Galway Muslims condemn Paris terrorist attacks

I remember being in the vehicle as we drove home from dinner when my dad received a phone call from my aunt, who was living in NY.

In the six months following the Charlie Hebdo attacks in January, anti-Muslim violence and mosque vandalism more than quadrupled compared to the same period in 2014, according to the Collective Against Islamophobia in France, a watchdog group. Are you kidding me?

It should be apparent that the Muslims who have long made America their home and those who have immigrated in recent decades live by an ethic that rejects the ISIS message. What have you done to contain them, by the way?

Leaders from the Kelowna Islamic Centre are reacting to what happened in Paris on Friday, and are condemning the attacks. Anyone who has an understanding of Islam and has studied the Quran should know to never justify the promotion of violence. He won’t even take ISIS’ word for it. I would like the whole world to realize that, since its creation, ISIS has been responsible for more Muslim deaths in the Middle East and in Africa than deaths amongst people from any other religious or ethnic background. Shaykh Muhammad al-Yacoubi, originally from Syria, goes so far as declaring them to be apostates. I didn’t think so. A Quebec, Canada man, wearing face paint, was arrested after releasing a video threatening to kill Muslims and attack local mosques. “They’ve told us that”, Aly says. “This attack is being claimed by the group calling themselves ‘Islamic State.’ There is nothing Islamic about such people and their actions are evil, and outside the boundaries set by our faith”.

Thursday at the Council on Foreign Relations, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton declared Islam was “not our adversary”. We do not want to infuriate millions more Muslims.

Well, if 95 percent of Muslims are peaceful wouldn’t they join us in condemning these murders by Islamists? Actions of disunity and disharmony will only lead us to play into the hands of the terrorists.

Sadiq explains, “They’re just hijacking the religion and we as main stream Islam or main stream Muslims have absolutely nothing to do with them”. The same day as the Paris attack, bombs exploded in Beirut, Lebanon, and Baghdad, Iraq. We can not give ISIS the religious war they want. And often Islam is misinterpreted by those extremists committing heinous crimes but this time Muslims around the globe have taken a stand against terrorism and extremists misinterpretation. It is hurting us not to be realistic about that. The news of these attacks hit hard for me, as it did for many others around the world, to see a city that means so much to me be subject to such brutal and senseless acts of violence. These attacks, and the backlash they generated, would inspire others to radicalize. The more victories they achieve, by the way, the more recruits they acquire, so good luck with the sweet-talking.

Obama insists on treating ISIS as a criminal cartel to be prosecuted rather than an Islamist nation-state marching toward a global caliphate.

“We aren’t feeling too secure right now”, said a 30-year-old man named Adlan. How dare anyone question his policy or blame him for mischaracterizing the strength of ISIS, having no strategy to defeat them and not even recognizing that they are a bona fide enemy.

Americans are trembling in rage and disbelief as they watch this dangerously narcissistic commander in chief show no passion for defending the United States but gush with emotion over the prospect of dumping 10,000 Syrian refugees in our land without proper security screening.

The catch is that we can not succumb to blind anger ourselves.