Why don't Muslims speak up against terrorism?
Most of the leaders of the Muslim world protested against the 9/11 attack and expressed their sympathies to the US, even the Iranian Ayatollahs. Protests, comments and explanations by Muslims leaders and scholars may be found at CAIR's website and islamfortoday website.
Muslims have continued to condemn acts of terrorism, for example, there has been condemnation by the leaders of Muslim countries, like President Musharraf, by leading Muslim scholars like Grand Sheikh Mohammed Sayed Tantawi of the Al-Azhar mosque of Cairo, and by American Muslim organizations like ISNA, by Muslim leaders like Hamza Yusuf, and repeatedly by the preachers in local mosques in America, and including ours in Colorado Springs.
Americans have the perception that Muslim did not and do not speak out against terrorism. This is partly because of the sensationalist style of the American media. If thousands of top Muslim leaders condemn terrorism, it is not news and does not get reported in the US media, but if one crazy person in a cave makes wild statements, that is what the US media reports, so the American public is left with an unbalanced view of Islam and Muslims. Even the European media is more balanced than the US media in its coverage of serious versus sensationalist news, and in providing a broader perspective.
If the American media, on which most Americans rely solely for news, does not report the condemnation of terrorism by Muslims, or if Americans have not been listening to what little is reported, should that be taken to imply that Muslims have not condemned terrorism, as some would like to have Americans believe?
In a way, it is good that the likes of Lt. Gen. John Abizaid repudiated declarations by Zarqawi about permissibility of terrorist operations which will have incidental civilian casualties. If the American media and public have not been taking statements by Muslim scholars and leaders seriously, perhaps they will accept statements by one of their own as being a true statement about Islam.