AS LONG AS DAESH (A/K/A ISIS, ISIL) WAS KILLING JEWS, Muslims around the world were silent. No matter that the attacks took place in Israel or someplace in Europe, or even in North America, the Muslim world was, at best, silent or, at worst, applauded as it did when Muslims piloted commercial airliners into the two Trade Center buildings and the Pentagon.
Now, however, non-Jews are being targeted along with Jews, and the world is starting to see the Islamist threat is not just against the Jews and Israel.
PERHAPS, and admittedly is is just speculation, the Muslim leadership is starting to realize that by indiscriminately targeting all "infidels" those "infidels" will start taking indiscriminate revenge on all Muslims.
TO BE FAIR I know that not EVERY Muslim is a terrorist, and I know that not every terrorist is a Muslim. Every country - and the United States is no exception - has its own homegrown crazies.
But until recently, any Muslim voices raised against Daesh have been like whispers in a hurricane.
Now, for whatever reason - the threat of backlash, the reality that the Arab world - and maybe the Muslim world as well - has had enough, is causing Muslims to speak out, boldly and loudly, against Daesh.
Imam Tareq Yousef Al-Masri speaks out against Islamist violence and tells his congregants that the reason Muslims are hated is because they hate. (A YouTube video worth watching>)
Unfortunately, there are other imans, in particular Imam Anjem Choudary of London.
In a AFP release headed Muslim Scholars Call to 'Kill and Crucify' ISIS Terrorists, Al-Azhar, Sunni Islam's most prestigious center of learning, has called for the killing and crucifixion of terrorists from the Islamic State group (ISIS), expressing outrage over their murder of a Jordanian pilot.
In a statement after the burning alive of Maaz al-Kassasbeh, the Cairo-based authority called for the "killing, crucifixion and chopping of the limbs of Islamic State terrorists".
The statement comes a month after Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi delivered a highly unusual and surprising speech to Islamic clerics at Al-Azhar University last week, in which he called on Muslim leaders to reform Islam to rid the Muslim world of terrorism.
Meanwhile, Jordan Executes Jihadist Prisoners in Response to ISIS murdering - by burning to death - a Jordanian pilot.
Jordan executed two jihadist prisoners at dawn on Wednesday, after vowing a harsh response to the Islamic State (ISIS) group's murder of a Jordanian pilot.
Would-be Iraqi female suicide bomber Sajida al-Rishawi and Iraqi Al-Qaeda member Ziad al-Karboli were executed at 4:00 a.m. local time, government spokesman Mohammad al-Momani said.
"The death sentence will be carried out on a group of jihadists, starting with Rishawi, as well as Iraqi Al-Qaeda operative Ziad Karbuli and others who attacked Jordan's interests," a Jordanian official, speaking on condition of anonymity, had told AFP.
IT IS INTERESTING to note that, as this is keyed, there are NO protests from the left-wing UN or Arab liberals, and absolute silence from Abu Mazen, all of whom would be gnashing teeth and ranting had Israel done what Jordan did.
King Abdullah II ibn al-Hussei described ISIS as a “cowardly” organization, and added that its killing of al-Kassasbeh will only strengthen Jordanians.
“We have received with all sorrow, grief and anger, the news of the martyrdom of the brave pilot Maaz al-Kassasbeh, may Allah bless his soul, at the hand of the terrorist and cowardly Daesh organization, this criminal, stray gang that has nothing to do with our true religion,” the King said in a statement quoted by the Jordan Times and in which he used an Arabic acronym for ISIS.
“At this difficult time, it is the duty of all citizens to unify their ranks and show the true character of the Jordanian people when they face hardships and plights, which will only strengthen us and reinforce our unity,” added Abdullah.
Next door, Egyptian President Al-Sisi Delivers Speech That May Change the World Forever and called to combat extremist ideology and said: “We need to revolutionize our religion.” Calling for “religious discourse that is in keeping with its times,” Al-Sisi warned that “the Islamic nation is being torn apart and destroyed” by extremism.
It might well be noted that Al-Sisi is waging an internal war with Islamists who want to remove him and restore one of their own (Mohamed Morsi). It also is worth noting that while the world castigates Israel for tightly controlling its border with Gaza, Egypt has (a) hermetically sealed its border with Gaza, (b) destroyed the smuggling tunnels from Egypt into Gaza, and (c) created a 500 meter wide by 13 km long structure-free zone according to Aljazeera. (The liberal UK Telegraph put the Egyptian move in a different light, leeding with The Egyptian authorities are demolishing hundreds of houses along its impoverished border with the Gaza Strip to create a buffer zone that will slow the flow of weapons and militants between the two territories.
Army officials told residents in the eastern Rafah area to evacuate their homes on Tuesday. They later confirmed that they planned to empty more than 800 houses – home to about 10,000 people.
Again, the UN and its friends remain silent. When Israel prevents unrestricted flow of people and goods to and from Gaza, the nation is condemned. When Egypt closes its border - not a sound.
It seems the only Muslims that stand solidly with Deash are Iranians and "Palestinians"; other Muslims are starting to distance themselves from a group that no longer limits its hatred to Israel and, to a lesser extent, the U.S.
Perhaps reality is starting to set in for the Islamic world. Perhaps.
