Who says all news is depressing? In what BBC reports as "their first openly defiant act against 'Islamic terrorism'" Indian Muslims refused to bury the bodies of the nine men who terrorized Mumbai in Muslim cemeteries.
Finally, a precedence-setting act of courage! Alhamdulillah.
Earlier, I was told that US government officials were starting to avoid referring to terror perpetrators as "mujahideen." I hope the media follows suit.
Kinship with people of one's faith is natural, among Muslims this kinship is deeper and stronger than many other faiths. We celebrate each others' successes as siblings do. We mourn with each other our losses. Our hearts weep for the oppression other Muslims endure. Yet, for all the tragic and heart-rending oppression of Muslims, we can never retaliate by crossing the lines our Lord has drawn. Our love for other Muslims will not blind us to their crimes. We are not a tribe, we are a faith community. Our faith sets high ethical and moral standards. We are not so naive that anarchists and terrorists could pass off as freedom fighters and martyrs.
You can fool anybody once, but you can't fool all the people all the time. I view the response of India's Muslims as the beginning of the end of the age when terrorists defined Islam and Muslims.
Terror is our response to tyranny against us? Forgive the cliche, but two wrongs do not make a right. We don't fight sin with bigger sin. Just as speaking the truth before a tyrant is a great form of jihad, resisting hopelessness, despair and suicide in face of great oppression must have great rewards with God. Who came and tricked us into suicide missions? And look at what that has brought us?
We need to unequivocally denounce the terror strategy. It has no place in our faith. And it's been tried for way too long and failed. It has brought shame to the name of our faith and untold suffering to our people. To borrow from the editorial headline of India's leading Urdu newspaper Inquilab: "ab bahut ho chuka" - enough already!
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4 comments:
AA-
"We need to unequivocally denounce the terror strategy. It has no place in our faith. And it's been tried for way too long and failed."
What terror strategy are you referring to?
And can you please expound on that last statement: 'it's been tried for way too long'
What do you mean?
What about that assertion is so intriguing or confusing to you? It is evident to any observer of world events that some Muslims have and continue to plan and execute acts of terrorism. It also appears from their own statements that it is their strategy in dealing with those they deem as the enemy.
They use it in their conflicts with people of other faith. They use it in their disagreements with fellow Muslims.
Sick people do sick things. The reason all Muslims ought to be outraged is these sick people want the world to believe that Islam promotes terrorism as a strategy.
AA- ATM,
I fear you may be painting with a wide brush my friend. This terror strategy that you speak of, who is cast under your overarching term?
Obviously you are restricting yourself to Muslims. No problem, I agree we need much housecleaning, although I prefer to point out that terrorism dropped from 50,000 ft is as terror-inducing as the bomb left in a bus. Both are hideous, regardless of the cause and strategy.
But which Muslims are carrying out this terrorism strategy? Those in Iraq, who are fighting against an occupying force? How about those in Somalia, fighting against warlords and Ethiopian troops? How about in Chechnya, Pakistan, Afghanistan and all those other places where governments are loosely throwing around the 'terrorist' label in order to garner the sympathies of the international audience?
I'm not denying the existence of terrorism, but let's be a bit cautious on how we use it. Its clear that its being used as indiscriminately as a drone missile fired into a Pashtun village.
Lastly, I don't quite understand what you are inferring when you constantly repeat your mantra of having tried terrorism for 'too long'. With a history spanning 1400 years, a 30-yr old practice is not very long. Seems more like a fad - one that I pray will fizzle out.
But based purely on your words, it seems that Muslims have been terrorizing the world since the inception of Islam.
I will concede that IF I suggested Muslims had been terrorizing the world for much of history, that would be a gross miscommunication on my part.
But if you concede 30 years, and you call it a fad - I will say that is 30 years too many.
This "fad" will only end if we take a firm position on this perversion of our faith. And I find Muslims start to drag their feet when it comes to it. In Islam two wrongs do not make a right.
I will further concede that bombs dropped from air by official military planes is a sicker and more perverse a form of terrorism. If we didn't return terrorism with terrorism, I have a feeling that citizens in these countries would turn against their governments, just as they did on the issue of Civil Rights in America.
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