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Letter to Sun-Sentinel When
did we allow our delicate sensitivities to become so appeased by warm
& fuzzy “official statements” that we would actually seek them
over security and common sense? Jewish leaders in South Florida are
struggling to find something in the words of Islamic Center of Boca
Raton's leader, Imam Ibrahim Dremali, that would satisfy them and
thereby, allow us all to sleep comfortably with the idea that we are all
friends once again. They literally had a tea party on Wednesday looking
for statements with some trace of mollification. First came the website
with that violent Muslim prophecy. When the light of media exposed the
hateful filth, Imam Dremali claimed the site had been hacked. I, like so
many others, saw the link on the site. It wasn’t an errant message
posted like angry graffiti, but rather it was a deliberate number 3 on a
list of items one through ten. Then came the weak repudiations that
collectively satisfied no one. The prime example was Imam Dremali’s
claim that the prophetic call to kill Jews refers to Israeli Jews, not
American ones. We are talking about personal, national, and world
security here. We have evidence that many of these evil operatives may
have greeted us at the ATM, spotted us at the gym, and borrowed a cup of
sugar from next door. Why then are we so anxious to devour a few
hackneyed sentiments from those who have publicly (and maybe even
privately?) espoused supportive views? We admonish our child “tell
Billy you’re sorry”, but our child knows that he would hit Billy
again if given the opportunity. He just wants his parent off his back,
so he obliges. I used to “condemn” and “disavow” hitting my
brother after each punch. I am in no way making any claims as to whether
Imam Dremali and the Islamic Center of Boca Raton are linked with any
terrorist groups. I wouldn’t know. But if one looks with honest and
open eyes, it becomes evident that there is a certain shared collective
sentiment, however diluted by distance. Being in America, such people
are entitled to feel the way they do; however, it is up to us to
recognize these allegiances and remain leery of them, not to make
ourselves numb with their ‘repudiations’. An ounce of prevention
weighs far more than a pound of political-correctedness. Yassir Arafat
proves that with every suicide bomber he “condemns” and
“disavows”. Let’s learn to be a little more vigilant, a little
more pragmatic, and stop buying the empty words that the aggravators of
the world use to paint their deceptive portraits of brotherhood and
“peace”. - Simon Mirsky |