got to go back to the teachings of the religion (and if you need help understanding, please ask the scholars of that religion), before saying that Islam is or is not a peaceful religion. Many Muslims of current times need help understand Islam, that was distorted by many forces, both internal (for materialistic reasons) or external (for fear of loss of materialistic reasons in a great part). Having in the same study about Muslim Americans, about 20% who took the survey, did not believe that the Quran is the word of God - that is interesting to me - a good percentage of them do not go to the Mosque or maintain the regular prayers - to me this is amazing BUT I don't say they are non-Muslims - yes, you can be a Muslim and still sins and violates the faith rules and it is up to God to judge on the Day of Judgement - that summarizes what I want to say. But, while on earth, those who hurt others must be brought to justice (Muslims or otherwise). Thank you for being fair and just.

Fouad Attia, thank you for your thoughtful comments.You are as asset to this blog-site.

I have a BA in comparative World Religions and teach English full-time to Muslims. They differ from one another immensely, as much as Christians do! Above all else, when evaluating them or anyone else, "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you." None of us likes to be pidgeon-holed.

Surveys are good for trying to understand groups of people and their general characteristics, and are a necessary part of understanding the world we live in. But surveys cannot substitute for seeing each individual as one for whom Christ died and therefore precious in His sight.