Is Al Jezeera turning on the Taliban along with Pakistani tribesmen?

http://tinyurl.com/mqdrbf
Confronting the enemy within 12/06/2009 Muslims have to prove that what a lunatic fringe is doing in the name of Islam is nothing but a grave injustice to Islam. By Aijaz Zaka Syed
...Hundreds of villagers in Pakistan’s Northwest turned on Taleban fighters after an attack on a mosque killed more than 40 worshippers during the Friday prayers ....ordinary people have launched their own war on the forces that have brought so much misery and destruction to their beautiful land....tribesmen attacked the battle-hardened Taleban in their own strongholds, forcing them to run for their lives....Taleban chickens have come home to roost. Tide is finally turning against the militants in their own backyard...While we in the Muslim world have often and justifiably taken the U.S. and its allies to task for their crimes against innocent civilians, we haven’t been as brutally honest when it comes to the fanatics who claim to speak on our behalf....Our failure to condemn the terrorists in stronger terms has sent a wrong message to both the extremists as well as the rest of the world.
Of course, we have from time to time insisted that extremist forces like Al-Qaeda do not represent Muslims and their actions have nothing to do with Islam....the message that violence targeting innocents violates the spirit of tolerance and fundamental teachings of Islam. From Sheikh Syed Mohammad Al-Tantawi, the venerated grand mufti and rector of Cairo’s Al-Azhar University to Sheikh Sudais, Imam of Grand Mosque in Makkah, some of the top religious authorities have condemned extremist violence, especially suicide bombing, as un-Islamic and inhuman. This year’s Haj sermon repeatedly underscored this message, with three million pilgrims praying for world peace and reconciliation. Unfortunately, these voices of sanity seldom reach the world at large. Dr. Tariq Ramadan, grandson of Muslim Brotherhood founder Hasan Al-Banna and one of the most respected Islamic scholars of our time, has repeatedly written and spoken on the issue in the Western media. But the massive challenges we face on this front can hardly be confronted by individual voices and solitary efforts here and there.

What we need is a global movement to present the true face of Islam before the world. This would be possible only when Muslims, wherever they are and whoever they be, speak out against this nihilistic celebration of death and violence and despicable targeting of innocent people in their name. We have to tell the world in strongest possible terms that this is not what Islam is all about. We have to demonstrate through our actions that this is not us. This is not what our faith teaches us. We are taught to respect and cherish life, not reject and annihilate it.
...In the end, every one of us is responsible for what happens in our part of the world. Besides, how long will Muslims continue to blame the rest of the world for their woes? True, Bush’s war visited a catastrophe on the Muslim world,...But what the so-called champions of the believers have unleashed on the Muslim world is not in any way less damaging. ...they have sought to hit at the very soul of a faith that came as a blessing ...With friends like these, do we need any more enemies?
...Obama quoted in his Cairo speech, the Qur’an warns that taking one innocent life is like killing all mankind ...The extremist actions are as lethal to Islam and Muslims as the Western coalition’s bombing of innocent civilians in Afghanistan and Pakistan. The sooner this reality dawns on the believers, the better for everyone. Before 9/11, Islam was the fastest growing religion in the world including the U.S. Today, if we are perhaps the most hated and reviled community on earth, you know whom to blame!...poor, semi-literate tribesmen in Pakistan have stood up to fight back the terrorists...ordinary Muslims are sick and tired of this endless bloodshed by the Western forces as well as by their own....if the Muslims want to clear this mess, they will have to help themselves...No amount of verbal entreaties and sanctimonious lectures insisting this is not what Islam is all about will do. We need action now....It’s time to confront the enemy within.