The absence of a thing can, on occasion, be as telling as its presence. In this case, the point of context is the Terrorist attac on a Jewish religious academy in Jerusalem. Eight dead and eleven injured, ranging in age from fifteen to twenty-six.

The absence in question specific to organizations representing American Muslims who consistently represent themselves as anti-terrorism and moderate. The history of these organizations is off point for this particular missive, but their lack of response to the carnage in Jerusalem is revealing. A visit to the web sites of four high profile Muslim American organizations reveals a significant absence and remarkable contradictions. 

The Counsel on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), as of this afternoon, makes no mention of the attack in Jerusalem. They do publish press releases related to: Law suits over citizenship delays, letters to Senators regarding the situation in Gaza, bias suits claiming religious and ethnic harassment of Muslims, accusations of civil rights violations over the wearing of the Hijab and calls for police investigations of “hate” crimes related to the presence of graffiti in Alberta Canada. There is also a condemnation of a specific case of anti-Jewish violence in Philadelphia.

However, no CAIR calls for an end to violence against Israeli Jews. There are no calls for an end to anti-Christian ethnic cleansing and persecution of the Copts in Egypt or any of the other garden variety affronts to humanity so common in the Middle East .

There was no renunciation of the “party” Hamas sponsored in Gaza to “celebrate” the murder of Jewish students as they studied in the library at the Mercaz Harav rabbinical seminary in Jerusalem. Not a word, perhaps CAIR was exhausted by the graffiti effort in Alberta.

The Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA) also has nothing to say about the attack. They did find time to decry the situation in Gaza on the day of the attack, but no comment on the terrorism in Jerusalem.

The Islamic Society of North America, (ISNA), in their news briefs this day include a much publicized article about Muslim Scholars decrying terrorism. Of course, if one reads the original translations the only decrying going on is against terrorism directed at Muslims, others are not considered as they are Infidels.

They also take the time to castigate three converts from Islam to Christianity as the “three stooges of the Christian Right”. They hate the Danish Cartoons but publish a strangely worded statement about how beloved Muslims are in the Netherlands. This as the Netherlands braces for potential violence in the event that a film critical of Islam is actually released there. Strange love indeed.

Not a peep about Jerusalem. Not a peep about Hamas.

In fairness, The Muslim American Society (MAS) did have something to say by way of Ibrahim Abdil-Mu’id Ramey, MAS Freedom Civil & Human Rights Director; “Murder, by whomever, is simply a crime against humanity and against the Almighty. And the killing of Jewish students in Jerusalem was exactly that kind of abomination.” 

Good for MAS! Now if we could just get them to abandon their goal of Shari’a in America, disconnect from the Muslim Brotherhood, and renounce past and present associations with terrorist financing we could accept their statement absent the lingering doubt that it is something other than politically expeditious. 

MAS’s mission statement is benign, calling for positive representation of Islam and promoting understanding with non Muslims. MAS sites are, however, very much an exercise in political Islam, American style. MAS’s sites have called for replacing the Constitution with the Koran. These sites call for Muslims to conduct themselves in a manner consistent with the teachings of Hassan Al-Banna. Al-Banna is the intellectual guide for modern Islamic Jihadism and a beloved figure by radical Islamists the world over.  

Three out of four “mainstream” Islamic Groups are silent on the Jerusalem atrocity and one is of questionable motivation. 

In this case, and many others, there is more to be learned from the absence of a thing than there is from its presence. Attention paid to absence and inconsistency is a key to seeing through public posture, talking point repetition and tactics to true motivation.