Author and religious scholar Reza Aslan said on Sunday that pundits and leaders who claim Muslims haven’t condemned the attacks in Paris “don’t own Google.”
“Let’s be clear that every single organization, major organization, Muslim organization throughout the world and in the United States, every prominent individual, be it political or religious leaders, everyone has condemned not just this attack but every attack that occurs in the name of Islam,” Aslan told host Chuck Todd on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
“Anyone who keeps saying that we need to hear the moderate voice of Islam, ‘why aren’t Muslims denouncing these violent attacks,’ doesn’t own Google,” he said, to laughs from the panel.
Aslan’s fellow panelist Arsalan Iftikhar — a Muslim human rights lawyer who on Thursday was inexplicably asked if he supported ISIS by CNN anchor Don Lemon — agreed that Muslims are held to a different standard than other believers when members of their faith commit crimes.
“The answer to Islamic bigotry is Islamic pluralism, and so that’s why I put the onus on the Muslim community,” Aslan continued, “but I also recognize that that work is being done, that the voice of condemnation is deafening.”
“If you don’t hear it, you’re not listening,” he added.
Watch the clip, courtesy of Media Matters:
The trouble is that people are portraying rare nutjob attacks into actions that all muslims are responsible for, and they are doing this out of political motivations.
Hawkish rightwing groups love to hype any attack by a Muslim kook yet they crawl under the rock of denial when a McVeigh or a Jerald Miller makes an attack.
It took me a while and several searches for more on this interview to find out what “don’t own Google” meant here. I thought of owning google as having an equity stake. He means, “have google on their device.” I don’t think of that as “owning Google.”
I actually did look for these condemnations after the attack–I really hoped to find some-- and found quite a few. I was heartened by that. I also learned to how the Grand Mosque in Paris was a sanctuary for Jews in WWII. I certainly didn’t know that before.
And how cool would it to be named Aslan?
They’re not held to a DIFFERENT standard. They’re held to one. Chopping off people’s heads, flying planes into buildings, killing two thousand people, execution style, in Nigeria, blowing up buses in Russia, attacking markets in China, bombing marathons, killing journalists…that shit is wrong. It’s simple. STOP CHOPPING OFF PEOPLE’S HEADS!!!
My fellow liberals seem to have a knee-jerk reaction to criticism of Islam: “Ooh, christian conservatives don’t like it, so I must defend it.” No, you don’t. Anymore than you need to defend Christianity or Buddhism or Hinduism.
Religions in general are stupid…but Islam…Jesus fucking christ. Stop killing people!
While we’re discussing collective responsibility, I look forward to Christians everywhere being asked repeatedly to condemn child rape.