Do Muslims Condemn Terrorism?

In America, there are a lot of stereotypes about Muslims, ranging from the ill-informed, like thinking all Muslims are Arabs, to the downright harmful, like thinking that all Muslims are terrorists or at the very least have terrorist sympathies. Although this is obviously not true, people still expect Muslims to condemn terrorist actions in order to "prove" that they aren't secretly rooting for the extremists — and then as soon as a new story breaks, the questions begin again about why the Muslim community hasn't condemned these actions. But now a new Tumblr, Muslims Condemning Things, has appeared to combat this ridiculous cycle.

The Tumblr is exactly what it sounds like: it show instances of Muslims condemning extremist actions, terrorist groups, instances of persecution in the the Muslim world, and just about everything that people continually insist that Muslims should condemn. The site's curator writes,

This site is not meant to be a comprehensive catalog of instances of Muslims condemning violence and terrorism. Rather, it’s a sampling, and one that we hope will convey the idea that the vast majority of Muslims around the world reject extremism, violence and fanaticism.

Examples range from individual Muslims speaking out against ISIS to Iranian Muslims protesting the persecution of Christians in Iran. And just a quick glance should drive home the point that most Muslims, are not, in fact terrorists.

Of course, I've always thought that point should be self-evident, and not just because I have Muslim friends. I mean, there are over 1.5 billion Muslims in the world. That's over one fifth of the world's population. Aside from the fact that it's patently ridiculous to think so many people would all think and feel the same way, there's the fact that realistically if there really were that many people all looking to kill non-Muslims, we'd all be dead by now. But actually.

And yet for some reason, Muslims Americans are asked to prove over and over again that they are opposed to terrorism.

Maybe someday, we'll live in a country where we stop judging entire groups of people by the actions of a few — or at least be equitable about our stereotyping and start demanding every white man prove he's not in support of mass shootings. But until then, the next time someone asks why Muslims don't condemn violence, just point them to the "Muslims Condemning Things" Tumblr and let them educate themselves.