American Muslims reject Islamic extremism by larger margins than do the Muslim communities of Europe. However, there are disconcerting and worrying attitudes. Few American Muslims believe that the U.S. is sincere in its efforts to combat terrorism. More disturbing is that many don’t believe that Arabs were responsible for the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Younger Muslim Americans are more likely than their elders to say that suicide bombing in defense of Islam can be at times justified, according to polling by Pew . Anecdotal evidence shows the prevalence of conspiracy theories when it comes to broad U.S. policies in the Middle East, and a very troubling denial of the responsibility of Arab/Muslim political elites for the sorry state of affairs in most Muslim majority states.

After every tragic terror attack perpetrated by Muslims, who claim that their bloody deeds are done in the name of Islam, or when they block the cries of their victims by shouting Allahu Akbar, voices are raised demanding Muslim condemnation, or even apologies. Muslims don’t help themselves when in the aftermath of such bloodshed, their condemnation is followed by a “but,” or when they try to “explain” the ugly deed, or put things “in context” by dredging up every offense the West has ever visited on Arabs and Muslims from the Crusaders to European colonialism, to American support for Israel and Muslim autocrats and despots, or by invoking the political and economic disenfranchisement of the assassins. The world is full of alienated, poor and marginalized people, the same people who “lead lives of quiet desperation,” in Thoreau’s words, but they don’t come out of their homes firing guns. Just as we should reject Islamophobia, we should also reject Islamist apologia, particularly of those who roam the hallways of academe and think tanks, who absolve Arabs and Muslims of their human agency.