Shared by Tahir Mahmood

It is a great article and raises serious questions not just for people back home in Pakistan, but also for all the Muslims living in the West. It is like elephant in the room and no one wants to talk about it. In the West, every few months we hear news of some young Muslim apprehended for planning a terrorist act. We mostly dismiss such news as entrapment by law enforcement agency, act of some misguided disturbed individual or come up with some lame conspiratorial excuse. Are we, the Muslims in the West, shrugging off our responsibility to look deeply into this problem and find out why these young individual are prone to such entrapment in the first place? Should not we be having this discussion in the Islamic Centers as well as on dinner tables to prevent these horrible acts that are poisoning the future of our young generation?   Even one such incidence is too many, and every one of us-every one of us -suffers the consequences and pays the price for such acts. Such acts do not advance any cause and hurt Muslims more than anyone else.( F. Sheikh )

The author writes about situation in Pakistan;

“This is not to suggest that average Pakistanis actively embrace or advocate violent extremism. However, average Pakistanis do often relate to, justify, and refuse to unconditionally condemn the ideologies driving violent extremism – even when it directly impacts their lives in the form of suicide bombings or militant attacks. This accommodation of the extremist mindset creates political space and a favourable environment for radical groups to thrive in.”

Click link below to read full article;

http://dawn.com/2012/12/17/extremism-and-mainstream-pakistan/

This article forwarded by Shoeb Amin

People gather for the Reason Rally on the National Mall March 24, 2012 in Washington, D.C.Photo by Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images

“A new report from the International Humanist and Ethical Union names the seven countries in which atheists can be executed for their beliefs: Afghanistan, Iran, Maldives, Mauritania, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and Sudan.

http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2012/12/11/atheists_and_capital_punishment_iheu_report_documents_criminalization_discrimination.html

Mario Tama/Gettv Images

Some comments and Headlines from this morning’s newspapers on the heartbreaking incidence.;

“ I have been through many of such tragedies, participated in funerals,  protested against Gun violence, but today I just want to weep”

“I thought of my own children now in school and cried. Then I was angry.”

From Norway, very touching comments;

“Dear all, the people of the USA and all the families who suffer through this enormous tragedy. My deepest condolances to all of you, I am all heartbroken. I know I speak on the behalf of every norwegian when I say that we share your sorrow, we cry together with you. Take care of each other, and remember the words of one of the children who survived the Utøya massacre last year here in Norway. ‘If one man can show this much hate, imagine how much love the rest of us can give.’

I light a candle tonight – for every child that passed away, for every mother and father who lost their everything today, and for the American people who lost their fellow Americans, brothers and sisters.”

In deepest respect”

A newspaper Headline;

““Running and Hoping to Find a Child Safe”

From London;

“Sick of Americans and their ritual of grief – lowering the flags and offering prayers.

If you cared about your children why not do something that might save them from this kind of thing.

If you’d done this after Aurora, perhaps these children would be alive today.

It’s not rocket science.”

More Comments- Gun violence-Domestic Terrorism!

“Let’s call gun violence what it really is — terrorism — and let’s do something about it now.”

“Instead of focusing on the civil war in Syrian and the unknown, remote, potential nuclear threat in North Korea or Iran, we should be asking ourselves what we can do to help ourselves right here and solve our own societal problems.’”

“Meanwhile, the gun lobby, timid politicians and the Supreme Court continue to aid and abet rampant gun violence that is nothing less than domestic terrorism, carried out with weapons of mass destruction that are too freely owned and carried.”