10 and ½ COMMON MYTHS ABOUT MUSLIMS (in no particular order)

1. All Muslims are Terrorists…

   This is perhaps the most common and fashionable one of all. The OBL tape claiming responsibility for 9/11, only further embeds this belief into the minds of those who accept it.

   Like most Muslims I’ve said this until I’m blue in the face, but here it is one more time … Islam does not condone terrorism and those who do commit such inhuman acts are not Muslims, but fanatics.

   Note that I did not use the term ‘Muslim Fanatics’, ‘Islamic Extremists’, Islamists or my favourite – Muslim Militants.

   This is very important, because in the mind of the reader/listener, the reason why Islam becomes synonymous with terrorist atrocities is because in labelling these men, the world has deemed them fit to be called Muslims. Without asking the rest of us followers of the faith if we agree.

   It might be tempting to think of us this way, it is after all one more mud cake for the anti-Islam fan clubs to throw in our direction, but if you’re interested in objective thinking, I need only one example to put my point forward.

   David Koresh. I use him, simply because it was only in 1992 that those of us without cable in Kenya, got access to CNN. In '93, watching the world go about its way was still a novelty and CNN provided it aplenty.

   However, I have never forgotten the trend I noticed then, and have seen since - locally and internationally - to relegate any groups that break away from the basic tenets of Christianity as ‘cults’. The very word conjures up suspicious, secretive groups with eerie, barbaric practices.

   The public never associates mass suicides and the like with Christianity, although most are instigated by people who have twisted the faith to suit their own ideas.

   Here’s a thought – terrorists do pretty much the same with Islam. If ‘cult’ is a registered trademark for the deviants of one faith, we can settle for the others I’ve mentioned – zealots, fanatics, etc. Just leave Islam out of it, is all we ask.

2. …and those who aren’t are “Moderate Muslims”

   There is no such thing as a moderate Muslim. It’s a repetitive term, like saying a ‘funny comedy’. Islam is a faith that works on one basic principle – balance or moderation.

   We don’t indulge in materialistic pleasures, but we don’t deny them and live as hermits either. We don’t attack others for no reason, but we don’t sit back and allow ourselves to be oppressed either.