Page 14 - Islam Denounces Terrorism

12 Islam Denounces Terrorism

These groups are getting stronger with new recruits joining them
from all around the world. This forces political, academic, and reli-
gious leaders to try to understand real Islam and determine ways to
end terrorism with solutions from within the Islamic world. The
Charlie Hebdo attack in France, the Christmas market attack in Ger-
many, and almost daily acts of terrorism in countries such as Iraq,
Pakistan and Afghanistan have shown that the Islamic world needs to

focus on this issue with caution and urgency. And a brief examination
will reveal that at the root of the problem lies the fact that the groups
supposedly acting on behalf of Islam do not base their action on the
Qur'an and the life of the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh), but a bigoted
and paganistic religion, which emerged after the death of the Prophet
Muhammad (pbuh) and is essentially a far cry from Islam.

This deeply flawed understanding is diametrically opposed to
Islam, which is a religion that favours peace over war, life over death,
forgiveness over punishment, and reconciliation over conflict. The
fact that their ID cards indicate "Islam" as their religion or that they

have Muslim names does not prove that these individuals act in the
name of Islam. This radical mentality which allegedly legitimizes vio-
lence against non-Muslims, and even against Muslims if they have
different views or if they don't practice Islam or if they follow a dif-
ferent sect, is a grave spiritual problem of the world today.

In this expanded edition of the book, we have included the
sources of terrorism that result from this bigoted view of religion and
how it needs to be countered intellectually. We hope that it will help
those who seek solutions by force come to realize that twisted philo-
sophical and religious interpretations cannot be ended with mere mil-
itary means. What needs to be done is not to eliminate the people

with this mentality, but to wipe these distorted ideas from their
minds. And hopefully the money currently being squandered on
weapons will be spent on education instead and they will join forces
with illuminated, modern, loving and sensible Muslims.