What Makes Muslims Barbarians?

Iraqi author Riyadh 'Abd wrote a post on April 23, 2007 on the liberal Arab website "Elaph" about the difference between the reaction of the families of Iraqi suicide bombers and the family of Virginia Tech killer Cho Seung-Hui. The post is translated by the invaluable MEMRI:

"What caught my attention was a report… that the criminal's family… offered its apologies and expressed grief, embarrassment, and shame, as well as consternation and incomprehension of their son Cho Seung-Hui's atrocious crime… This Korean family expressed a sense of sadness and grief, profound remorse, and a sense of partial responsibility for what their son did.

Let's compare this natural, human, civilized behavior that places value on human life with [that of] the families of Arabs in Islamic lands who lost their sons in Iraq in criminal suicide operations whose victims number tens of thousands of innocent Iraqi civilians.

Instead of the Iraqis receiving apologies and feelings of grief and consolation for these filthy criminals' killing and slaughtering of innocents and their demolishing and destroying of property, we see the families of these killers holding mourning ceremonies and bragging of the 'martyrdom' of their sons the mujahideen - [and at these ceremonies] they receive congratulations instead of condolences.

This strange behavior and sick pride in criminal acts can only be explained as a conclusive sign of the moral decline and deterioration of contemporary Islamic and Arab civilization."

There are hundreds of examples of this barbaric and disgraceful behavior, from Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and other Arab countries. Where is the apology from the family of the barbaric criminal, the beheader known as Abu Mus'ab Al-Zarqawi, to the Iraqi people for the crimes of mass murder, destruction of property, and cutting off [people's] livelihoods? Don't the Iraqis deserve an apology from the family, tribe, and village of this dirty scoundrel?

Where is the apology from the family of the Jordanian criminal who caused the deaths of 200 innocent civilians in Al-Hilla, in a suicide bombing in a popular market in 2005? It is known that there was a large mourning ceremony after the death of this criminal, that was attended by a number of important Jordanian statesmen…

I read an article from a few years ago about an attempt by CNN… to interview, in Cairo, the father of the criminal Muhammad 'Atta, the commander of the group responsible for [9/11]… It is known that this individual had at first spread made-up stories about the Mossad kidnapping his son, stories snatched up at the time by the Egyptian media, which is known for its addiction to invented stories and raving analyses…

Later he began to brag about what his son did, calling his abominable criminal act 'jihad.' When CNN asked him for an interview, he made it contingent upon them paying him $5,000 for it. When they told him that it is station policy not to pay interviewees, Muhammad 'Atta's father turned down the interview, claiming that a Muslim is not allowed to aid the infidels without remuneration. Did the Muslims disapprove of this disgraceful position?... I don't think so.

While the supporters of the logic of jihad against the infidels will consider my words heresy, others who do not agree with extremist Islam will set out to deny Islam's responsibility for these crimes and for the disgraceful behavior of these scoundrels' families. But the question remains: What is it that makes Muslims, and not the rest of humanity, prone to this kind of barbarism? What is it that makes them… interpret their religion in a manner that permits the commission of disgraceful acts and bragging of them?

I think that we have a right to demand answers from Islamic clerics and common Muslims who believe that 'Islam is the solution' [i.e. Islamists]."