Page 122 - Age of Peace Goodword.indd

Why are the Youth Joining Terrorist Groups?

Recently research was conducted on the subject of terrorism,
the findings of which are totally relevant to the present theme.
Political scientist V.P. Fortna from Columbia University in her
paper on terrorism observes,
‘Terror is a cheap way to inflict pain on the other side.’
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The present terrorist culture is a result of nurturing anger.
What are terrorists doing but hurling their inner negative
bombs at their supposed enemies? They should have it explained
to them that they have in their possession a more powerful
weapon—the Quran, which is like a positive bomb, something
which is a billion times more effective than the violent bomb
to which they have recourse. This would certainly go a long
way towards making these people give up violence in favour
of peace.

The above reality has actually been experienced in history.
In the early period of Islam, the Arab people were tribal in
their culture. They had adopted the culture of the sword—
hurling their weapons at their rivals. At that time they were
given the Quran which proved to be a positive alternative for
them. The ideology of the Quran made the Arabs ‘a nursery
of (peaceful) heroes.’ These early Muslims went beyond the
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borders of Arabia with the Quran and spread their Quranic
mission throughout the world.

The British anthropologist Sir Arthur Keith wrote a book
A New Theory of Evolution (1948), in which, referring to the
ancient history of Egypt, he observes how Islam spread to
Egypt during the period of the Caliphate. He says:
‘Egyptians were conquered not by the sword, but by the
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Koran.’
If they were made to realize that the Quran could be an
alternative for them, the same history could be repeated with
the young Muslims of the present day and the world would see
that the violent activists of the past were now turning into the
peace-loving heroes of today.

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