24 Hours, But No Clue

My friends at CAIR (the Council of Angry, Islamic Radicals) are at it again, whining about the fact that the terrorists on the TV show "24" are Muslims. This, they fear, might make Islam look bad.

Yeah, that's Islam's problem--a fictional TV show. Not 9/11 or 7/7 or 3/3 or the suicide bombers screaming Allahu Akbar in Baghdad, Kandahar and Tel Aviv, no, no, no. The reason people are concerned about the current state of Islam is because of Jack Bauer.

Far be it from me to tell folks how to run their religion, but if I were CAIR, I'd forget about the drama and worry about the documentaries. Any rational person watching these real-live videos of real-live Muslims in British mosques will see that "24" is actually giving the Islamic world a pass.

The CAIR spokesperson who said she was worried that "24" would endanger her life at the grocery store because "I wasn't sure the person next to me would be able to differentiate between fiction and reality" is hopelessly clueless. Does she really believe that the REALITY of the relationship between Islam and terrorism is a reason for the guy at the grocery counter to trust her?

Every Muslim is paying a price for the terrorism inspired by the teachings of jihad. Those teachings might be wrong, and it is an indisputable fact that most Muslims would never, ever commit an act of terrorism. But that's not the end of the story.

Every Muslim should pay a price for terrorism--the price of being ashamed of the current state of their religion. If the shame becomes great enough, perhaps the moderate Muslim majority will one day spend as much time fighting violent extremists as they do TV executives.

UPDATE: For a brief history of my relationship with CAIR, go here. For a brief history of CAIR's long-standing links to terror, go here.