In a recent op-ed for CNN, Caner K. Dagli, associate professor of religious studies at the College of the Holy Cross, writes about whether or not Muslims should condemn terrorist acts.
In connection with the recent Paris killings, Dagli writes: “Demanding that innocent Muslims always make new statements about crimes they could not have stopped, from which they do not benefit, and have always condemned anyway, is an act by the powerful assigning collective guilt against the powerless.”
He continues, “They [mainstream commentators] should know that groups like ISIS and al Qaeda believe fanatically that most Muslims are misguided and hell-bound, and that only a small group (themselves) are members of an exclusive 'saved sect,' a belief that makes them immune to critique.”
He says it is Muslims themselves who stand to lose the most when crimes are committed by these vigilantes. “The vast majority of victims of jihadist groups are other Muslims, and when an attack takes place in the West it is the Muslim community that suffers the backlash from the societies in which they live.
This “Holy Cross in the News” item by Jacqueline Smith ’15.
