U.S. Anti-Islam Protest Seen as Lift for Extremists
美国反伊斯兰抗议助长极端主义
Some counterterrorism experts say the anti-Muslim sentiment that has saturated the airwaves and blogs in the debate over plans for an Islamic center near ground zero in Lower Manhattan is playing into the hands of extremists by bolstering their claims that the United States is hostile to Islam.
一些反恐专家表示，由于争论关于曼哈顿下城世贸旧址修建穆斯林中心的计划而引发的反穆斯林情绪在广播和博客里弥漫开来，这种情绪正被那些极端主义者所利用，他们认为这是美国敌视伊斯兰世界的佐证。
Opposition to the center by prominent politicians and other public figures in the United States has been covered extensively by the news media in Muslim countries. At a time of concern about radicalization of young Muslims in the West, it risks adding new fuel to Al Qaeda’s claim that Islam is under attack by the West and must be defended with violence, some specialists on Islamic militancy say.
穆斯林国家的媒体大量报道了穆斯林中心修建的反对者，其中包括美国的主要政客和其他公众人物。一些伊斯兰武装的研究专家认为，在关注西方穆斯林青年激进化过程中的特殊时期，这将助长基地组织声称伊斯兰世界正遭受西方攻击并且必须用暴力来捍卫的气焰。
“I know people in this debate don’t intend it, but there are consequences for these kinds of remarks,” said Brian Fishman, who studies terrorism for the New America Foundation here.
“我知道参与争论的人并无此意（攻击穆斯林世界），但是这种言论会有严重的后果，”新美国基金会的恐怖主义研究专家布莱恩·费舍曼说道。
He said that Anwar al-Awlaki, an American-born cleric hiding in Yemen who has been linked to several terrorist plots, has been arguing for months in Web speeches and in a new Qaeda magazine that American Muslims face a dark future of ever-worsening discrimination and vilification.
他说，一个出生在美国的，匿身于也门的叫做安瓦·阿瓦拉吉的神职人员，涉嫌多起恐怖袭击活动，此人在网络谈话中和一本新基地组织的杂志上声称美国穆斯林正面临着暗无天日的未来和史无前例的歧视与诽谤。
“When the rhetoric is so inflammatory that it serves the interests of a jihadi recruiter like Awlaki, politicians need to be called on it,” Mr. Fishman said.
“这些言论极富煽动性，将使像阿瓦拉吉这样的好战分子招募者获益，政客们应该引起重视，”费舍曼说道。
Evan F. Kohlmann, who tracks militant Web sites at the security consulting firm Flashpoint Global Partners, said supporters of Al Qaeda have seized on the controversy “with glee.” On radical Web forums, he said, the dispute over the Islamic center, which would include space for worship, is lumped together with fringe developments like a Florida pastor’s call for making Sept. 11 “Burn a Koran Day.”
追踪伊斯兰武装网络站点的伊凡·科尔曼，是安全咨询公司Flashpoint Global的合伙人，他认为基地组织的支持者会“乐于”抓住这个争执不下的机会。他说，在激进的网络论坛中，关于伊斯兰中心的争论，其中包括祷告地点，正夹杂着一些诸如一个佛罗里达州牧师号召将9月11日定为“焚烧古兰经日”的失控局面。
"It’s seen as proof of what Awlaki and others have been saying, that the U.S. is hypocritical and that most Americans are enemies of Islam,” Mr. Kohlmann said. He called the anti-Islam statements spawned by the dispute “disturbing and sad” and said they were feeding anti-American sentiment that could provoke violence.
“这就成为了阿瓦拉吉和其他极端分子的口实，即美国是虚伪的，它是伊斯兰世界的敌人，”科尔曼说道。他认为那些反伊斯兰的言论是“混淆视听和令人悲伤的”，是会助长那些挑衅用暴力的反美情绪。
While some critics of the Islamic center have carefully limited their objection to its proximity to the site of the Sept. 11 attacks, and have rejected any suggestion that they are anti-Muslim, the issue has tapped into a well of suspicion and hostility to Islam across the country.
然而伊斯兰中心修建的一些批评者小心翼翼地将反对的目标集中在9·11袭击事发地点上，并且拒接承认自己是反伊斯兰者，这一话题在全国范围内已经掉入怀疑和敌视伊斯兰世界的泥沼里了。
Many Republican politicians, including Newt Gingrich and Sarah Palin, have said that the proposed location of the center showed insensitivity to the victims of 9/11.
许多共和党人，包括纽特·金里奇和萨拉·佩林，表示选择修建中心的地点漠视了9·11受害者的感受。
Others political leaders, including President Obama, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg of New York and Gov. Christopher J. Christie of New Jersey, have defended the right of Muslims to build the center or warned against anti-Muslim hysteria.
其他政治领导人，包括总统奥巴马，纽约市长麦克·布隆博格和新泽西州长克里斯托弗·克里斯蒂，力挺穆斯林修建中心，或反对这种反穆斯林的情绪。
The dispute has tapped strong emotions in the wake of a series of terrorist plots and attacks over the last year aimed at American targets, several of them inspired or encouraged by Mr. Awlaki. The events included the killing of 13 people in November at Fort Hood, Tex., by an Army psychiatrist, Nidal Malik Hasan; the failed attack on a Detroit-bound airliner on Dec. 25 by a young Nigerian man; and the attempted bombing of Times Square in May by Faisal Shahzad, a financial analyst who had worked for a Connecticut cosmetics company.
争论已经导致了在过去一年内一系列针对美国目标的恐怖阴谋和袭击之后的强烈情绪，许多起阴谋和袭击得到了阿瓦拉吉先生的鼓励或支持。这些恐怖事件包括11月份发生在福特胡德，一名叫纳德尔·哈桑的随军心理医生射杀13人的惨剧；以及5月份发生在时代广场，由一名在康涅狄格州一家化妆品企业上班的金融分析师策划的爆炸未遂事件。
Mr. Awlaki, whose Web diatribes calling for attacks on the United States have turned up repeatedly in terrorism investigations, has sought to counter the notion that American tolerance extends to Muslims.
阿瓦拉吉呼吁攻击美国的文章已经屡次接受恐怖主义调查，他试图反驳美国的文化包容性已经企及穆斯林的观点。
In a March posting, Mr. Awlaki, who lived in the United States for nearly 20 years, predicted that America would become “a land of religious discrimination and concentration camps.”
在一篇三月份的帖子中，在美国生活了将近20年的阿瓦拉吉预计美国将会成为“宗教歧视和宗教集中营之地”。
“Don’t be deceived by the promises of preserving your rights from a government that is right now killing your own brothers and sisters,” he wrote. “Today, with the war between Muslims and the West escalating, you cannot count on the message of solidarity you may get from a civic group or a political party, or the word of support you hear from a kind neighbor or a nice co-worker. The West will eventually turn against its Muslim citizens!”
“不要被那些口口声声许诺捍卫你权利的政府所欺骗，他们正在屠杀你们的兄弟姐妹。”他写道，“如今，随着伊斯兰世界和西方世界的战争持续，你不能再偏信从一个民间团体或者政党手中获得的一致信息，或者一个貌似善良的邻居和貌似友好的同事口中所说的言语支持。西方世界最终将以它的穆斯林公民为敌！”
Dalia Mogahed of the Gallup Center for Muslim Studies said the outcry over the proposed center “plays into Awlaki’s arguments and Osama bin Laden’s arguments” by suggesting that Islam has no place in the United States.
盖洛普调查中心研究穆斯林文化的达里·穆加赫德说，修建穆斯林中心的呐喊“已经成为阿瓦拉吉以及奥萨马·本拉登的口实”，他们认为伊斯兰文化在美国没有位置。
She said that extreme anti-Muslim views in the United States ironically mirror a central tenet of extreme Islamists: “That the world is divided into two camps, and they’re irreconcilable, and Muslims have to choose which side they’re on.”
她说美国极端反穆斯林的观点令人讽刺地反映出了极端伊斯兰主义的要义：“世界被分为两个阵营，他们无法相容，穆斯林们必须选择站在哪一边。”
Mr. Gingrich, the former House speaker and a potential 2012 presidential candidate, said in a Fox News interview that “Nazis don’t have the right to put up a sign next to the Holocaust museum in Washington,” a comment that drew criticism for appearing to equate those proposing the Islamic center with Nazis.
前众议院发言人以及2012年总统选举有力角逐者金里奇，在接受福克斯新闻台采访时表示：“纳粹无权在华盛顿将自己的标志放在大屠杀纪念馆旁，”这一言论惹来了大量批评，因为他将修建伊斯兰中心和纳粹类比。
Asked about the view that such remarks could fuel radicalism, Mr. Gingrich sent an e-mail response on Friday that did not directly address his critics but said that “Americans must learn to tell the truth about radical Islamists while being supportive of and inclusive of moderate Muslims who live in the modern world, respect women’s rights, reject medieval punishment and defend American laws and the American Constitution.” He added that he believed “it is possible to be a deeply religious Muslim and a patriotic American.”
当被问及此番言论将有可能招致激进主义时，金里奇在周五的邮件回复中并未直接解释自己的言论而是说“美国人在支持和包容那些居住在现代世界里，尊重妇女权利，反对中世纪式刑罚以及捍卫美国法律和宪法的温和穆斯林的时候，必须学会说出关于极端伊斯兰主义者的真相。”他补充说，他相信“一个实足的穆斯林是可以成为美国的爱国主义者的。”
Muqtedar Khan, an associate professor of political science at the University of Delaware, said he was not sure the Islamic center dispute alone would radicalize anyone. But he said it was “demoralizing” for Muslims like him who defend the United States as an open and tolerant society.
特拉华大学的政治学副教授穆特德·卡汗说，他不确定关于伊斯兰中心的争论会不会使一些人走极端。但是他认为这些争论会使像他一样的穆斯林“失望”，他觉得美国是一个开放而包容的社会。
“For the first time, anti-Islamic rhetoric has gone mainstream,” he said. “What this really does is weaken the moderates and undermine their credibility.”
“反伊斯兰的论调第一次成为了主流，”他说道，“此举将真正弱化伊斯兰温和派的影响力和公信力。”
