Terrorism has no Religion
TERRORISM IN INDIA
AND IN THE WORLD
India is
one of the worst victims of terrorism. The Father of the Nation, two prime
ministers and thousands of innocent people were killed by practitioners of
violence over the years. The terrorists involved in these activities belonged
to all religions and caste groups. But, it is improper to see terrorism as
Hindu or Muslim or Sikh or Christian. The scriptures of these religions do not
support any act that kills innocent people. In fact, they seek to guide the
faithful to remain on the right path. The world over, there is a tendency to
identify terrorism with Islam. Even this, on deeper analysis, would be
misleading. Some terrorists do indeed act in the name of Islam. But they have a
poor understanding of the religion. The LTTE cadres were the first to deploy
suicide bombers long before the so-called Islamist fighters began using the
term “fidayeen”. The LTTE certainly was not practising Hinduism.
Terrorists
are the worst enemies of India and of any nation for that matter. They have no
religion, but simply personify evil. In the West, Africa and Asia, tens of
thousands of people have suffered on account of the scourge of terrorism. The
nearly 300 people killed in the 1993 serial blasts in Mumbai belong to all
religious, regional and caste groups. That is precisely why most people
approved of the hanging of Yakub Memon, though many reject hanging as a just
punishment or as a deterrent against crime. Terrorists are ruthless and wait
for an opportunity to strike fear in the hearts of innocent citizens. Such
elements can be defeated only if the nation stands united against them. That
unity and the fight against terrorism in general will be weakened if terrorists
are given religious labels. At least, the issue of terrorism should be put
beyond party politics.
We
are at a time when offensiveness, violence and hate have become ordinary in
almost every corner of the world. There is news of more bloodshed from a
different region almost every day, and the violence targets mostly innocent
people.The terrorist attacks which have taken place in Kenya Pakistan ,
Bengaldesh, Paris, Saudi Arabia and Britain over the last weeks have once again
brought Islam and the subject of violence to the world agenda. Even though
Islam is a religion of love and peace -- and quite clearly states that everyone
must be treated as first-class citizens regardless of faith, race, language and
thought -- how come there is so much violence and pain in the Muslim world?
No
religion commands violence. No religion encourages ruthlessness, selfishness, love
lessness and massacre. Violence and the conditions that pave the way for
violence develops when ideologies that promote conflict replace the moral
values of religion that sees people as equal servants created by God and
praises modesty, patience, compassion and unrequited love.
Simply because various terrorists call themselves Muslims, who
execute people by shooting them when they cannot get an answer after asking
them about the "pillars of faith", who resort to their guns when they
hear the answer "Yes" to the question of "Are you a
Christian?" and who ruthlessly murder innocents, does not make these
persecutors Muslim.
A suicide attack in a church in Pakistan has nothing to with
Islam as well. God mentions in the Koran that churches are "where God's
name is mentioned much," (22:40) and thus, churches are under God's
protection. Anyone who try to damage churches contradicts the command of God.Conflict
goes hand-in-hand with lovelessness. Let's take a look at the Islamic world.
Today some of the Shia does not accept Sunnis as real Muslims and there are
Sunni who do not consider the Shia as Muslims. However, no matter their
differences, both the Shia and the Sunni are Muslims who believe in the same
God and the same prophets, turn to the same kiblah (the direction where Muslims
turn to while performing prayer) and read the same Holy Koran. There is no
difference in the Koran between Sunni and Shia. So why is there enmity instead
of finding the least common denominator? Why is bloodshed and hatred
encouraged? The answer is simple: Lovelessness. The problem is not
sectarianism. Sectarianism is just another name for legalizing hate and
violence.
The
essence of Islam is love, compassion and friendship. Muslims are obliged to
defend and protect the freedom of thought and faith with the command in the
Koran, "You have your religion and I have my religion" (109:6) and
"...There is no compulsion where the religion is concerned" (2:256).
This approach is the best description of secularism and ensures that members of
every faith -- and even atheists -- are protected.
Saying that a religion, which has commands "... if anyone
forgoes that [retaliation] as charity, it will act as expiation for him....
" (5:45) even for someone who has committed murder, promotes violence is
both ignorance and remorselessness. Every Muslim is obliged to believe that
killing one person is like killing all mankind and giving life to one person is
like giving life to all mankindt (5:32) without distinguishing between
religions, way of living and thought.One of the reasons which lead some Muslims who embrace terror
and violence as the "right path" -- despite these explicit commands
of the Koran -- is that they drift away from the essence of Islam. When the
bigoted mentality that embraces false hadiths (sayings of Prophet Mohammad)
that conflict with the Koran is combined with ignorance, a structure of hate
and anger emerges.
The only way to avoid this is to spread the true spirit and
morality of the Koran, which is love and peace. There are many lessons that the
Muslim world needs to take from the Prophet Mohammad, who allowed Christians to
perform their own prayer at Masjid al-Nabawi, (Prophet's Mosque) spread his own
cloak for Jewish and Christian guests to sit on and who stood up and paid his
respects when a Jewish funeral procession passed by him. To learn from these
lessons, the Muslim world must know the Koran and our Prophet more closely.
They need to explore the beauty of Islam with a reasonable, rational, realistic
point of view purified of superstitions. This can only be achieved through
education.
Prof. John Kurakar
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