http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/dgreenfield/minnesota-imam-refuses-to-jump-to-conclusions-about-isis-beheadings/

November 30, 2014 by Daniel Greenfield 7 Comments

Daniel Greenfield, a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the Freedom Center, is a New York writer focusing on radical Islam. He is completing a book on the international challenges America faces in the 21st century.

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After every Muslim terrorist attack, Obama goes on television warning us not to jump to any conclusions. This Imam has gone him one better by still refusing to jump to any conclusions about the Islamic State after over a decade of mass murder carried out under various names.

Sheikh Jamel Ben Ameur, an Islamic scholar and imam of Masjid Al-Tawba Islamic Cultural Community Center in Eden Prairie, has refused to denounce the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria for one reason, he says: because the news reports about the Islamic State are “confusing” and “complicated.”

Sure.
Some news reporters say that ISIS is beheading non-Muslims. Other news reports say it’s raping non-Muslim women. And the Sheikh just can’t decide.
It’s so complicated.

When he spoke to a crowd of about 100 Muslims at Masjid Al-Tawba earlier this fall, Ben Ameur said many people in the Muslim community ask Islamic scholars to condemn the group. And Ben Ameur has a message for those seeking his view on the ISIS issue: “We don’t need to accuse people of something we don’t know about. We don’t have to jump into judgment.”

Would the Sheikh be equally non-judgmental if non-Muslims were beheading Muslims?

Despite international media reports of the murder of these men — which U.S. and British officials as well as family members have confirmed — Ben Ameur has expressed skepticism about the authenticity of the videos and news reports. “We don’t know if [ISIS] did it or not,” he said. “This is confusing; we don’t know the news that’s coming to us. [Therefore], we don’t want to name names.”

Where am I? What year is this? Where did this money that I just wired to ISIS come from? What are all these tapes with Anwar Al-Awlaki’s name? It’s so complicated and confusing. Who can tell?