Rep.
Mike Pompeo (R. Kan.) spent nearly five minutes calling on Islamic
leaders to denounce terrorism. I first learned of his speech from
The video clip of the speech is embedded below,
followed by my transcription of the remarks. I have placed
superscripts in the text, linked to a list of comments. To read a
comment, click its superscript. To return to the transcript, use your
backspace key.
Its been just under two months since
the attacks in Boston and in those intervening weeks, the silence of
Muslim leaders has been deafening. And that is sad, but perhaps
most importantly it's dangerous
1.
There have now been at least a dozen attacks by
Muslim terrorists on U.S. soil since Ramzi Yousef
's
parked rental van exploded in the basement of the World Trade
Center on February 26 of 1993. Some have caused death and injury
such as the 9-11 attacks in 2001 and Nidal Hasan's mass shooting at
Fort Hood Texas. Other attacks such as
Faisal Shahzad's fizzled Times
Square bombing or the unsuccessful underwear bombing of a flight were
thwarted or aborted.
Yet failed or not, all of these attacks were
successful in scaring Americans; successful in reducing our freedom, in
the most freedom loving nation on earth. Successful in slowing our
economy and successful in demonstrating that a free and open society
can potentially be vulnerable. They were, in the former Attorney
General
Mike Mukasey's
words, crimes
2
that are none the less meant to send a terrorist message.
When the most devastating terrorist attacks on
America in the last twenty years come overwhelmingly from people of a
single faith
3
and are performed in the name of that faith
4, a special
obligation falls on those who are the leaders of that faith.
Instead of responding, silence has made these Islamic leaders across
America potentially complicit
5 in these acts and, more
importantly
still, those that may well follow.
If a religion claims
6 to be one of peace, Mr.
Speaker, it's leaders must reject violence that is perpetrated in its
name. Some clerics today suggest that modern Jihad is non-violent
and is only about making oneself a better Muslim. Perhaps that's
true
7
for moderate Muslims, but extremists seek to revive the era
when most Islamic scholars
8 understood Jihad to be
holy war.
Mr. Speaker, for decades Middle Eastern oil money have [sic]
propounded
this more extreme violent interpretation
9 in mosques around the
world. Less than two months after the 9-11 atrocities an
Egyptian Brotherhood preacher who is probably the most influential
Sunni cleric today, declared suicide bombing to be legitimate. He said
"these are historic heroic commando and martyrdom attacks and should
not be called suicide.".
So, what is it that these Islamic leaders must
say? First, that there is never any justification for
terrorism
10.
No political goal legitimizes terrorism
11.
Terrorism is
never excusable as 'resistance'
12. Imams must say
unequivocally
13
that terrorist actions- killing and maiming
[unintelligible- may be: solely is wrong].
They must also publicly and repeatedly
denounce radical
14
clerics who seek to justify terrorism.
There is a battle of interpretation
15
within
Islam, its not enough to deny responsibility saying one's own
interpretation doesn't support terrorism. Moderate
16
Imams must strive to ensure that no Muslim finds solace for terrorism
17
in the Qur'an. They must cite the Qur'an as evidence that the
murder of innocents
18 is not permitted
by good believing
19
Muslims and must immediately refute all claims to the contrary.
Finally, Muslim leaders must say that there is no
room for militant Islamism in the religion of peace
20.
These statements must be made frequently, publicly and in the
mosques. Yes, in the mosques and in the madrassahs where many
learn their Islamic religion.
You know we have to call evil by its name in order
to stamp it out
21.
Downplaying atrocities and rampages assures more of them.
Every Muslim leader must unequivocally proclaim that terror
committed in the name of Islam violates the core tenets of the prophet
Muhammad
22
and they must do so repeatedly, period.
My own faith has occasionally been hijacked in the
name of violence and cruelty including in Kansas my home state by Fred
Phelps and his Westborough Baptist Church. In
response, hundreds of protestant ministers preached that Mr. Phelps'
actions violate the most fundamental Christian traditions and denounced
he [sic] and his church's evil acts. Pope John Paul II similarly
apologized for the Catholic Church's failure to do more to speak out
against the evils of Nazism and to protect Jews from the
Holocaust.
Just as these religious leaders have called up those
who have acted cruelly and brutally in the name of their faith, so too
must Muslim religious leaders refute terrorist theology
23.
We are now two decades into Islamic radicals
attacking Americans on U.S. soil; I know that not every Muslim supports
these actions. Dr. Zuhdi Jasser of the American Islamic Forum for
Democracy has spoken out in a clear and consistent way so has
Zainab Al-Suwai of the American Islamic Congress but the silence
in the face of extremism coming from the best funded Islamic advocacy
organizations and many mosques across America is absolutely
deafening. It casts doubt upon the commitment to peace by
adherents of the Muslim faith. This is utterly unacceptable, it
is dangerous
24;
it must end. I yield back, Mr. Speaker.
We condemn, in the strongest terms, the
incidents, which are against all human and Islamic norms. This is
grounded in the Noble Laws of Islam which forbid all forms of attacks
on innocents.
Islamic condemnations of terrorism are the worst sort of malignant
malarkey. Islam can not condemn its own sacraments! I have dealt
with this crap before, in detail. Some links to the Qur'an, hadith
& tafsir may be broken, but the quotes are still accurate.
