Has the Muslim community been too slow to condemn terrorism? Or is it simply incapable of being heard when it does issue condemnations? Last year, Kamran Pasha, a novelist and screenwriter who’s worked for NBC and Showtime, and who is Muslim, vented about the subject in a blog post, “The Big Lie About Muslim Silence on Terrorism.”

“Why do mainstream Muslims fail to speak out against terrorism?It is a question that I get almost every single day, and it leaves me flabbergasted. I often respond to that question with one of my own — “Why does the media fail to report on Muslims who condemn terrorism?”

Since before 2001, every single major Muslim group in the United States has been outspoken in their condemnation of terrorism and the murder of innocent people in the name of Islam. And yet the media ignores it. Every single time.

Pasha linked to extensive lists -- here and here -- naming Islamic groups or clerics that have spoken out against terrorism. He also excoriated NYT columnist Tom Friedman for perpetuating the idea that Muslims have been silent on the issue.

The issue of Muslim silence has particular relevance now, when there is public outrage over the Cordoba Institute's plans to build an Islamic center -- or what critics insist is a "mega-mosque" -- two blocks from Ground Zero. The center is likely to get approval, and has the backing of New York City's political establishment, but what was once a non-issue -- whether Muslims should be free to build centers of worship, at their own expense, on private property -- has suddenly become a national issue. And frequently, critics of mosques invoke the matter of Muslim silence. This is what Lou Ann Zelenik, a Republican candidate for Congress, had to say about a planned mosque in Murfreesboro, Tennessee:

Until the American Muslim community find it in their hearts to separate themselves from their evil, radical counterparts, to condemn those who want to destroy our civilization and will fight against them, we are not obligated to open our society to any of them.

Rather than react defensively -- ie, "don't lump us in with the bad guys" -- a group of leading Muslim scholars and imams have come together to acknowledge the problem of radicalization and to condemn terrorism as un-Islamic. The video also serves as a call to arms, so to speak, for moderate Muslims, to reclaim the identity of Islam from radicals.

I've posted the video below. A couple highlights:

• Imam Zaid Shakir, speaking about extremists -- "Where are they successful? You just see one mess after another. And it's time for us to start cleaning up those messes, and even going beyond that, it's time for us to begin to contribute to the construction of something beautiful."
• Imam Mohamad Magid -- All Dulles Area Muslim Society: "Many people [are] saying there are so many issue of injustice taking place around the world. That is true. We acknowledge the injustice taking place around the world. But we believe there is a way to address the injustice. Not by taking innocent people's life."
• Ihsan Bagby: "I'm not calling on anybody to be inactive. I'm calling on people, for this Muslims of this country in particular, and the Muslims of the world to be proactive. Not to embrace the nihilism, and the anti-Islamic policies of terrorism, and unwarranted violence."

And what kind of reach will this video have? So far, not much: there have been fewer than 5,000 viewers in the two weeks since it was posted. Whether that reflects more on the Muslim or non-Muslim audience, I can't say. But Pasha is encouraged.

I think this video is a very important addition to the long list of Muslims speaking out against terrorism.  I do agree that the media is ignoring this as usual, but I expect that over time it will have a grassroots impact as the video spreads on the Internet.  In the end, God will get the message to the people who need to hear it.