Collective Guilt and the Expectations of A Community
July 12, 2007 | 27 Jumada al-Thanni 1428
Like many, both Muslim and non-Muslim, I have paid attention to the events that have unfolded abroad – the UK incidents and the Lal Mosque standoff. My sentiments were inline with many readers I came across: bewilderment at the UK incident [doctors killing people?] and disappointment mixed with confusion of the Lal Mosque siege. But perhaps what caught my attention even more was the reaction of Muslims, predominantly from America, more specifically in the American-Muslim blogosphere, a reaction that seemed to revolve around apologizing for the attacks. The root of this apology seems to be rooted more in the embarrassment that these heinous acts have had upon the public lives of many American-Muslims. I found this embarrassment to be somewhat concerning. Were American-Muslims more concerned with how they were viewed at work than with the crimes themselves? If so, then why is there not an equal outcry of embarrassment over, say, the Dar Fur atrocities or, if we want to keep it simply humanistic and go beyond religion as a signifying factor, why has not inner-city gun violence [especially for the many Blackamericans who are also Muslims!] garnered the same rosy-cheeked blush? Perhaps this embarrassment has more to do with “who’s watching us” than it really has to do with any moral outcry. It is this latter part here that I shall address in a moment, but first things first. What gets our deserving attention and what sets us off? Read more this entry »
