Islam and Terrorism

M. Basheer Ahmed, M.D. 

Generally, the media in the U.S. is biased against Islam. The public gets the information as presented, with some exaggerations and omissions, and the media portrays Islam as a violent religion. Although Islam does not promote terrorism, terrorist acts are generally attributed to Islam and at times, terrorists themselves exploit Islam to justify their acts. Linking Islam to terrorist acts degrades the Islamic doctrine, creating a negative image of Islam. The American media’s reference to terrorism as Islamic, disturbs millions of Muslims throughout the world. All Muslims are not Arabs and all Arabs are not Muslims.

            The acts of terror against defenseless citizens, the destruction of property and the murder of innocent men, women and children are strictly forbidden in Islam. Nothing can ever justify or rationally explain the Sept.11 terrorist attacks in New York and Washington D.C. Just like people of all faiths, and nationalities, Muslims were horrified at the event of Sept. 11, 2001. The vast majority of Muslim organizations condemned the terrorist act, which killed over three thousand innocent people in New York and D.C. The victims included people of all nationalities, color, creed, and religion including 300 Muslims. Even today, we have no idea what motivated these people to commit such a horrendous act. No group has accepted responsibility for these acts. It is mentioned in the media that Muslim terrorists committed such an act because they did not like the Western way of life. This defies common sense, as terrorists are not attacking several other countries in the world, especially in Europe where people enjoy similar freedoms, prosperity, and culture. Terrorist acts are committed by individuals and groups who are psychologically motivated by culture, nationalistic, religious, and economic factors.

     The media also reported that Osama Bin Laden and his terrorist organization Al-Qaeda attacked because they were highly critical of U.S policies, especially the unconditional support of Israeli atrocities on Palestinians using American planes, tanks, missiles and bombs. Osama was also critical of U.S troops being stationed in Saudi Arabia and applying sanctions against Iraq. We cannot defend or explain these individuals or groups who claim an Islamic justification for acts that have no basis in Islam.

     These are individual Muslims or Muslim groups who are not acting on the clear teaching of the Quran, and who are misinterpreting Quran to justify their wrong actions. They are not following the teachings of the Quran. Any act of terrorism should not be attributed to any religion whether Christianity, Judaism, Islam or Hinduism. Although almost all terrorists (individuals or groups) belong to one religion or the other, no religion permits killing innocent people. If a terrorist act is Islamic, because a Muslim commits it, then terrorist acts committed by a Christians, Jews, or Hindus will be attributed to their faith. Is the Irish Republic Army's use of bombs a Catholic terrorist act?

Islam is a religion of peace, mercy, accommodation, and forgiveness, and a vast majority of Muslims customarily have nothing to do with the violent events committed in the name of Islam When a Muslim individual commits an act of violence or terrorism, this individual is violating the laws of Islam. The Quran says, “If any one kills a human being, it shall be as though he did slay all mankind; whereas if anyone saves a human life, it shall be as though he had saved the lives of all mankind. (5:32) A prominent aspect of Islam is to preserve and safeguard life. As mentioned above, Islam specifically forbids from committing aggression, or violence against civilians. This is why Muslims feel offended when the word ‘Islamic terrorists, is used. Terrorist activities should not be appended to any particular religion.

Terrorism is a universal problem, not exclusively related to Islam and Muslims. Terrorism was first defined as an act of intimidation of civilians by their government. This type of terrorism encompasses more victims than any acts of terrorism from people who attempt to disrupt or overthrow the established governments. ⁴ Mongols terrorized the world in the 13^th century, and the Christians terrorized Muslims in the Crusades, and later to both the Jews and Muslims in Spanish Inquisition. Hundreds of Aboriginal people in Australia and American Indians in the U.S. are killed in order to occupy their land. In recent history, there were several occurrences such as the Holocaust in Germany, killing 6 million Jews, several million people were killed during invasion of China, 2 million Filipinos during the invasion of Philippines, 2 million people were killed in the Vietnam War (U.S. had no reason to attack Vietnam), murders and purges of Stalin, killing fields of Pot Pol regime, mass murders in Rwanda, assassinations by Saddam Hussein, tortures and killing of Pinochet, Serbians ethnic cleansing of ethnic Albanians and Kosovans and Israeli army's massacres in Lebanon and Jenin refugee camps. Muslims were not involved in any of these actions except in Iraq. Since most of the killings are done by people who practice Christianity, should we blame the religion Christianity for these massacres?¦ Of course not.

Terrorism can also be defined as politically and ideologically motivated actions that target people indiscriminately to cause fear and to achieve certain political goals. The words, thug, zealot, and assassin all come from ancient cults of Hindu, Jewish, and Muslims respectively. The terrorists believe that they are doing the work of God. Two thousand years ago, a group of Jewish holy warriors (zealots) were terrorizing Romans by cutting their throats in public places, especially during the festival time. Romans crushed the rebellion. The zealots made one last attempt against the Romans at Masada, and when their attempt failed, 700 people killed themselves, rather than surrendering. Zealots at Masada are still praised as heroes for their suicidal act.

There are hundreds of terrorist organizations in the world and most of them are not Muslims, such as the Germany's Red Army faction, Italy's Red Brigade, Irish Republican Army, Basque Separatist groups in Spain and Neo-Nazi terrorist groups in Europe. One million people were killed in Rwanda, due to terrorist activities of rival groups. They were not Muslims. In our own country, Reverend Jones was instrumental in killing 900 Christians in the name of religion and David Kuraish was involved in destruction of human life under the banner of Christianity. Timothy Mc Veigh carried out a terrorist attack in Oklahoma City with the blessing of his Christian extremists, killing innocent men, women, and children. There are several Muslim terrorist organizations, such as Hamas, Al-Jehad, Al-Qaeda and others who engage in terrorist activities in different parts of the world. However, the terrorism, the martyrdom and suicides are known to the world long before Muslims were involved in these activities.

According to the annual U.S State department report,˜Patterns of Global Terrorism 1997, of the reported incidents of terrorism from the years 1992-1997, the largest number occurred in Europe (831), following Latin America (602) and the Middle East (422). For the same year, there were 7621 casualties in Europe and 2692 in the Middle East. The State Dept. also named 34 terrorist groups in 1997 and fewer than half (14 organizations) were related to the Middle East. Ralph Braibanti of Edmund Walsh School of International Affairs made the following comments. The use of poison gas by Buddhists Aum Shimrikyo of Japan, the Oklahoma Bombing of an American Christian, the long standing terrorism of Northern Irish Catholics, the violence of Indian Hindus in communal riots (most recent in Gujarat), ethnic cleansing by Christian orthodox Serbs in Bosnia and Kosova, the violence of drug-related Catholic mobs in Latin America and the terrorism of Hindu Tamils against Singhalese Buddhist government of Sri Lanka demonstrate the universality of terrorism and the cultural and religious diversity of its origin.â€� In fact the suicide bombing was a common terrorist act by Tamil Tigers militia in Sri Lanka long before Palestinian suicide bombers. Tamil Suicide Bombers killed 1600 people including the President of Sri Lanka, and Indian Prime Minister Rajev Gandhi. Most of the suicide bombers were women. Since Sri Lanka has no oil reservoirs, the West had no interest in that part of the world and all these civilian killings during the last two decades were never covered in Western media. In Nepal, Maoist rebels who launched their ˜People's war in 1996, to topple the Constitutional Monarchy killed more than 7200 people. In Nov. 2002, 7000 Maoist rebels attacked the village burning, looting and killing people. The government forces killed hundreds of rebels to drive them out of the area. In Nov. 2002, Indian terrorists Naxalites blasted a bus, killing 30 innocent passengers. These events are seldom covered in the news but when 13 Israelis are killed in Mombasa, the news made the headlines as Islamic terrorist act. Alex Giotopoulos, a leader of elusive ‘November 17^th terrorist organizations who killed CIA chiefs and other American and British officials, was arrested in Athens, Greece. The members of this group belonged to Greek Orthodox Church. In fact, a religious icon painter, and son of Greek Orthodox priest was carrying the bomb that was exploited. The media never identified them as Greek Orthodox Christian terrorists, and in fact, 31% of the Greeks agreed with the political aims of the Greek terrorist organization. ²³ In Nov. 2002, 10,000 people marched in Athens, protesting and demanding the freedom of leaders of the Nov.17^th terrorist organization. They burned American flags, and expressed anti-U.S. sentiments. The terrorists became heroes.

In a report released by the State Department, “Patterns of Global Terrorism 2001,� the State Dept. recorded 191 acts of terrorism against United States in Latin America and the numbers have increased every year since 1996.

Hindus have killed thousands of Sikhs, and more recently thousands of Muslims in Gujarat, India. Palestinian terrorists kill numerous innocent Israeli Jews, and the Israeli govt. has killed thousands of innocent Palestinians. Christians had killed 5 million Jews in Europe but nobody called them Christian terrorists. Similarly, Irish Republican Army (IRA) spread terror in London when they bombed subways and buildings; killing several innocent civilians indiscriminately, but the media never portrayed them as Catholic terrorists. Hundreds of innocent civilians including women and children and the elderly in Jenin refugee camps were killed. A young Jewish human rights activist commenting on CNN, denounced the Jewish aggression as a State-terrorism. Should we, therefore, call Judaism a terrorist religion?

No doubt we are seeing a rise in terrorist activities in some Muslim countries due to the political situations in the regions and a few Muslim foreigners were incriminated for terrorist activities in this country. However, Islam cannot be accused of condoning terrorism. Terrorists who claim to be Muslims use their religious beliefs inappropriately in acting the same way as anti-abortionists who bombed the clinics, killing people in the name of Christianity.

In 1969, an Australian Jew set Al Aqsa mosque on fire. In the mid 90’s, an American-Israeli Jew in Hebron murdered 29 innocent Muslim civilians while they were praying in the mosque. The Jewish settlers in Hebron built a monument to commemorate his heroic deeds and this resulted in inciting the emotions of Muslims. Palestinians do the same thing when they praise their suicide bombers for sacrificing their lives for a cause. Similarly, the Israeli govt. seldom condemns the killing of innocent women and children who are killed by Israeli forces. The casualties are simply referred to as collateral damage.

People of all faiths, Christian, Jews, and Muslims have deviated from the right path, and some leaders have even exploited the religion. This does not mean that a particular religion has promoted terrorism. Islam, Christianity, and Judaism or any other religion should not be blamed for any criminal acts of individuals just as Catholicism or Christianity should not be blamed for promoting homosexuality or pedophilia due to pedophilic behavior of a few priests and indifferent attitude of the Bishops and Cardinals. Criminals should be held responsible for their own crimes, not the religion they profess to follow. Terrorism is a universal problem, and no single religion or followers of any religion should be blamed exclusively for the terrorist activities.

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The Western Media have been aggressively singling out Muslims as the source of violence, but the facts speak to the contrary. It has already been seen that the level of almost all crimes is much less in Muslim countries than in most of the other countries. Let us now glance through the history of last 100-150 years to find, which countries indulged in biggest massacres, wars and civil wars. According to the website copyrighted by Pierie Scruff, which gives the statistics of wars and civil wars, about 160 million people died in wars in the 20^th century. The break-up of these wars and people dying in each of them is as follows:

The maximum number of militarymen killed in wars are also those of the current big powers that waged wars to dominate the world for their own expansionist and commercial ends. See the following table: