Islam Is Not The Source Of Terrorism,
But Its Solution
 During
the last two decades in particular, the concept of "Islamic terror"
has been often discussed. In the wake of the September 11 terrorist
attacks on targets in New York and Washington which caused the death
of tens of thousands of innocent civilians, this concept has once again
returned to the top of the international agenda.
As Muslims, we completely condemn these attacks and offer our condolences
to the American people.
In this article, we will explain that Islam is by no means the source
of this violence and that violence has no place in Islam.
One point that should be stressed at the outset is that the identities
of the perpetrators of the acts of terrorism which targeted the United
States are not yet determined. There is a chance that these horrible
attackers are linked to quite different centres. It may well be a communist
organisation harbouring rage and hatred against American values, a fascist
organisation opposing federal administration or a secret faction in
another state. Even though the hijackers have Muslim identities, the
questions regarding by whom and for what purposes these people were
used will remain to be a mystery.
The fact remains however, that even if the terrorists have Muslim identities,
the terror they perpetrated cannot be labelled "Islamic terror",
just as it would not be called "Jewish terror" if the perpetrators
were Jews or "Christian terror" if they were Christians.
That is because, as we will examine in the following pages, murdering
innocent people in the name of religion is unacceptable. We need to
keep in mind that, among those who were killed in Washington or New
York, there were people who loved Jesus (Christians), Prophet Moses
(Jews) and Muslims. Unless forgiven by God, murdering innocent people
is a great sin that brings torment in Hell.
Thus, a religious person who has fear of God can never commit such an
act.
The aggressors can commit such violence only with the intention of attacking
religion itself. It may well be that they carried out this violence
to present religion as evil in the eyes of people, to divorce people
from religion and to generate hatred and reaction against pious people.
Consequently, every attack having a "religious" facade on
American citizens or other innocent people is actually an attack made
against religion.
 Religion
commands love, mercy and peace. Terror, on the other hand, is the opposite
of religion; it is cruel, merciless and it demands bloodshed and misery.
This being the case, while looking for the perpetrators of a terrorist
act, its origins should be sought in disbelief rather than in religion.
People with a fascist, communist, racist or materialist outlook on life
should be suspected as potential perpetrators. The name or the identity
of the triggerman is not important. If he can kill innocent people without
blinking an eye, then he is a disbeliever, not a believer. He is a murderer
with no fear of God, whose main ambition is to shed blood and to give
harm. For this reason, "Islamic terror" is quite an erroneous
concept which contradicts Islam's message. That is because, the religion
of Islam can by no means concur with terror. On the contrary, "terror"
(i.e. murders committed against innocent people) in Islam is a great
sin and Muslims are responsible for preventing these acts and bringing
peace and justice to the world.
The Values of The Qur'an Demand Goodness,
Justice And Peace
Terror, in its broadest sense, is violence committed against non-military
targets for political purposes. To put it in another way, the targets
of terror are entirely innocent civilians whose only crime is, in the
eyes of terrorists, to represent "the other side".
Terror means subjecting innocent people to violence, which is an act
bereft of any moral justification. This, as in the case of murders committed
by Hitler or Stalin, is a crime committed against "mankind".
The Qur'an is a Book revealed to people as a guide to the true path
and in this Book, God commands man to adopt good morals. This morality
is based upon concepts such as love, compassion, tolerance and mercy.
God calls all people to Islamic morals through which compassion, mercy,
peace and tolerance can be experienced all over the world.
You who believe! Enter absolutely
into peace [Islam]. Do not follow in the footsteps of Satan. He is an
outright enemy to you. (Surat al-Baqara: 168)
The values of the Qur'an hold
a Muslim responsible for treating all people, whether Muslim or non-Muslim,
kindly and justly, protecting the needy and the innocent and preventing
the "dissemination of mischief". Mischief comprises all
forms of anarchy and terror that remove security, comfort and peace.
As God says in a verse, "God does
not love mischief makers". (Surat
al-Qasas: 77)
 Murdering
a person for no reason is one of the most obvious examples of mischief.
God repeats in the Qur'an a command He formerly revealed to Jews in
the Old Testament thus:
So We decreed for the tribe of Israel that if
someone kills another person-unless it is in retaliation for someone
else or for causing corruption in the earth-it is as if he had murdered
all mankind. And if anyone gives life to another person, it is as if
he had given life to all mankind. Our Messengers came to them with Clear
Signs but even after that many of them committed outrages in the earth.
(Surat al-Ma'ida: 32)
As the verse suggests, a person
who kills even a single man, "unless it is in retaliation for
someone else or for causing corruption in the earth", commits
a crime as if he had murdered all mankind on earth.
This being the case, it is obvious what great sins are the murders,
massacres and, attacks, popularly known as "suicide attacks",
committed by terrorists are. God informs us how this cruel face of
terrorism will be punished in the hereafter in the following verse:
There are only grounds against
those who wrong people and act as tyrants in the earth without any
right to do so. Such people will have a painful punishment. (Surat
ash-Shura: 42)
All these reveal that organising
acts of terror against innocent people is utterly against Islam and
it is unlikely that any Muslim could ever commit such crime. On the
contrary, Muslims are responsible for stopping these people, removing
"mischief on earth" and bringing peace and security to all
people all over the world. Being a Muslim cannot be reconciled with
terror. Just the contrary, it is the solution and prevention of terror.
This being the case, how did the
popular term "Islamic terror" emerge?
What has been examined so far reveals that it is not possible to talk
about an "Islamic" terror. Indeed, a closer look at the characteristics
of the perpetrators explicitly reveals that this terror is not a religious
but a social phenomenon.
Crusaders: Barbarians
Who Trampled Their Own Religion
The true message of a religion or another system of belief can be at
times exposed to distortion by its pseudo-adherents. The Crusaders,
who constitute a dark episode of Christian history, set a good example
of this.
Crusaders were European Christians who undertook the expeditions at
the end of the 11th century to recover the Holy Land (the area around
Palestine) from the Muslims. They set out with a so-called religious
goal, yet they laid waste each acre of land they entered with fear and
violence. They subjected civilians to mass executions and plundered
many villages and towns.
Their conquest of Jerusalem, where Muslims, Jews and Christians lived
under Islamic rule in peace, became the scene of immense bloodshed.
They violently killed all Muslims and Jews by striking their necks.
The Crusaders' barbarism was so excessive that, during the Fourth Crusade,
they plundered Istanbul, also a Christian city, and stole the golden
objects from the churches.
 No
doubt, all this barbarism was utterly against Christian political doctrine.
That is because, Christianity, in the words of the Bible, is a "message
of love". In the Gospel according to Matthew, it is said that Jesus
said "Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you"
to his followers (Matthew, 5/44) In the Gospel according to Luke, it
is said that Jesus said "If someone strikes you on one cheek, turn
to him the other also." (Luke, 6/29) No doubt, in no part of the
Gospels, is there reference to the legitimacy of violence; murdering
innocent people, on the other hand, is unimaginable. You can find the
concept of "murdering the innocent" in the Bible; yet, only
in the cruel Jewish King Herod's attempt to kill Jesus while he was
a baby.
While Christianity is a religion based on love that accommodates no
violence, how did Christian Crusaders carry out the most violent acts
of history? The major reason for this is that, Crusaders were mainly
made up of ignorant people who could better be defined as "rabble".
These masses, who knew almost nothing about their religion, who had
never read or even seen the Bible once in their lifetime, and who were
therefore completely unaware of the moral values of the Bible, were
led into barbarism under the conditioning of Crusaders' slogans which
presented this violence as "God's Will".
It is worth mentioning that in that period, Eastern
Christians-the people of Byzantium, for instance-who were culturally
far ahead of Western Christians, espoused more humane values. Both before
and after the Crusaders' conquests, Orthodox Christians managed to live
together with Muslims. According to Terry Johns, the BBC commentator,
with the withdrawal of the Crusaders from Middle East, "civilized
life started again and members of the three monotheistic faith returned
to peaceful coexistence."1 The
example of the Crusaders is indicative of a general phenomenon: The
more the adherents of an ideology are uncivilised, intellectually underdeveloped
and "ignorant", the more likely they are to resort to violence.
This also holds true for ideologies that have nothing to do with religion.
All communist movements around the world are prone to violence. Yet
the most savage and blood-thirsty of them was the Red Khmers in Cambodia.
That is because they were the most ignorant.
Just as ignorant people may take a violence-ridden opinion to the point
of insanity, so they may confuse violence with an opinion against violence
(or to religion). The Islamic world also experienced such cases.
The Bedouin Character
In The Qur'an
In the period of our Prophet, there existed two basic social structures
in Arabia. City-dwellers and Bedouins (Desert Arabs). A sophisticated
culture prevailed in Arab towns. Commercial relations linked the towns
to the outer world, which contributed to the formation of "good
manners" among Arabs dwelling in cities. They had refined aesthetic
values, enjoyed literature and, especially poetry. Desert Arabs, on
the other hand, were the nomad tribes living in the desert who had
a very crude culture. Utterly unaware of arts and literature, they
developed an unrefined character.
Islam was born and developed among the inhabitants of Mecca, the most
important city of the peninsula. However, as Islam spread to the peninsula,
all tribes in Arabia embraced it. Among these tribes were also Desert
Arabs, who were somehow problematic: Their poor intellectual and cultural
background prevented them from grasping the profundity and noble spirit
of Islam. Of this God states the following in a verse:
The desert arabs are more obdurate in disbelief
and hypocrisy and more likely not to know the limits which God has sent
down to His Messenger. God is All-Knowing, All-Wise. (Surat at-Tawba:
97)
The Desert Arabs, that is, social groups
who were "obdurate in disbelief and hypocrisy" and prone to
disobey God's commands, became a part of the Islamic world in the Prophet's
time. However, in latter periods, they became a source of trouble for
the Islamic world. The sect called "Kharijis" that emerged
among Bedouins was an example. The most distinctive trait of this perverse
sect (which was called "Kharijis" the rebels because they
greatly deviated from Sunni practises), was their extremely vulgar,
wild and fanatical nature. The "Kharijis", who had no comprehension
whatsoever of the essence of Islam or of the virtues and the values
of the Qur'an, waged war against all other Muslims and based this war
on a few Qur'anic verses about which they made distorted interpretations.
Furthermore, they carried out "acts of terrorism". Ali, who
was one of the closest companions of the Prophet and was described as
the "gate of the city of knowledge", was assassinated by a
Kharijite.
In latter periods, "Hashashis", another brutal organisation,
emerged; this was a "terrorist organisation" made up of ignorant
and fanatical militants bereft of a profound understanding of the essence
of Islam and thus who could be readily influenced by simple slogans
and promises.
In other words, just as the Crusaders distorted and misinterpreted Christianity
as a teaching of brutality, some perverted groups emerging in the Islamic
world misinterpreted Islam and resorted to brutality. What is common
to this sect and the Crusaders was their "Bedouin" nature.
That is, they were ignorant, unrefined, uncultivated, vulgar, and isolated
people. The violence they resorted resulted from this social structure,
rather than the religion to which they claimed to adhere.
The Actual Source
Of Terrorism: The Third World Fanaticism
These examples from history are enlightening for a better understanding
of the phenomenon, the so-called "Islamic terror", which is
nowadays on the top of the international agenda. That is because those
who emerge and carry out acts of terrorism in the name of Islam or those
who back such acts-these people, no doubt, represent a minority in the
world of Islam-stem from this "character peculiar to Bedouins",
not from Islam. Failing to understand the essence of Islam, they try
to make Islam, essentially a religion of peace and justice, a tool of
barbarism, which is simply an outcome of their social and cultural structure.
The origin of this barbarism, which may well be called the "Third
World Fanaticism", is the benighted initiatives of people who are
devoid of love for humans.
It is a fact that, for the last few centuries, Muslims in all corners
of the Islamic world, are being subjected to violence by Western forces
and their affiliates. The colonialist European states, local oppressive
regimes or colonialists backed by the West (Israel, for instance) caused
great suffering for Muslims at large. However, for Muslims, this is
a situation that has to be approached and responded to from a purely
Qur'anic stance.
In no part of the Qur'an does God command believers to "respond
to violence with violence". On the contrary, God commands Muslims
to "respond to evil with goodness":
A good action and a bad action are not the same.
Repel the bad with something better and, if there is enmity between you
and someone else, he will be like a bosom friend. (Surat al-Fussilat:
34)
It is no doubt a legitimate right of
Muslims to react against this cruelty. However, these reactions should
never turn into a blind hatred, an unjust enmity. God warns about
this in the following verse:
... Do not let hatred for a people who debar you
from the Masjid al-Haram incite you into going beyond the limits. Help
each other to goodness and heedfulness. Do not help each other to wrongdoing
and enmity. Heed God (alone)... (Surat al-Ma'ida: 2)
Consequently, carrying out terrorist
acts against the innocent people of other nations under the pretence
of "representing the innocent nations in the world", is
by no means compatible with Islam.
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| Carrying out terrorist acts against the innocent people of other
nations under the pretence of "representing the innocent
nations in the world", is by no means compatible with Islam. |
Another point that deserves a special mention
here is that all Western nations cannot be held responsible for the aforementioned
violence and oppression against Muslims. Actually, the materialist, irreligious
philosophies and ideologies that prevailed in the 19th century are responsible
for these dismal acts. European colonialism did not originate from Christianity.
On the contrary, anti-religious movements opposing the values of Christianity
led the way to colonialism. At the roots of the greatest brutalities of
the 19th century lies the Social Darwinist ideology. In the Western world
today, there are still cruel, mischievous and opposing factors as well
as a culture dominated by peaceful and just elements that have its roots
in Christianity. As a matter of fact, the main disagreement is not between
the West and Islam. Contrary to the general opinion, it is between the
devout people of the West and of the Muslim world on the one hand, and
the people opposing religion (materialists, atheists, Darwinists etc.)
on the other.
Another indication that Third World Fanaticism has nothing to do with
Islam is that, until recently, this fanaticism has been identified with
communist ideology. As is known, similar anti-West acts of terror were
carried out in 1960s and 70s by USSR-backed communist organisations. As
the impact of the communist ideology faded, some of the social structures
which gave birth to communist organisations have turned their attention
to Islam. This "brutality presented under the guise of religion",
which is formulated by the incorporation of some Islamic concepts and
symbols into the former communist literature are entirely against the
moral values constituting the essence of Islam.
A last remark about this issue is that Islam is not peculiar to a particular
nation or geography. Contrary to the dominant Western perception, Islam
is not an "Eastern culture". Islam is the last religion revealed
to mankind as a guide to the true path that recommends itself to all humanity.
Muslims are responsible for communicating the true religion they believe
in to all people of all nations and cultures and making them feel closer
to Islam.
Consequently, there is a unique solution for people and groups who, in
the name of Islam, resort to terror, form oppressive regimes and turn
this world into a dreadful place instead of beautifying it: revealing
the true Islam and communicating it so that the masses can understand
and live by it.
Recommendations
To The Western World
Today, the Western world is concerned about the organisations that
use terror under the guise of Islam and this concern is not misplaced.
It is obvious that those carrying out terror and their supporters
should be punished according to international judicial criteria. However,
a more important point to consider is the long-term strategies that
have to be pursued for viable solutions to these problems.
The assessments above reveal that terror has no place in Islam and
that it is a crime committed against humanity. They further show the
inherently contradictory nature of the concept of "Islamic terror".
This provides us with an important vantage point:
1) The Western world, especially the United States, will surely take
the most dissuasive measures to cope with terror and it has the right
to do that. However, it has to state explicitly that this is not a
war waged against Islam and Muslims but, on the contrary, a measure
serving the best interests of Islam. The "Clash of civilisations",
the dangerous scenario envisioned in the 90's should be at all costs
prevented.
2) Support should be provided for the spread of "True Islam",
which is a religion of love, friendship, peace and brotherhood, and
for its true understanding by Islamic societies. The solution for
radical factions in Islamic countries should not be "compulsory
secularisation". On the contrary, such a policy will incite more
reaction from the masses. The solution is the dissemination of true
Islam and the appearance of a Muslim role-model who embraces Qur'anic
values such as human rights, democracy, freedom, good morals, science
and aesthetics, and who offers happiness and bliss to humanity.
3) The source of terrorism is ignorance and bigotry and the solution
to terrorism is education. To the circles who feel sympathy with terror,
it should be said that terror is utterly against Islam, that terror
only does harm to Islam, Muslims and to humanity at large. Besides,
these people have to be provided with education in order to be purified
of this barbarism. The United States' support to such an education
policy will yield very positive results.
Our hope is that these measures will help to the world get rid of
terrorism and all other bigoted, brutal, barbarous structures. With
its Christian-dominated population, the United States, that defines
itself as "a country under God's protection", is in fact
a real friend of the Muslims. In the Qur'an, God draws attention to
this fact and informs us that Christians are those who are "most
affectionate to those who believe". (Surat al-Ma'ida:
82)
In history, some ignorant people (for instance, Crusaders) failed
to understand this fact and caused conflicts between these two religions.
To prevent the repetition of this scenario, true Christians and Muslims
need to come together and co-operate.
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God calls to the Abode
of Peace and He guides whom He wills to a straight path.
(Qur’an, 10:25)
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