Rhetoric Race and Religion
The Benghazi quasi-controversy took an ugly turn at a recent panel on the issue conducted by the Heritage Foundation, when prominent anti-Islam activist Brigitte Gabriel decried “180 million to 300 million Muslims’ quest for the destruction and dominance of Western civilization” — comments that prompted the room to erupt in applause.
According to Gabriel, the moderate Muslim majority is useless, since it does not do enough to actively oppose militants like al-Qaeda — a view apparently shared by the other panelists. At one point, panel moderator Chris Plante asked Saba Ahmed, an American University law student, “Can you tell me who the head of the Muslim peace movement is?”
I felt enraged at this hypocritical question. It’s an indirect attempt to elicit an apology from Muslim Americans, as if they were responsible for the reprehensible crimes of those who call themselves Muslims. If the panelists had any basic knowledge of Islam, they would understand that, since the fall of the caliphate at the end of World War I, there has been a decentralization of religious authority in Islam.
But in fact, there are numerous Muslim organizations that dedicate themselves to peace, non-violence, and interfaith and cross-cultural partnerships. Yet none of that matters to organizations like Heritage and individuals like Gabriel and Plante, who continue to scapegoat the entire Muslim population by making inflammatory claims about Islam to boost their popularity among the far-right.
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