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has not entered their hearts,’ thus underscoring anger but with forgiveness and blessing.
the difference between īmān, belief, and Islām, Within every community, every ethnic group and
submission. In another instance the Qur’an says that every religious community, there are those that
the Arabs—many translators and exegetes take this to constantly strive towards realising and bringing out
mean Bedouin Arabs—are the worst in disbelief and the best in themselves and other human beings and
hypocrisy. These along with other verses and sayings there are those that represent the basest negativities
of the Prophet underscore how it is neither enough to that are also part of the human condition. The
be Arab, nor Muslim, nor indeed Arab Muslim. problem is that people believe that whatever groups
Indeed one of the most definitive events of the initial they are a part of or identify with, be it national,
period of post-revelation Islamic history was a battle religious, or political, are intrinsically comprised only
between two sets of Muslims. Although Yazeed, the of ‘good’ people and therefore the easiest way to
Ummayad caliph whose armies fought and killed deal with those from ‘within’ who are deemed to be
Hussein, is regarded as the very symbol of tyranny deviant is to reject them entirely. Recently a white
and injustice, he is still not declared a non-Muslim. supremacist tried to bomb the offices of the National
This is important because one of the crucial lessons Association for the Advancement of Colored People
of the Battle of Karbala is that it is simply not enough (NAACP) in Colorado Springs. Just as it would be
to profess Islam. absurd to ask all white people to apologise for this
In the aftermath of the pogroms in Peshawar and act, it would be equally absurd for white people to say
Nigeria, people ask what kind of Muslim kills children. that the man was actually not really a white man.
The answer is the kind of Muslims that killed Today it is easy to simply dismiss the Taliban, ISIS,
Hussain’s six-month-old son in Karbala. Before critics and others of their ilk as non-Muslims. However,
jump in to make this argument sectarian, it would despite all the good intentions behind it, this
be worth mentioning that the categories of Shi‘ah statement is problematic on a number of levels. Most
and Sunni, as we know them now, did not exist then. importantly, the assertion implicit in this statement
Hussein was not a Shi‘ah. He was a Muslim. History is that only non-Muslims are capable of such horrific
has and will judge who represented the true ideals of acts. However, the fact is that there is such a thing as
Islam on the battlefield of Karbala. Although Charlie ‘bad’ Muslims and it is only when this is recognised
Hebdo published provocative cartoons, it is worth that Muslims will be able to begin addressing some
recalling that Prophet was often abused, had rubbish of the deeper problems that exist among certain
and stones hurled at him, yet he responded not with sections of their community.

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