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Ex-prof: Most Muslims ignore call to arms 

By Tom Carpenter
The Daily Cougar

Osama bin Laden's exhortations urging Muslims to rise and fight the U.S.-led coalition formed to attack Iraq fell on deaf ears, said Aziz Siddiqi, president of the Islamic Society of Greater Houston.

"Have you seen anybody rising?" Siddiqi asked. "No. That's because Muslims are peaceful people. He's not a leader. That's his opinion. It doesn't mean anything. Al-Qaida -- it's not religious. There are fanatics in every society. You don't label them with religion."

Siddiqi, a former faculty member at the UH College of Engineering, compared bin Laden to zealots such as David Koresh and Adolf Hitler, who used religion to achieve their goals.

"It's the same, if you apply the analogy," Siddiqi said. "They urged Christians to rise up, but nobody did. We don't think much of him (bin Laden), and as Americans we condemn everything about 9/11. Nobody approved of Hitler, but no one blamed his religion."

President Bush stressed that Muslims should not be hated or blamed during the emotional weeks after the suicide attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, when the airwaves filled with strident criticisms of Islamic fundamentalists and Muslims in general.

Bush, to reassure Americans and Muslims, stated over and over in his news conferences that the war against al-Qaida and terrorism was secular.

With coalition troops massed to launch an invasion of Iraq, and the U.S. war against al-Qaida entering its second year, Siddiqi said Muslims need to inform Americans about the tenets that promote peace and tolerance found in the Quran by the prophet Mohammed.

"The Muslim community needs to get the word out. We need to get involved in the educational programs. That's the problem," Siddiqi said. "Most of the public doesn't know about Muslims except what they see on the television. The media must also do a better job of educating the public about Muslims."

Muslims believe they descended from Abraham and that Jesus was a prophet. Siddiqi said Muslims believe Mohammed was the last prophet and the Quran was the last prophetic book.

"We all believe in the same creator, the almighty God, and essentially have the same beliefs," Siddiqi said. "We believe in life after death, angels and the holy scripture. You'll find very little contradiction.

"Our religion is absolutely not about terrorism. People do these things in every religion. That's what disturbs Muslims: Why do other people blame the religion? I don't know."

Predominantly Muslim nations such as Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Syria and Jordan joined the coalition formed to destroy the weapons of mass destruction that the United Nations suspects Saddam Hussein possesses.

"War is a government policy. In general, people don't like war. President Kennedy said war is not a solution," Siddiqi said. "Sometimes war is inevitable, but we should always try our utmost to prevent it. I don't think the Muslim community is any different than any other religion in that respect."

Siddiqi said the Iraqi situation could be compared with the Palestinian attacks, when religion is eliminated.

"Iraq has Christian and Muslim citizens like the Palestinians," Siddiqi said. "Nobody knows if the Palestinian suicide bomber is Christian or Muslim, and nobody asks. It's political."

As far as he knows, Siddiqi said most Muslims feel safe in the United States and haven't experienced any discrimination since the attacks on the Pentagon and New York City.

"I don't worry about my safety," Siddiqi said. "I think the world could live much closer to each other and try to remove barriers. We can come a lot closer, but we're much closer than a few centuries ago."

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