Page 126 - Islam Denounces Terrorism

124 Islam Denounces Terrorism

However, these theories have been largely shelved as it has grad-
ually been realized that many such groups contain large numbers of
wealthy people, people with careers, academics, doctors and engi-
neers, and that many of their members hail from well-off backgrounds.

Some have declared that those who join such organisations have
"mental problems". The response to that came from John Horgan, a
psychologist and a professor at the University of Massachusetts Low-
ell's Center for Terrorism and Security Studies: "Because of what terror-
ists do, we assume that can be explained via the pathology of those people, but
trying to explain terrorism as mental illness is misleading." 2

Horgan and others have had to eliminate all the possibilities they
had hypothesized; neither poverty, nor boredom, nor mental illness

can explain why people from almost every country in the world are so
determined to overcome a good deal of difficulties to become part of a
system in which people die and are killed with ease. Nobody would
hurl himself into a war, leaving behind his family and all he owns for
the sake of "writing a story". He would never accept death so swiftly
and unconditionally.

People are joining radical groups from all over the world, from
European countries to Kazakhstan, from Australia to Somalia and from
Russia to Tunisia. The number of people joining such groups is rising
all the time. European countries such as France and Germany head the

lists of these figures.
Let us now look at the true answer to the disturbing question:
Turning away from the Qur'an and the true teachings of Islam and the

consequent adoption of a skewed interpretation of Islam has led some
Muslims to turn their backs on liberty, art and science and has radi-
calised them to a significant extent. As the ideological infrastructure of
radicalism has spread in an uncontrolled manner (and sometimes in a
manner controlled by certain covert forces) it has begun threatening a
wide swath of territory, including Europe. The radicalism that ensued