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Introduction
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
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.
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We strongly condemn the cruel terrorist acts which targeted the
innocent people of the United States.
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Even if the terrorists
have Muslim identities, the terror they perpetrated cannot be labeled
"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, 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. According to Islam,
murdering innocent people is a great sin that, unless forgiven by God,
brings torment in Hell.
Thus, a religious person
who has fear of God can never commit such an act.
In fact, 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.
All the three theistic
religions command 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,
whatever his label is, 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 a erroneous concept which
contradicts Islam's message. That is because, the religion of Islam can
by no means concur with terror. On the contrary, Muslims are responsible
for preventing terrorist acts and bringing peace and justice to the
world.
The
Values of the Qur'an demands 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".
This 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.
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. 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.
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Despite the fact that Christianity is a religion of love and
pacifism, the Crusaders slaughtered innocent people in the name
of Christ. They misunderstood their religion.
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No doubt, all this
barbarism was utterly against Christian political doctrine. That is
because, Christianity, in the words of the Bible, is a "gospel 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 New
Testament, is there reference to the legitimacy of violence; murdering
innocent people, on the other hand, is unimaginable. You can find the
concept of "massacre of the innocents" 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 as "God wills it".
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 Khmer
Rouge of 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 "civilized
life" 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, harsh 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 lifetime. 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". Caliph Ali, who was one of the closest companions of
the Prophet and was described by him as the "gate of the city of
knowledge", was assassinated by a Kharijite.
In latter periods, "Hashashis"
(Assassins), 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 these
sects 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 "Bedouin character", 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 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 Allah
(alone)..." (Surat al-Ma'ida: 2)
Consequently, carrying out
terrorist acts under the pretence of "representing the oppressed
nations of the world", against the innocent people of other nations
is by no means compatible with Islam.
Another point that
deserves a special mention here is that all the Western world cannot be
held responsible for the aforementioned colonialist (or
"neo-colonialist) 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 elements as well
as a culture dominated by peaceful and just elements that have its roots
in Judeo-Christian faith. As a matter of fact, the main disagreement is
not between the West and Islam. Contrary to the general opinion, it is
between the religious people of the West and of the Muslim world on the
one hand, and the people opposing religion (like materialists and
atheists.) 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-Western acts of terror were carried out in
1960s and 70s by Soviet-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 rhetoric 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 or establish 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.
Conclusion:
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. 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 "forced secularisation". On
the contrary, such a policy will incite more reaction from the masses
and feed radicalism. 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 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
culture and population, the United States, that defines itself as
"a nation under God", 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 great religions. To prevent the
repetition of this scenario, true Christians and Muslims need to come
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