Is it my perception or are Muslims not taking an active and VISIBLE role against terrorism in the world?

It is a good question, and something that I as a muslim, get very upset about.

Firstly as I am sure you know Islam Completely against Violence.

I think we as muslims do not do enough to make this clear to non- muslims. And we let the fanatics takes over Islam.

There is a victim mentality, that is always blaming somebody else for what is going wrong. Also there is a problem that muslims to not like to criticise other muslims, even if there are doing something totally wrong.

I live in England, and I have muslim friends who will not condemn the suicide bombers in London because they are muslim, and they say they must have right reasons in their mind for that act.

Many people protest about the Americans in Iraq, quite rightly, but more muslims are killed by other muslims like Zarqawi. I don't see too many people outside Iraq rushing to protest against his actions. Most people are against is actions but why are they quiet. He is as big a evil as Bush.

For the cartoons I was against them, and I am lucky to live in a country where they are not published, but by protesting against in the way they proved the cartooners right. (it was unaccept for some muslims to say kill all danish) And why do people not get as upset bu terrorist attacts in the name of Islam?? These are REALLY a blaspheme against god.

Also it is very unfortunate that some muslims make simular cartoons against jews. The Iranian newspapers response to run a cartoon about the horoculst was appalling and un Islamic. I sometimes think Muslims have double stands like the their criticise the west as having.

The media DO high light bad behaviour by muslims over good,

But we are often to blame because WE donot make our voice strong enough when other muslim do bad things in the name of Islam.

It is easy to fall in a victim mentality, when people attack us and become defensive.

BUT it is better for us to PROVE the attackers wrong by confronting people who misuse islam..

I am not a Muslim but I do want to say AMEN brother because while they might not condone it, just sitting there and not taking an active role in stopping it is just as bad. In my eyes it is just like a bully at school picking on some poor kid and the others instead of uniting and stopping the bully, they sit there and let it happen. Or another example would be the German people during the Holocaust allowing Hitler to do what he did, murder 6 million people (I am half German by the way) while they turned their heads the other way. I believe that there ARE good Muslims in this world who hate what there brothers are doing and they are getting a bad rap for being Muslim. However, they as a people need to stand together and decry these atrocities and help the world rid ourselves of these cowardly terrorists. If they take a stand and say 'no more' then eventually peoples minds will change for the terrorists are raised to believe what they are doing is right. If you raise a child in peace and love then that will eradicate the next generation of extremist. They are taught at a very young age to hate the western culture and what is scary is that they truly believe what they are doing is right. This needs to stop and the only way it will is if other Muslims take a stand to stop it.

Actually its quite simple to measure muslims approval of terrorism and their view of its rightful place in Islam. Polls unanimously confirm their hatred us, but there is even a better source.

FATWAS. Anything that truely qualifies a something that "is hyjacking their religion" is immediately dealt with by the issuance of FATWAS (DECREES).

Muslims issue fatwas for the smallest most insignifcant things, thosands a year are issued around the world. IF terrorism truely was against Islam, there would have been an avalanche of fatwasa and rage around the world. Like their was with the cartoons, but worse. But ofcourse its the opposite.

Only recently has their been the issuance of any fatwas condemning terror, but that was after the terror attacks IN SAUDI ARABIA! The Saudis only then started twisting arms.

Islam is something. So much worse than people realise. Sooo much worse.

First of all, do you read the news? I'm guessing you don't, because if you did you would know that Muslims WORLD WIDE condemned the terrorists attack of 9/11, the Madrid bombings, the London bombings, etc. EVERYDAY Muslim organizations condemn suicide bombings and ask for peace. If you don't know about Muslims condemning terrorism, then it is your own fault. Watching FOX news (or even CNN) and skimming the headlines of the New York Times will NOT give you information about Muslims speaking out against terrorism. This is the type of information you have to look more closely for because of the bias in the media, in a Christian country and in the Bush administration.

Edit: I would just like to point out that your question is entirely about politics. Terrorism is a form of politics (just as war is a form of politics). If you are asking why Muslims "don't speak out" against terrorism, then you are essentially asking why anti-terrorist Muslims aren't fighting for power over the terrorists, and that is a political question.

Furthermore, terrorism is not limited to Muslims. There are terrorists of all faiths, nationalities and races. What do you ask of others who are not "fighting" terrorism?

Finally, how exactly does one "fight" terrorism? Truly peaceful, anti-terrorist people can only condemn acts of terrorism and imprison any terrorist they find/catch. We are limited to protests and marches and simply asking for peace. Anything else would be just as terrorist.

EDIT number Two: OF course you heard about all the noise over the cartoons. Those acts of violence were against a Western country. This is exactly the media bias I am talking about. Violence, even if it not against the Western world, ALWAYS makes it into the news because Violence = Ratings. You won't hear about peaceful marches and protests because they won't make good ratings.

Again, anti-terrorists cannot just go around finding all the terrorists, rounding them up and getting rid of them. That is JUST as terrorist. "Fighting" terrorism is not about war or noise, it must start at fundamental levels. The schools of thought and teachinsg which honor terrorism must be reformed (or eliminated? Not sure how to eliminate them.) as well as Western politics before we can expect ISLAMIC terrorism to dissipate.

Islam is against the Terrorism..

Terror in the name of Islam both to explain why 9/11 occured and to place the attacks within their broader context.This understanding is now even more important becuase of what has happened since 9/11.the continued threat of terrorism internationally and doemstically, the American led war against terrorism, and the expnential growht of anti americanism and hatred of amierca globally.

Since the initial publication of unholy war, many have continued to equate the relegion of Islam with global terrorism.At the same time, American statements and plicies have reinforced in Muslims the conviction that the american lad war is in fact a war against ISLAM.

The white house and pentagon apologized for the early use of such inflammatory terms..anyways, The question is what Muslims have done against the terrorism.

dear fellows don't you see how the Pakistani Muslims acted against the terrorism! White house declared that we even haven't captured that much AL qaeeda members like Pakistani militry militry helped us!

The main members of AL-QAEEDA have been arrested in Pakistan by Pakistani army..

The Muslims of Indonesia fully denied the worlds terrirosm..

The Mulims of Egypt yet offering their services agains the terrorism..

The Muslims of Turkey too denied the way the massacring happeing as the name of Terrorism!!!

The Muslims of the entire globe need peace! as we Muslims believe on peace..

ISLAM ZINDABAD.

I have a question for you: how did you form your perception? From what angle have you looked at things? Have you ever been to any Islamic country? Do you have access to media in the Muslim world, and if you do would you take it seriously or just consider it terrorist propaganda?

I will only talk about my country. Here, in Palestine, we are resisting as much as we can terrorism acts by the criminal Zionist body and its criminal supporters in the White House. I cried at seeing the scenes of 9/11, but your president named Sharon, the criminal who murdered my people, a man of peace. Who's the one that should be acting?

Muslims, as a whole, are hateful. They hate everyone else and even hate each other.

That is a hard but accurate fact.

Using Bush and America as an excuse is rediculous when this stuff has been going on for centuries. They just have high tech toys now.

Let's address the real problem accurately and deal with it.

Only then can we all find peace.

Do you mean that a strong condemnation comes only by joining the Bush's war on terror (so called!!!).

As far as the image problem is concerned, I think you also admit that nowadays media can paint any image of anything and let the whole world believe it. So whatever media is telling us - we're believing it (please be assured that I'm not offending any one).

And last but not the least, according to Islamic teachings if some one has killed an innocent man - it is equivalent to killing the whole mankind.

Saudi Arabia has not only came out strong against terrorism but has arrested many terrorist.I get Saudi news on line but not any other Arab nations ,so it just might be that we are not getting the whole picture.If we have not heard of the active role Saudi is taking against it ,other countries could be and we never hear about it.

you are totally right. i am a Muslim, and i am trying to explain that Islam do not approve terror and violence; and that is why i had been writing answers to questions which were too disrespectful, for about two hours. as i see, the perception of Islam is not an image that none of us Muslims do favor. In my country TURKIYE %99.9 percent of the population is Muslim and do not wellcome terrorist actions. from the level of government to the level of a man walking on his way to home we do try to explain this issue, but on european media ( esp. the readable and visual press) our affords are not released and not thought to be valueable. and that is just because the way that they want their nations and the rest on the continent to see and think muslims as terrorists, so that their political worries are easily solved, the attraction of the population is drawn to a far point. let me give you a simple example; when i watch the broadcasting tv from europe or america if any news on Turkiye is to be shown always but always the ugliest sites, the poorest people, the most radical groups, the minorities, ruined and not more used houses, the minor group of women within veil, men with long dirty moustaches and beards ... etc are shown. this is totally too subjective and has too many aims like to spoil the image of Turkiye, Turks, Muslims. once i had seen that in Germany a photo of an Arabic middleaged man was used by a political party in its election propaganda on street posters something about Turks, something humiliating written down on it. and a Turkish TV program looked for and found up that man on the photo who even don't know a word of Turkish. and i think that this is not the true platform to discuss this item. this kind of multi-origined issues needs more time and face to face conversations. i hope you will come to Turkiye even for a day off and see how real Islam and modernism are together here.

and do you know that those damn terrorists who are hiding behind the name of Islam had lots of terror actions in TURKIYE and killed lots of people here too, in a Islamic country. and Turkiye had arrested lots of them and had been arresting lots for years.

Most of you people are pathetic. I coudn't stand to read all of the junk that is rolling out of your mouths or in this case off or your finger tips...I have traveled to Saudi Arabia, Kuait, Quatar, UAE, Oman, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgestan, Egypt, and more Islamic countries than i care to mention...this isn't terrorism this is WAR. the Islamic world hates everyone who isn't them...You may have seen them condemn 9/11 on TV, but you didn't see the celebrations in the streets of their despicable countries, IT MAKES ME SICK!!

One mans terrorist is another mans freedom fighter and that is how the Islamics see terrorism, they see them as combatants against everyone who isn't like them...so do you know what the answer to this question is? The answer is to eliminate all Islamics in the world...i like to look at it this way, if you have serial killers in your neighborhood you don't watch them go house to house killing your neighbors and hope they won't come to your door, you get your neighbors together and HUNT THEM DOWN AND EXTERMINATE THEM before its too late......When are you going to wake up America???? will you have to see your friends and families jumping from a burning building or your friends and family coming back to the US in a box draped in an American flag marked "Members missing"

Maybe we need to have more terrorist attacks, aka “acts of war” carried out on American soil...actually, maybe we need to just do away with American all together, evidently the citizens don't care anymore, if you like Islam so much and want to defend it try moving over there and trying to live being a white man...you will want to kill yourself…if you support Islam then you are just as evil and despicable a race as they are…you have no right to be an American, this country was founded on Christian views and the freedom to practice them..of the writers of the constitution expressed a belief in the Christian faith and a desire to the US to be a Christian country…just do some research on your own and you will find it…freedom to practice religion was meant to be freedom to practice the Christian faith as you saw fit, they had no idea other religions would try to pervert out country at the time they wrote the constitution and the bill of rights or else they would have set aside provisions to ensure the proper faith of the US