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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 11th, 2001 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.
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As
Muslims, we completely condemn these attacks and offer our
condolences to the American people.
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In
this report, 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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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.
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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.
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Thus,
a religious person who has fear of God can never commit such
an act.
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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.
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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 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,
“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.
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The
Values of the Qur'an demands Goodness, Justice and Peace
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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”.
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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”.
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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.
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"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)
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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,
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"God
does not love mischief makers". (Surat al-Qasas:
77)
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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:
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"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)
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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.
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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:
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"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)
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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.
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This
being the case, how did the popular term “Islamic
terror” emerge?
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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
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The
true message of a religion or another system of belief can
be at times exposed to distortion by its pseudo-adherents.
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The
Crusaders, who constitute a dark episode of Christian
history, set a good example of this.
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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.
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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.
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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 “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.
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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”.
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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.
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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.
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The
Bedouin Character in the Qur'an
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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.
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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:
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"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)
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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”. Imam
Ali A.S, 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.
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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.
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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.
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The
Actual Source of Terrorism: The Third World Fanaticism
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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.
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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.
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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”:
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"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)
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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:
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"...
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)
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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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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
Conclusion:
Recommendations to the Western World
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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.
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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:
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Our
hope is that these measures will help the world get rid
of terrorism and all other bigoted, brutal, barbarous
structures. [edited 13th April, '03]
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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.
[1]
Alan Ereira, David Wallace, Crusades : Terry Johns Tell the
Dramatic Story of Battle for Holy Land, BBC World Wide Ltd.,
1995.
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