Their silence is deafening.

            As France and the free world come to terms with another monstrous act of meaningless violence in Paris, and the world’s leaders condemn the bestiality of the killers, the Muslim communities in these countries remain singularly silent.

            Where is their unified outcry? The rejection by their leaders; marches in the street decrying what is being done in their name; the public insistence that this is not a Muslim fight but an aberration of Islam.

             Nothing is heard from them. Why? 

Their silence is not innocent. It plays into the hands of the terrorist. It tells them that their fellow Muslims who number many millions in western countries such as the UK, Germany, France and the USA will not oppose them;  they will be their silent allies. 

            ‘This is not Islam,' they insist. 'The Koran preaches peace. Don’t label us with the action of an aberrant few,’ they repeat.

            That is not good enough. To show that Islam is truly a peaceful belief, a way of life that deplores violence, the moderate Muslims must speak up. We must hear their voices of protest, we must see their visible rejection of the violence, which is being meted out in their name.

             If they continue to remain silent, ordinary men and women will conclude that they are complicit in the atrocities.

            Now is not the time to remain silent.