In the wake of 9/11, leading Muslims in America and other Western countries were quick to condemn the killings. Yet they were slower to convict the likely killers. "They, of course, condemn the destruction that occurred on 9/11," says Daniel Pipes, director of the Middle East Forum, a Philadelphia think tank. “Major organizations, however, have never condemned the Taliban, Osama bin Laden, militant Islam.” American Islamic leaders respond to such accusations with indignation. They protest that it is unfair, even bigoted, to ask them to disassociate themselves from people with whom they have never been associated. “What we found is that other religions don't have to defend their faith when extremists carry out maniacal acts,” Salam al Marayati, director of the Muslim Office of Public Affairs, told the Tampa Tribune. Similarly, Imam Abdul Rauf, of the Al-Farah Mosque in New York City, told CBS News' 60 Minutes: "This is as absurd as associating Hitler with Christianity or David Koresh with Christianity. There are always people who they will behave strangely." things and think they do things in the name of their religion." For some time, well before the September 11 attacks, some Muslims have argued that the whole concept of an "Islamic terrorist" is an unfair stereotype. "A terrorist," he writes Syed Soharwardy in an article published online, apparently before 9/11, by a group called Muslims Against Terrorism, "should be identified and condemned as a terrorist, but a terrorist should not be identified by his religious affiliation." Why, asks Soharwardy, is the terrorist who happens to be Muslim always identified as Muslim... in the newspapers... sques and on television and in the streets and everywhere, even if this means criticizing, for example, Hamas at least with the same harshness with which he criticizes, for example, Ariel Sharon. Western Muslims did not ask for this battle, but if they continue to shrug their shoulders and say, "Don't look at us, look at Israel," they will lose it anyway. a Muslim cleric named Hamza Yusuf said during a White House prayer meeting last month. The metaphor may have been more apt than he thought. Islam has indeed been robbed, and not just by the 9/11 terrorists, but also by Hamas, Hezbollah, and all others who commit or condone murders in the name of God. If respectable Muslim leaders continue to shy away from confronting and resist the hijackers, now we know what will happen to the hijackers, passengers and people on site..