Why Muslims are Still Mad at America

 

Editor’s Note: Steven Kull is director of the Program on International Policy Attitudes and author of the recently released book, Feeling Betrayed: The Roots of Muslim Anger at America.

By Steven Kull, Special to CNN

On the ten-year anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, many Americans are wondering whether the risk of a terrorist attack against America has been reduced.  The picture is mixed. With the death of Osama bin Laden, al Qaeda is weaker.  With revolutions in several Arab countries, frustrations with unpopular autocratic governments – a recruiting theme for terrorist groups – have been mitigated.  But one important contributing factor has not improved – widespread anger at America in the Muslim world.  While views have improved in Indonesia, throughout the Middle East and South Asia, hostility toward the United States persists unabated.

This does not mean that most Muslims support terrorist attacks on America. On the contrary, overwhelming majorities reject terrorism, including the 9/11 attacks, as morally wrong.  Al Qaeda is quite unpopular.

FULL ARTICLE FROM CNN 

Bin Laden’s Theology a Radical Break from Orthodox Islam

By Eric Marrapodi, CNN Belief Blog Co-Editor

(CNN) – Osama bin Laden wore the mantle of a religious leader. He looked the part and talked a good game, but his theology was a radical departure from traditional orthodox Islam.

The pitch to join al Qaeda did not start with an invitation to put on a suicide vest but, like other religious splinter groups and cults, took advantage of disenfranchisement and poverty.

Bin Laden had no official religious training but developed his own theology of Islam.

“We don’t know that (bin Laden) was ever exposed to orthodox Islamic teachings,” said Ebrahim Moosa, a professor of religion and Islamic studies at Duke University.

The writing of ideologues in the Muslim Brotherhood influenced bin Laden heavily, Moosa said.

“He takes scriptural imperatives at their face value and believes this is the only instruction and command God has given him – unmediated by history, unmediated by understanding, unmediated by human experience. Now that’s a difference between Muslim orthodoxy and what I would call uber- or hyperscripturalists,” Moosa said.

The vast majority of Islamic scholars and imams say the teaching of the Prophet Mohammed happened in historical context that needs to be understood when reading and interpreting the Quran.

FULL ARTICLE FROM CNN 

Mixed Muslim Reaction to Bin Ladin’s Death (BBC Video)

BBC Newsnight examines the reactions of Muslims. (video)

Anjem Choudary the former UK head of the Islamist group al-Muhajiroun and Dr Taj Hargey, chairman of the Muslim Educational Centre of Oxford and imam of the Oxford Islamic Congregation, spoke to Jeremy Paxman.

LINK TO VIDEO 

Muslim Leaders in Washington Say Bin Laden’s Death a Relief

WASHINGTON — The leaders of Muslim groups in Washington said Monday that the death of Osama bin Laden has brought their community a sense of relief and hope.

Bin Laden was never a “Muslim leader” and didn’t represent the Muslim community, various leaders said, but they added that they hope his death will put to rest any incorrect associations between their community and bin Laden’s anti-American views.

“American Muslims want to see: How will our neighbors respond to us now?” said Imam Johari Abdul-Malik, former chairman of the Council of Muslim Organizations for the Washington area. “Will they have learned enough to know that we are not part of al-Qaida — we are part of the United States of America.”

FULL ARTICLE FROM THE WASHINGTON POST