[Itse]

I'll take this moment to link this.

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7...613772,00.html

Why aren't Muslim leaders being heard?

Op-ed: Mainstream Muslims around the world have issued strong and unambiguous statements against virtually every violent attack, condemning such acts as immoral; yet somehow their responses are barely registering in the public consciousness.

For example, after riots by a predominantly Muslim crowd in the Paris suburb of Sarcelles attacked a synagogue and Jewish businesses, the local Muslim Association sent a letter of solidarity and support to the vice president of the synagogue. National Muslim leaders took part in an interfaith ceremony that denounced the violence and called for reconciliation. Boubakeur, who attended the ceremony, affirmed that the vast majority of French Muslims are not anti-Semitic. How could they be, he asked, when they themselves are battling racism?

Those responses should all have been part of the story. But too often, Islam is not only portrayed negatively, but falsely, as a monolithic entity. As a result, the general public often fails to grasp that there is a diversity of opinion within Islam and that most Muslims condemn extremism and violence.

Yes, Islamist extremism is a genuine threat to world peace. But those who lump all Muslims together, and dismiss as meaningless the courageous stand of the moderate majority against extremism, aren’t helping to win that battle. Rather, they’re strengthening extremism by perpetuating a false narrative of perpetual conflict between Islam and the West. That is something which we must fight with all our might.

Rabbi Marc Schneier is president of the Foundation for Ethnic Understanding and chair of the Gathering of European Muslim and Jewish Leaders (GEMJL)