Thank you,
Javeed Qamar
850-272-6979
4392B Clinton St.
Marrianna, FL 3244

In Cambodia, the Cham Muslim people have lived peacefully along the Yangtze for hundreds of years. In Bulgaria, the Muslim minority lives peacefully in the mountains, though they suffer from poverty and discrimination from the central government. In China, the Hui Muslims are well integrated into society. Almost every non-Muslim nation has a Muslim minority.

Many Muslim majority countries have harbored people of other religions for millenia. In the 15th century, Jews seeking refuge from the persecution of the Catholic inquisition fled from Spain and settled in Morocco. They are still there today, thriving and unmolested by the Muslim majority. Syria is another country that has sheltered Christians, Jews and others.

So why the conflicts? The hot spots are areas where the Muslims have been colonized, brutalized, their customs and religion suppressed, their land stolen… Chechnya, with 300 years of Russian imperialism, has suffered abominably. Stalin shipped the entire Chechen population to camps in Siberia. They were only allowed back years later, and only half the population survived. They have suffered terribly under the Russians. Personally, I believe it’s time for Russia to grant them freedom and independence. They have never wanted to be part of Russia.

Palestine, Afghanistan, Iraq, Xinjiang, Mindanao… these are all areas where Muslims have been oppressed, invaded, taken over, etc.

As for the rest of the Muslim world, it’s groaning under the weight of dictatorships installed by the British, French and Americans after they carved up the Ottoman Caliphate. They drew up borders deliberately designed to create conflict and weakness. They engineered coups, installed puppets, and continue to support tyrants.

It’s easy for an American or Westerner to point to someone who has been invaded and brutalized and blame them for not being peaceful. Imagine the tables turned, with the USA invaded by a foreign power, citizens herded into camps (like the Palestinians), their homes demolished, farms burned and crops razed, people rounded up and tortured and “disappeared”, women raped by foreign troops… do you think Americans would be peaceful under those circumstances?

My point is not to defend violence, and certainly not to defend terrorism. My point is that we need to look at the root causes and address them if we want to make any progress.