In his speech from the Oval office Sunday, December 6, President Obama called Muslim communities “our strongest allies in rooting out misguided ideas that lead to radicalization.” He also stated that “It is the responsibility of all Americans — of every faith — to reject discrimination …to reject religious tests on who we admit into this country … [and] to reject language that encourages suspicion or hate.”
In this light, we would like to share the statement from US Council of Muslim Organizations.
The tragedy of the killings in San Bernardino and the fact that the perpetrators appeared to commit a barbaric crime undirected by ISIS and yet in ISIS’ name has led some to believe that it is the religion itself that must somehow be the cause of terrorism.
As the last two weeks have sadly shown, no single religious tradition has a monopoly on hate. The perversion of Christianity embraced by the man who attacked the Planned Parenthood Clinic bears a certain similarity to the warped faith of the couple who attacked a party at a public building in San Bernardino. As President Obama’s speech asserts, blaming an entire religion for the crimes of an individual can only serve the cause of those who seek to instill fear and hatred, while undermining the efforts to build peace.
