Writing in The Washington Post, CNN's Fareed Zakaria argues the world's troubles with violent Muslims are "Not an Islam problem but an Arab problem." Allow me to take issue with Dr. Zakaria's assertion.
Ask the people of Thailand or the Philippines if their home-grown Islamic terrorists are Arabs. They'd snort in disbelief. Ask Nigeria if Boko Haram is Arab - nope, black African all the way.
Are Russia's Chechen bombers Arab? Not hardly. Are the Muslims who raped 1400 Brit girls in Rotherham Arabs? No, those were Pakistani and Indian Muslims.
How about the bombers who killed 202 in Bali, Indonesia - were they Arabs? No. How about the al-Shabbab jihadist terrorist group? Most wouldn't say Somalis were Arabs. And the Taliban? No, they're Afghani.
Bottom line, Harvard doctorate or no, Fareed Zakaria is simply wrong that all violent Muslims are Arabs. He should have said ISIS is a Sunni Arab problem - that at least is mostly true at the moment, only "mostly" as they've recruited Pakistani and Somali fighters from Britain and the U.S. and aspire to become pan-Islamic.
