With Israel completing its withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, rejoicing Palestinians took the opportunity to destroy synagogues. I wasn’t surprised--although that’s far from saying that I wasn’t saddened by the lack of respect and civility unveiled by the acts.

Tonight I came across a short post that attacked--in a surprisingly blunt manner--the vandalism.

Imagine if Jewish settlers in the Gaza Strip destroyed two dozen mosques. There would be mass rallies in front of Israeli embassies around the world, and in America organizations like CAIR and MPAC would issue righteous condemnations calling on the American government to restrain Israel. However, as we’ve seen today, when Palestinians streaming into liberated Gaza set fire to synagogues there is deafening silence from most Muslims and certainly from the leadership of the American Muslim community.

Why is this surprising? The author, Farhan Memon, was writing at alt.Muslim, a site devoted to discussing political issues from an Islamic perspective. And, with the exception of a few short paragraphs in the middle, I can’t help but agree with mister Memon.

Read the rest. It’s worth your time--even if you find a few things to disagree with.

Update: What Attitude Problem? has more thoughts on the subject.