I am about to say it is based on what I read on Facebook rather recently, and it may sound controversial. So I’d advise you to read it carefully:
The terrorists who bombed Beirut and caused a massacre in Paris are Muslim. The terrorists who halted Bombay seven years back were Muslim. Yes, they’re Muslim. And they aren’t fringe elements either. Unequivocally they’re Muslim, and no amount of denial can or will change that.
All religions have radicalization tendencies entrenched in their dogma while ironically promoting peace and brotherhood. Islam is the biggest and the most prominent example because let’s face it, most of the terrorists who killed innocents were Muslims. The problem lies in both vested interests and dogma. I will address both.
Islam, on the whole, is a good religion.
Islam, on the whole, is a good religion. It has no class or caste-based divisions- though gender issues are a big problem. The ideals of Islam helped the Arabs to spread their political and cultural influences throughout Europe and Africa and, of course, Asia. They gave us Ibn Sena, Firdausi, Rumi, Salahdin, Akbar, Bahadur Shah Zafar and Mirza Ghalib.
Nonetheless, certain Quranic verses grievously mar Islam. For instance, its attitude regarding homosexuality, patriarchy, and violent propagation. Since Muslims and Islamic law are derived from the Quran, the entirety of the Quran is the source for Sharia and Islamic jurisprudence. So, Islamic fundamentalism as an ideology is present as a seed in the Quran. It only needed the tendings of Salafi and Sayed Qutub to come out as a movement, and it was abetted by the Capitalist West- which brings me to my second point.
Islamic fundamentalism
Islamic fundamentalism was already present, and when the world went to war in 1914, the Western Allies were fighting the Central Powers. The Ottomans owned Turkish and Arab lands, especially Mecca, Medina, and Jerusalem. For this, the Caliph was regarded as the religious head of (particularly Sunni) Muslims. After the war, when the Ottoman territories were divided amongst the victorious powers as Mandates, House Saud- with its Wahabist ideals- began unifying the Arabian lands to form the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
We are all aware of the Wahabi ideology of Islam, with its regressive doctrines. However, the West did not bat an eye until three things happened- the emergence of the USSR and the USA as superpowers after World War II; the need to “contain” Communism by the bourgeois states and discover oil deposits in the Gulf in the 1960s.
The Capitalists, especially the USA, understood that the best way to contain Communism in the Middle East was to use the seeds of Islamic fundamentalism already present in the Quran with the help of Saudi and Gulf money; this was done because the Soviets had a large Muslim population in its Central Asian and Caucasus Republics. This was all done in the 1970s, in conjunction with the Vietnam War. Curiously, this is when the Egyptian Sayed Qutub promoted hatred of the West by radical Islamic means. And it all went hellishly after the Soviets (stupidly, to be very honest) invaded Afghanistan in 1979. After this, what happened is known history, the rest about how the West created and helped the Mujahideen against the Soviet troops. That led to the rise of Osama, al-Zawahiri, and others.
So my point is, those who kill and bomb places are doing it in the name of Islam, justifying it by citing those very Quranic verses and Hadiths, which proved to be the foundation for Islamic fundamentalism. They’re Muslim. This is a Muslim problem.
Let me be clear, I have Muslim friends, and they’re some of the most rational and the most peace-loving folks I know. However, they have to raise their voice and solve the inherent radicalization present in their faith. They and we have to face the contradictions in our own beliefs to destroy the nemesis once and for all. Not all Muslims are terrorists, and not all Hindus are Hindutvawaadis. But most terrorists are Muslim or Hindu or any other faith, depending on what that personality has been indoctrinated with.
Comrades, don’t just pray for Paris or France or any other place marred by death and destruction. Look into yourself and face the realities as they are. Let us all resolve to wipe out fundamentalism and bigotry of all hues and forms, from Islamism and Hindutva to Christian extremism and Zionism. Let us not rest until we find the courage and will to free ourselves from this circle of hatred and murder.
Last Updated on by Laveleena Sharma
