Islam and Terrorism

Islam and Terrorism

If anything is mentioned in the news about an attack, people are quick to assume that it was an Islamic terrorist attack. We once had a big issue linking to the phenomena of people labeling Muslims as horror people after the attack of World Trade Centre on September 9, 2001. The whole non-Muslim world is against Islam due to the attacks when the rumors spread like a wind that Muslims were the attackers. Even the attacks gave the government of United State (US) of America to declare war against terrorist. Although this was not good for the Muslim Nation and many innocent lives were lost, it was only a small group of extreme, non-practising and brainwashed 'Muslims' who carried out the attacks. These so called Muslims were ignorant and not afraid of Allah as they would have known that commiting suicide is forbidden in Islam, and the punishment is eternal torment in the hell fire. Allah says in the Quran, “Thou wouldst only, perchance, fret thyself to death, following after them, in grief, if they believe not in this message.” In another chapter, Allah says, “O ye who believe! Eat not up your property among yourselves in vanities; but let there be amongst you traffic and trade by mutual good-will; nor kill (or destroy) yourselves, for verily Allah hath been to you Most Merciful.” 

Do you realize what the media have done? They have implanted a seed in everyone's head that Islam and the people who practice it are 'terrosists'. They have intentionally created fear in the general public for some reason. Until at one moment, non-Muslims were afraid of Muslims people and this situation is known as ‘Islamophobia’ . Because of that, there were lots of cases that show Islam is in a danger so seriously. For instance, Muslims students at France are prohibited to wear hijab during school. On the other side, Gottschalk, a professor of religion at Wesleyan University, and his former student Greenberg in their book entitled ‘Islamophobia: Making Muslims the enemy’ analyze what Islamophobia is and how it is manifested through political cartoons, many of which are included with revealing results.  

But if people were able to wake up or the covering on their eyes and hearts were lifted, they'd realized that it is not only Muslims who kill people. It is all people from all religions. Christians, Hindus, Jews and so on, they've killed people, whether it be by bombing, shooting, random shooting, and car bombs. There are so many events that show terrorism made by non-Muslims country all over the world; America takes one million lives in Iraq for oil, Israel kills 10,000 Lebanese civilians due to two missing soldiers, Russians kills 200,000 Chechens in bombings and so on. All of the disasters were made by non-Muslims and nobody calls them as terrorists. If people used their own intelligence to decide on an attack that has taken place, instead of agreeing with everything thrown at them and conforming to everything in the media, there would be more people with sense in the world. Saying this, there are many people who don't just jump on the bandwagon and understand that Islam is not a 'violent religion'. As an example, many researchers and scholars from the West convert to Islam when reading and studying the Qur'an. Some of the exegetes is Cat Stevens or now known as Yusuf Islam, and many more.  Hence, we can see that people who are really interested in Islam will never associate Islam with terrorism manner.

  On the other side, there are websites who pretend to be Islamic websites with translations of the Quran, but the chapters and verses have been translated to mean something totally different. So when blind and heartless people go onto these websites and read 'kill anyone and everyone you see around you', they believe it and think bad of Muslim people, and also think that generally Muslims are hiding things. If you really knew a genuine, fully practicing the regulation guide in Quran, normal Muslim who follows the religion according to the Holy Quran, then people will begin to understand that Muslims are not 'terrorists', and they haven't been told by Allah to kill non Muslims or hurt them in any way. In fact, Muslims are told in the Quran to respect, help, support, visiting and share things with their neighbours whatever their religion may be. Allah says in the Quran, “Serve Allah and join not any partners with Him; and do good to parents, kinsfolk, orphans, those in need, neighbours who are near, neighbours who are strangers, the companion by your side, the wayfarer(ye meet), and what your right hands possess, for Allah lone not the arrogant, the vainglorious.” 

When a Muslim person does kill someone, then it is all over the news with 'Muslim' highlighted, but if someone else kills who is from another religion, then their religion does not get brought up. Does anyone ever wonder why? The whole world is against Islam, because Islam is the true religion. Allah has not told any Muslim in any book to kill non Muslims, it is the Almighty God who gives life and takes life. Any Muslim who kills another human being will taste the hell, no doubt, and Allah knows best. Quran quotes about this in Chapter 5 verse 32, “On that account We ordained for the Children of Israel that if any one slew a person; unless it be for murder of for spreading mischief in the land, it would be as if he slew the whole people, and if any one saved a life, it would be as if he saved the life of the whole people. Then although there came to them Our apostles with clear signs, yet, even after that, many of them continued to commit excesses in the land.” Only true, honest Muslims fear Allah and are on the straight path. These types of Muslim people pray for everyone in the world. So after all this, how can Muslims be bad people? 

Let’s look to the other factor. When people hear the word 'Jihad', they think such a 'Holy War'. In some cases this is correct, but in reality, every single Muslim person carries out Jihad in their lives until the day they die. How? We will find out, but what we need to understand first is that Jihad is a religious duty of every Muslim person.  Jihad means to struggle and strive in the way of Allah. Jihad also means to defend Islam and to improve the Muslim society. These can be broken down into several types such as to do pilgrimage, saves a plant from dying, jihad in struggle to become a better Muslim, help persons in need, increase knowledge about Islam, to promote peace, harmony or cooperation and assisting others and commited to work and reach the goal of life is also call as a jihad in Islamic perspectives. Jihad also means, which is the 'big one', is to defend Islam. Jihad is warfare when Muslims have to defend their religion, wars against unbelievers, apostates, rebels, highway robbers and dissenters renouncing the authority of Islam. Jihad does not mean to either forcefully or unforcefully convert non-Muslims to Islam. Islamic Server of MSA said that jihad is not a war to force the faith on others, as many people think of it. It should never be interpreted as a way of compulsion of the belief on others, since there is an explicit verse in the Qur'an that says: 'There is no compulsion in religion' Al-Qur'an.”  Instead, a Muslim must be respectful of other religions. By extension, an Islamic government is not allowed to compel anyone to be a Muslim.

There are lots of evidences that show Islam is not spread by sword or any action of terrorism. Just look for the past, we know that history has recorded that Muslims ruled Spain for about 800 years. In addition, the Muslims in Spain never used the sword to force the people to convert. Later the Christian Crusaders came to Spain and wiped out the Muslims. There was not a single Muslim in Spain who could openly give the azan that is the call for prayers. Another story is Muslims were the lords of Arabia for 1400 years. For a few years the British ruled, and for a few years the French ruled. Overall, the Muslims ruled Arabia for 1400 years. Yet today, there are 14 million Arabs who are Coptic Christians which means they are Christians since generations. If the Muslims had used the sword there would not have been a single Arab who would have remained a Christian. Furthermore, India has been governed by Muslims for about thousands years. Yet, more than 80 percents of the population of India are non-Muslims live in India today. If people labeling Muslims as a terrorists, then in that case, all Indian now has been converted to Islam just like their leaders. 

On the other hand, an article in Reader’s Digest ‘Almanac’, year book 1986, gave the statistics of the increase of percentage of the major religions of the world in half a century from 1934 to 1984. This article also appeared in ‘The Plain Truth’ magazine. At the top was Islam, which increased by 235 percents, and Christianity had increased only by 47 percents. May one ask, which war took place in this century which converted millions of people to Islam? In addition, the fastest growing religion in America and Europe today is Islam.  Therefore, which sword is forcing people in the West to accept Islam in such large numbers? Moreover, in Islamic teachings, men and women are to be respected equally. Under Islamic law, women have always had the right to own property, receive an education and otherwise take part in community life. The Islamic rules for modest dress apply to women and men equally. In the Islamic world, at the beginning of Islam, there were no restrictions or prohibitions toward women to seek knowledge and education. There were many women scholars in the fields of religion, literature, music, education and medicine. In addition, women can seek employment and work in professions such as medical care, teaching, civil and justice professions. These rights remain the same before and after marriage.  According to data, there were 774 million illiterate adults in 2005, 64 percent of whom are women, many of them are Muslims. Furthermore, 72 millions primary school age children were not enrolled in the same year. This is an indication that more work has to be done to accomplish Islamic and international commitments in the area of education such as the ‘Education for All’ declaration and the universal primary education goal as part of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The international commitments indicate that there is widespread recognition of the importance of education as a key tool for development. Moreover, Muslims are encouraged to support education for disadvantaged sections of society. This can be observed through some forms of charitable giving to promote education projects for the disadvantaged and the marginal. Islam has a holistic view of human development, which views education and knowledge as central. Furthermore, the principles of justice and equity are important in Islam. This entitles acquiring knowledge and skills to apply such principles.

Nevertheless, why should people condemn that Islam and even Muslims are always related with such a terrorism act yet in the same time, Islam is applied the law of justice in each matter of life? This has been proven in the Holy Quran, the sacred scripture of Islam that considers justice to be a suprime virtue. It is a basic objective of Islam to the degree that it stands next in order of priority to belief in God’s exclusive right to worship (Tawheed) and the truth of Muhammad’s prophethood.  God declares in the Quran, “We sent Our Messengers with clear signs and sent down with them the Book and the Measure (of right and wrong) in order to establish justice among the people..”  The divine judge stands over the human judge, observing all that he does, and human justice even at its best can never be more than a poor imitation of divine Justice. The Prophet Muhammad himself when he was called upon to adjudicate in civil actions warned the litigants that one of the might be more eloquent in putting his case than the other and thereby achieve an unjust settlement. “In such a case,” said Muhammad, “I will have given him a portion of hellfire.” This is clearly a grave matter indicating that those who seek justice must themselves practice it without deviation even to their own hurt. Under all and any circumstances a victory which is contrary to justice is a poisoned chalice.  With regards to relations with non-Muslims, the Quran further states, “God does not forbid you from doing good and being just to those who have neither fought you over your faith nor evicted you from your homes.”  The Muslims scholars have concluded that these rulings apply to all nations, followers of all faiths, as a matter of fact to all humanity.  In the view of Quran, justice is an obligation. That’s why the Prophet was told, “…if you judge, judge between them with justice..”  However, the Qur'an also places great emphasis on commutative justice. God commands us, “Do not be moved by partiality to discriminate in meting out divinely legislated punishments.”  The Prophet Muhammad mentioned that one of the reasons behind the ruination of a nation is a lack of commutative justice. In this context, he mentioned that if his very daughter were to steal, he would not hesitate to punish her to the full extent of the law.  

If people want to know about the true Islamic religion of life, try to get to know one who lives nearby and make your own mind up if you think they are 'Islamic terrorists'. People may find that Muslims are very generous, welcoming, warm hearted and overall honest people. Unfortunately, there are Muslims out there who are try to promote the religion which is not according to the teachings of the Quran and not in line to the traditions of the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh). Hence, be aware of some Muslims who are or may be brainwashed and only talk about politics, power, who are against other religions and seem unapproachable. This is where brainwashed Muslims misunderstand the message in the Quran and Traditions of Prophet Muhammad (pbuh). They take it upon themselves to improve the world without considering the innocent people. To be more clear, if non-Muslims were watching the news, they would know that the media is very quick to assume that any attack in any part of the country was carried out by 'Islamic terrorists'. This is because the Islamic group, Al-Qaeda, have given Islam a very bad name, and it is them who are confused with the teachings of the Quran and Sunnah of the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) and people then finally give very bad impressions about Islam regarding to this wrongdoing action people. 

To correct this concept, Muslims themselves should make a return back to the true Islamic teaching. Allah has give humankind a very special brain that can think wisely and rationally in whatever we do in our life. According to Hamka, an Islamic scholar in his book of al-Azhar Translation, state that Allah’s knowledge is over the angel’s. Allah has created the human being different compared to the animals. Human’s creation is also different compared to the angels. Animals just follow their instincts and desires whereas the angels are always obey Allah without any doubt. While human have both, instincts and desires as well as a brain to think. Unfortunately, there are several human being that cannot think rationally thus doing very bad thing even disasters on this land. That’s why Allah sent His Messengers to guide them and teach them the morality of being a human.  Allah has stated in the Holy Quran, “Mankind was one single nation, and Allah sent Messengers with glad tidings and warnings; and with them He sent the Book in truth, to judge between people in matters wherein the differed, but the People of the Book after the clear signs came to them, did not differ among themselves, except through selfish contumacy. Allah by His Grace guided the believers to the truth, concerning that wherein they differed, for Allah guided whom He will to a path that is straight.” In the other chapter, Allah says, “Mankind was but one nation, but differed (later). Had it not been for a word that went forth before from thy Lord, their differences would have been settled between them.” 

Hence, we as a Muslims should have a very clear in mind about what Islam has teach the followers regarding the manner in this life. Muslims have to make The Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) as a role model in all perspectives of life as he is the best, perfect Muslim ever. The Holy Quran and the Sunnah are the complete guidance how to implement the Islamic law in our daily life so that all people around the world know that Islam is a religion of peace today and hereafter.