Muslims United for San Bernardino Raise Over $100k for Victims’ Families
Muslims reject being “lumped in” with Islamist terrorists
Kemberlee noted on Monday that some “American Muslims band together to call out extremists,” and in addition to these efforts, another Muslim group is working to raise money for the families of the victims of radical Islamic terrorism.
The Los Angeles Times reports:
Faisal Qazi had no idea the shooters who massacred 14 people in San Bernardino last week were Muslims, like himself. The Pomona-based neurologist only knew that the victims and their families were his Inland Empire neighbors, and his faith obligated him to help.
Qazi started small, hoping to raise $20,000 through his health nonprofit. But Islamic scholars and leaders urged him to broaden the effort – especially after it was revealed that the assailants were Muslims — and the campaign quickly became the most successful crowd-funding venture Muslim Americans have ever launched for the broader community.
In just four days, the Muslims United for San Bernardino campaign has raised more than $100,000 from more than 1,000 donors across the country, including in Florida, Michigan, Ohio and Tennessee. The money will be disbursed through San Bernardino County and the United Way to assist victims’ families with funeral expenses and other needs, Qazi said.
In addition to this group’s efforts, the LA Times reports that leading Islamic scholars also urged their followers to help with the campaign’s fund-raising efforts:
Several leading Islamic scholars also pitched the campaign in their Friday sermons last week.
“Since 9/11, we’ve felt we need to come out of our cocoons,” said Shaykh Mohammed Faqih of the Islamic Institute of Orange County. “We’re as American as anyone else … but if society is not feeling it, it means I’m not doing enough.”
Donors include Marya Ayloush, a 20-year-old student at Santa Monica Community College who gave $50 after seeing the campaign posted on Facebook. “This is an actual, tangible action we can do to show non-Muslims that we have your back,” she said. “In every situation where the terrorist happens to be a Muslim, every person, whether they admit it or not, is afraid they’ll be lumped in with these guys.”
Ayloush’s concern is a very real one that, as I noted previously, is not helped by the Obama administration’s (including Hillary’s) refusal to make a distinction between radical Islamic terrorists bent on violent jihad and the Muslims who not only reject this evil but are eager to demonstrate that they don’t appreciate being “lumped in” with radical Islamist terrorists.
[Featured image via The Los Angeles Times]
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Comments
I am glad you are carrying this story. “By their fruits you will know them.”
We need to be able to distinguish between allies and enemies.
Sorry to burst your bubble, Valerie. This is blood money. It’s not about being good neighbors; it’s still about taqqiyah.
How come?
The tradition in many Mid East countries is to pay the blood price when someone is murdered. The family of the slaughtered have a choice: accept blood money or demand the death of the killer. In this case, the killers are dead. The Muslim community, in the wake of Trump and American disgust with them, have decided to offer blood money as a sop so they can prove thr bona fides.
Remember 9/11 when one of the Saudi terror masters offers Giuliani $10M and some unwise words? Remember that Giuliani told him stick it where the sun doesn’t shine? That $10M was blood money.
The response of the families in SB must be the same.
This is really not comparable to the public offer from the Saudis. I’m willing to believe there are 1,000 born-Muslims around the country who have been moved by basic human decency.
I have been in the home of a foreign-born Muslim who was cordial to people he knew to be non-Muslim, and who quoted French poetry and Shakespeare, and had a convert-wife who wore normal clothes. Many people who are born into Islam do have a conscience and try to be kind.
That said, I still think there’s overwhelming evidence that Islam generally has been a retrograde and violent force in history.
I’m glad for you. I grew up in a country with them and only began to understand their attitudes when I read their book. He can quote all the Shakespeare he wants: his book says kill, and he remains faithful to it; for, he did not convert and would not permit his wife to remain whatever religion she had/did not have. So, let him quote French poetry and Shakespeare, both of which I love. He is what he is and until he converts, there’s nothing to say.
His wife converted before she had any plans to marry him.
I’m quite aware of the attitudes taught by orthodox Islam. My point is that it’s possible for some people born into Islam to retain a basic human conscience, especially if the Islam practiced around them was not very strict.
This man came from a place where getting a British education was highly valued. He enjoyed having long discussions about literature etc. with people he knew to have habits that Islam considers haram (e.g. drinking wine). I also knew someone who was drawn to aspects of Islam (especially the more abstract doctrines of Sufism), but basically ignored the more violent and coercive parts.
Exactly. It’s a delay of game penalty, nothing more. Islam plays the long game (like 25-50-100-1,000 years long). We don’t even see that we’re in the game. Giving these monsters an inch will be our demise.
Isn’t this a continuation of the discussion we had several days ago regarding Dr. Jasser and his organization? My sort of closing argument there was that the Constitution trumps the Koran here in the United States – always. It seems to me that the rule of law it demands is the device that protects both parties here – Muslims willing to accept it as superior to the Koran where they conflict, and those willing to accept the profession of that willingness at face value. The underlying problem is willing abandonment of those laws by this administration and its agents. If the law is adhered to it will flesh out those who would do us harm in the mane of Islam, neither quickly nor easily, perhaps, but it will. At the same time it will protect those Muslims who sympathize with the victims of tyrannical Islam from those who would do them harm for that expressing and acting on that sympathy. (But here we approach your do acts-speak-louder-than- words taqqiyah argument earlier this week.)
In the final analysis, genuinely sympathetic Muslims are going to have to stand by their words and deeds when assaulted by those Muslims who prosecute them for it. If our laws are intact the Constitution will protect them and prosecute their oppressors. The real irony is that our president and his administration are exacerbating the problems of both parties, and everyone else, by ignoring the Constitution and choosing which laws to enforce and which to ignore. His actions are those of an ignorant pathetic man and have done great harm to millions worldwide.
You’re correct, the post 9/11 ten million dollars from the Saudis (chump change) was blood money and Juliani was correct to tell them to stuff it. A lot has changed since then, and this offer MAY be different. Sooner or later we – both parties – are going to have to take a chance. Unfortunately for both parties, and everyone else, doing so may not be possible until we rid ourselves of this president and his administration and return to the rule of law.
Had Trump and the American people not been raising issues discomfiting Muslims, would the offer have been made? I argue no. Test case, Garland TX. You can insult my religion all you want, feel free. God is a big boy; He can and does defend Himself. Where were these Muslims on Garland?
Let them keep their blood money. This scorpion is not going to cross the river on my back.
Interesting that, once again, I agree with you. I’d go a bit farther and suggest that the reason Trump enjoys the popularity he does today is because all areas in the Obama administration-intelligence, security, justice, law enforcement-routinely ignore all our immigration laws and policies. Had they been adhered to we wouldn’t have the mess we do. Problem is, they did and we do.
Our differences seem to be, where do we start given the circumstances? Neither Obama nor anyone in his administration seem the least bit inclined the stop the immigration problem and enforce the laws of the land with respect to them; they’re just digging in. So, outside the realm of government, where do we begin?
Which countries have this blood money practice? It sounds like something important to understand. I gather it’s not part of Islam per se, so the question is whether most donors are from those countries.
Except for that, this seems like a highly meaningful gesture, much more important than the expressions of regret that one sees even on websites of mosques that are Islamist.
For decades now Muslims have seen this grow. First Abu Nidal then Hamas then Al Queda now ISIS.
For decades the Muslim outcry has been tepid. Now all of a sudden they start crying out. Why?
Up until now, they didn’t have to. They could get a away with silently cheering these groups on, while quietly shaking their heads in public.Now they see that if they don’t speak up, there is going to be blow back.
Too little too late.
You make the cardinal mistake of ASSuming if you don’t read about it or hear it broadcast it isn’t happening.
There are people of all faiths who do a LOT more good than we appreciate. They often do it in complete anonymity.
When we learn of it, we should applaud it.
Rags, I have a lot of respect for you but you are wrong. Do not confuse Islam with a religion or a faith. It’s a Death Cult, nothing more and nothing less. Those who don’t comprehend this will be consumed by it, along with some who do.
When it comes to calling out and targeting westernized, liberal or moderate Muslims, ISIS is far worse for them than al Qaeda was. Many Muslims in the west are looking at ISIS and realizing it’s no longer someone else’s problem.
Only because the West is rising up and pushing back. Without noxious LePen in France, Wilders in Holland, Trump in the USA, and others elsewhere, the barbarians would be cheering. They are seeing and hearing that we don’t want them amongst us. So, they have to play a different kind of game to lull us back to sleep. Some imam in TX came out in support of Trump. Uh huh. Yeah, riiiight. Their goal is that Islam must dominate. You can’t dominate when you’ve been expelled.
If you remove all the evil from Islam (terror, genocide, slavery, pedophilia, rape, female mutilation, etc.), what is left?? NOTHING. It is not reformable. If you removed all Muslims from the planet, would there be peace? No. There would be nothing but death and full annihilation. It is purely all they have.
“This is an actual, tangible action we can do to show non-Muslims that we have your back,” she said.
While I appreciate their efforts in helping the victim’s families, wouldn’t it be so much better if there were no victims in the first place?
As old Ben Franklin said: An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
I don’t want any Muslim at my back.
I don’t want any Muslim within 5,000 miles of me and mine.
If someone decides to act with the Angels, they decide to act with the angels. And that I can accept.
Trump suggests a temporary pause on importing Muslims.
FDR had a pause.
Jimmy Carter had a pause.
Did Trump say Muslims in USA already? Nope.
—
For consideration, from Nolte at Breitbart:
1. Americans Muslims are 5,000 Percent More Likely to Commit a Terror Attack
2. ISIS Is Already Everywhere In the United States
3. 51% of American Muslims Back Some Form of Sharia
4. A Quarter of American Muslims Are Comfortable With Violence
5. Disturbing Percentages of the World’s Muslims Support ISIS
6. Disturbing Percentages of the World’s Muslims Support Suicide Bombings
7. Only 81% of American Muslims Agree That Violence Against Civilians Is Never Justified
8. Disturbing Percentages of the World’s Muslims Back Sharia Law
9. America Admits Thousand of Immigrants From Countries Where Muslim Favor Sharia
…
oh, and ask all your Muslim pals about Taquiya – PURPOSEFUL lying to promote and implement Sharia law…
by the way, have you seen what the French have found raiding a few mosques?
“peaceful religion” my arse…
“peaceful religion” my arse…
And that’s bottom line. How is it that members of the murder cult imagine they can give good wishes to victims while remaining in the cult? Republicans offered prayers and were castigated to no end. But the folks who adhere to the cult? Sorry, but condolences just don’t cut it.
But herein lies the danger, the trap, really, that the Obama administration is setting (whether intentionally or not). By refusing to label the radical Islamist terrorist death cult as having anything to do with Islam, we are led to believe that all Muslims are “the same.” That’s clearly not true or we’d have more terrorist attacks than we could even conceive of on any given day.
I remember back in the ’80s when supposed “Christians” were bombing and shooting up abortion clinics. As a Christian, I was mortified, but what could I do? Not a whole lot. I was a private citizen in the days before crowd-funding and social media; all I could do was feel sorry for the victims, while (yes) understanding the perpetrators’ motivation . . . and simultaneously, condemning their means.
Clearly, radical Islam is a bigger problem, but if I could have donated to those abortionists’ families online, I probably would have. The actions of these killers in Christ’s name didn’t make me less of a Christian, and they certainly didn’t make me a part of their misguided evil or make me–for even one second–think of renouncing my faith.
We do, as a society, have to think about the goal of Islam, whether it be through peaceful or terroristic means, but we’d do well, I think, to avoid lumping all Muslims in with ISIS. It is a statistical fact that they kill more Muslims who refuse their ideology than any other group. Don’t we need to understand why and help those who are being attacked, as we are, by ISIS? Once they are defeated, we can address the need to make clear that Sha’ria is not compatible with U. S. law. And never will be.
No, Fuzzy, there’s no comparison. Christian doctrine doesn’t permit vigilante bombings and killings. But Muhammadan doctrine clearly does, and they’ve been regularly smiting infidels for 1300 years. That some Muslims contrive a “peaceful” version of this is an aberration, in the same fashion as pro-abortion or socialist Catholics are an aberration. Islam is defined by what it teaches and does, and those who won’t admit that are either deluded or dishonest.
You get it. Fuzzy is in the same mindset as every lib and lefty who are aiding and abetting our destruction with lack of logic.
What an appallingly ignorant statement!
See Ireland, The Troubles.
Christians kill each other with remarkable alacrity and verve, whether you want to pretend their doctrine doesn’t allow it or not.
Rags, you appear to be ignorant of the vast differences between the core doctrines of Christianity and the core doctrines of Islam.
The specifically Christian scriptures have precisely no commands to violence. The Koran and haditha have many. Muhammmad was a warrior. Jesus was a rabbi. The earliest centuries of Islam are dominated by rapid, brutal conquest. The earliest centuries of Christianity were characterized by emphatic pacifism, and by individual persuasion to convert.
Eventually, political authorities adapted Christianity and an element of coercion came in with the politics, or with the ambitions of Germanic chieftains. But the concept of Christian “holy war” appears to have been mostly a response to the Islamic jihad, which was pounding against Christian lands for a millennium.
I’m very aware that there have been religious wars in Christian history. But in the long term, it does make a great difference whether warfare and violence are specifically commanded by the religious scriptures — or at odds with the fundamental religious teachings.
Orthodox Islam COMMANDS jihad and the killing of blasphemers and apostates. Christianity teaches “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.”
Violence and conquest are much more persuasive and deeply embedded in Islam than they are in Christianity. When Muslims become more devout, they may also become more violent. When Christian become more devout, they’re likely to become more charitable, adopt at-risk children, etc.
Furthermore, Rags, it isn’t a case of “pretending” that the doctrine doesn’t allow it. It’s a matter of actually KNOWING the basic doctrines of Christianity vs. those of Islam — which you appear not to.
If you can find some widely accepted Christian doctrine that commands conquest and the killing of blasphemers, maybe you’ll have an argument.
I’m not making “an argument”, nor am I bashing religious bullshit.
I’m citing history.
And I’m getting really tired of being preached to by you.
Hi Jerry, thanks for your comment! I was just trying to say that as a Christian, I didn’t want to be “lumped in” with people who so sorely misrepresented our religion. I’m not making excuses, I’m just saying that there are probably Muslims who feel the same way.
Christian doctrine certainly doesn’t permit atrocities, but there are so-called “Christians” who do read (really misread) the Bible in that way (the lunatic Westboro cult comes to mind). I just think it’s possible that not every single Muslim in the world is evil. We have so many “honor killings” in this country that get no media attention; these are young Muslim girls who want to be a part of our culture and society but are slaughtered by their fathers before they have a chance at life or freedom.
And @peg. My “mindset” is that I oppose Sha’ria, I oppose the Islamification of the West, and I oppose any and all attempts by any Muslim to undermine our Constitution. I absolutely oppose the failed experiment of multiculturalism, and I firmly believe that anyone who comes to America, no matter where they are from or of what religion, should assimilate into our culture. Period. What about that is leftist?
Hi Fuzzy. I understand your motivation. In the 90’s I was quite active in pro-life. I knew many Operation Rescue folks. I never heard a peep of violent intent.
The point is a mental exercise. What would you have done if you heard of any violent intent among pro-lifers? If you’re like me, you’d talk to your trusted friends and either drive out the violent ones, or leave yourself. If violence happened, you’d be first to help the police. Right? Then why do Muslims keep going to mosques where known terrorists and their supporters frequent?
Vigilante killlings?
No it doesn’t.
There are two important deviations by the terrorists from standard Islam:
1) Individual jihad. This is only supposed to be under the leadership of a caliph, or at least a ruler. The opposite of vigilante. That’s why they used to swear alligiance to Mullah Omar, or now Baghdadi. Anther loophole is to claim this is all defense.
2) Systematic attacks in civilians as a method of waging war. The fatwas originally legitimizing this were first written in invented in Berlin in 1914 by Max von Oppenheim and translated into Arabic and several langages from tghe original German.
Now you may also think of vengeance – but that is actually quite improper, as death sentences must be imposed by a court. Sometimes ISIS pretends to do that.
Now there’s one little thing.
http://www.mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt0435.htm
They don’t have that. They ahve teh opposite. It is ermitted. The U.s. government has taken advantage of this when it wass accused of killing people. They can accept payemnbt even whle maintaining it was murder.
Now the question is:
What happpens if the person entitled to receive compensation and the murderer are one and the same? </b
You can get to honor killings or even revenge killings tahtthe family is forced to acdept.
S.F.: Vigilante referred to attacks on abortion mills (see Fuzzy Slippers), not terrorism.
If a Muslim finds elementary Islam repulsive they could always choose apostasy. Why not choose apostasy?
http://www.jihadwatch.org/2014/12/mauritania-sentences-man-to-death-for-apostasy
I would prefer to hear a public declaration of apostasy.
I think a lot of people born into Islam may be conflicted at a deep level, and not just because of the death penalty for apostasy.
If your parents and grandparents and many generations before you were Muslim, and most everyone around you is Muslim, the sense of identifying as Muslim can go very deep, though in various times and places the actual practice of the doctrines may be lax. And if your parents and grandparents treated you well and seemed to be decent people, and they taught you to associate being decent with being Muslim (in a loosely understood way), then you might find it difficult to think that being Muslim is a bad thing.
So you might adhere to a sanitized version of Islam and tell yourself it’s the real Islam, instead of rejecting wholesale the core of your cultural identity, and in effect renouncing your family.
I don’t believe that all of the 1.5 billion people who have been born into the shackles of Islam are lacking in conscience. But I do believe we have an obligation to ourselves to be wary of every one of them.
Very well said! Not every one of them is bad. But the critical mass of them is a small number, and the rest always capitulate. What other religion on the planet has the death penalty as a punishment for apostasy? This is why it’s not a religion; it’s a death cult. There’s only one way out and the whole cult is a choice between lifelong slavery and servitude or and annihilation. Some religion, eh? I pity any soul born into the body of a Muslim. And we cannot trust a single one.
What never ceases to amaze me is the Rasputin-like ability of Islam to hypnotize millions of non-Muslims into self-annihilation.
That should be *or annihilation.*
Color me cynical.
Maybe it’s time for reformist Muslims to take a different name.
It’s not reformable.
An effective liar mixes some truth into the lie to distract and confuse. I see a pattern of evil. I want to see a pattern of good before I conclude something different. The good actions are good but the context and the big picture is where I live.
Also, $100,000 over all of the victims is not much compensation but the total amount does make for good PR. Anomalies, whether good or bad, must not be ignored but they do not set a standard. I will watch for the positive pattern I hope to see but I am not ignoring the evidence I do see including the Taquiya.
Measured skepticism. If sincere, I am deeply empathetic to those standing up. Remember- no one kills more Muslims than the Muslim’s do.
That’s their problem.
Meantime, the only way to get them to behave is to kill a lot of them, willfully, as Jefferson found. We can do that.
This makes me happy to see…you can’t lump an entire group of people based on their racial and religious origins.
Christians better watch their step on this one, or it will be the Obamas of the world calling for Trump-style measures on them.
I’m very conservative, but I hate seeing bigotry rear its ugly head around these parts.
“Muslims reject being “lumped in” with Islamist terrorists.”
Fair enough. Now, when Muslims start turning in the Muslim terrorists hiding and making their plans in Mosques, that will go a long way towards believing they care about saving innocent lives. The Imams and others know who they are.
Six years ago, a retired FBI agent told me that some of the best sources for stopping a domestic terror attack are tips from citizens. American Muslims provide good tips on potential Islamist-inspired terrorists. They know their community. Counterterrorism isn’t cops on the beat, but there are similarities.
That made sense to me. In 2003, I had a cup of coffee with an Arab Muslim friend of mine. I asked him for an update on The Quest — his long pursuit of a permanent resident green card. He sighed and then said, softly, “There are 25,000 Arab Muslim men in my group (green card applicants), (and) 24,991 of them are like me, Austin. We know what it is like — to live in fear of terrorists, criminals, dictators. We left to come here … to get away from them. But the other nine? They are very dangerous people.” He paused and then added, with unmistakable resignation, “I guess that’s just my lot in life.”
I heard the resignation and told him I could vouch for him. No need. His attorney told him to continue to work hard and wait.
I asked him where he got the number “nine.” I knew he meant potential terrorists and spies. He thought for a moment and then replied: “Well … it seems about right. There are not many (violent Islamist extremists). … They’re crazy, you know.” We explored his gut estimate. If nine out of 25,000 is right, then we’ve got 90 in 250,000. Ninety heavily armed fanatics can seize a city. Yes, “very dangerous people.”
He eventually secured his green card. Then he went to Iraq as a translator. He is very proud of that service. A few weeks ago, he wrote me an email and said he expects to become a citizen at some time next year.
We need to do a better job vetting immigrants. That isn’t bigotry; that’s sanity. However, loyal, responsible immigrants strengthen America. Americans who happen to be Muslims are — like my friend — a key line of defense in stopping Islamic State-influenced terror attacks.
http://www.strategypage.com/on_point/2015120901828.aspx
Because you don’t know about it, that doesn’t mean it isn’t happening.
Please send my kind regards to your friend. There are far too many of our help meets in the MidEast and Afghanistan that are being abandoned after their assistance and dedication to democratic reform. I could not wonder if we find less and less willing to do so.
“Because you don’t know about it, that doesn’t mean it isn’t happening.”
Or, maybe we don’t know about it because it doesn’t happen:
http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2015/12/07/fmr-fbi-counterterrorism-agent-weve-received-nearly-zero-help-from-u-s-muslim-community-since-911/
$120K? Please.
You can’t atone for the ruthless murder and crippling of 30 innocents for $120K.
If 1.6 BILLION Muslims can’t raise $100 Million dollars for the families of the deceased, that’s 6 cents each, then as far as I’m concerned they should throw the money back it their faces.