A Saudi television host had harsh criticism for Muslims — specifically those in the Arab world — who insist that terrorism does not represent their faith, calling them “hypocrites.” Saudi columnist and television anchor Nadine Al-Budair said in a recent monologue that in the wake of the Brussels attack, it was time for Muslims to own up to elements of their faith that encourage followers to commit terrorist attacks. “After the abominable Brussels bombings, it’s time for us to feel shame and to stop acting as if the terrorists are a rarity,” she said, according to a translation from the Middle East Media Research Institute. “We must admit that they are present everywhere, that their nationality is Arab, and that they adhere to the religion of Islam,” Al-Budair said as she pointed her finger at an education system that enforces memorization of hardline Salafist texts and where schools and universities “told them the others are infidels.”
Al-Budair excoriated pundits who, following each terrorist attack, assert that the perpetrators do not represent Islam. “Whenever terrorism massacres peaceful civilians, the smart alecs and the hypocrites vie with one another in saying that these people do not represent Islam or the Muslims. Perhaps one of them could tell us who does represent Islam and the Muslims,” she said. She noted with cynicism that many in the Arab world try to prove – in her opinion with futility – that “everything that is happening has nothing to do with the Muslims, and that the terrorists are highway robbers and homeless alcoholics and drug addicts.”
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