DECEMBER 21, 2016: DAILY SUN
In today’s world we find many Muslims (By name) are engaging themselves in a substantial number of terrorist activities. May be because of that there have been continued and deliberate efforts to prove Islam and the Muslim as the synonymous of terrorism and extremism. But does Islam inspire or motivate its followers to become terrorist or extremist? Does the history tell us the same? We could look for an answer to this apparently critical question exploring some true historical evidences of Islamic heritage.
Almost half of the Muslim population lives in India, Bangladesh and Indonesia and almost all of them are not engaged in any type of terrorist activities. A recent survey shows- in 2015 more than 10000 terrorist activities took place all over the world and most of those were not committed by the Muslim. Moreover, in the USA many people are being murdered cool headed with the legal arms holder daily. After 9/11, during the last 15 years 150000 Americans have been killed by gun violence. Most of them were killed by Latino, leftist, Jewish extremist, communist and other organizations. Interestingly the reality is that during that 15 year period only 150 Americans were killed by the Muslim terrorists and most of those were killed during the last 2 years. Similarly in Europe there was no Muslim behind 99.6% of total terrorist attacks during the same period. All of those statistics are taken from the national statistics bureau of Europe and America.
Ironically in response to the killing of 150 people by the Muslim attackers America has already spent 3 trillion dollars against invasion, war and armament. But in response to the killing of 150000 Americans by gun violence America has done absolutely nothing. On the other hand during the same period, in the name of combating terrorism and in search of so called weapons of mass destruction, many invaders, led by America have killed hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians in many countries where no Muslim has any direct involvement. Similarly 2 world wars took place in the last century that caused millions of people’s death. As a matter of fact no Muslim was behind the plotting of those wars.
The propaganda that tries to prove that most of the mass killings of the world were committed in the name of religion is nothing but a sheer exaggeration. If we go through the statistics, we will find that until 20th century only 3% people were killed in the name of religion or religious causes out of total killed. The rest 97% were killed by war, politics and economic reasons. During the 20th century 150 million people were killed under the commandment of 52 people who did not believe in God or in any religion. This number is three times bigger than the number of people killed out of war, civil war, natural calamities and other reasons during the same period. Nobel Prize winner, Alexander Solzhenitsyn found out of his fifty years of research that 60 million people were killed in Russia during the last 50 years under the commandment of contemporary politicians who did not believe in God and in religion.
In the name of Islam if a person try to gain own personal, political and other interests killing innocent people and committing terrorist activities then the teachings of Islam can never be responsible in that case. Only social, political, economic and personal causes are responsible for that. Allah says in the Holy Quran that – if any one slew a person – unless it be for murder or for spreading mischief in the land – it would be as if he slew the whole people: and if any one saved a life, it would be as if he saved the life of the whole mankind.
Islam can never support, endorse or ratify any unjust war. Many wars that took place during the life span of Mohammad (PBUH) were completely based on justice and solely defensive. All of the logical minded person, especially the Muslim should not keep any doubt about that fact. Each and every of those wars was provocative and imposed on the Muslim- where they had nothing but to defend themselves as well as to safeguard the truth and justice. During those wars the behavior of the Muslim warriors against women, children and even with the war prisoners was the most compassionate, sympathetic the human being had ever witnessed. Similarly we, the Bangladeshi are proud of our glorious War of Independence in which war thousands of ordinary people took arms in their hands standing against oppression, discrimination and massacre.
If we look 70 years back, that is before the World War-II and the creation of the Middle East crisis to the primitive age of Islam then we would find almost no engagement of the Muslim in terrorist activities. If we go through the history of Islam we would also find that people of all religion had been living with peace, prosperity and harmony under the Muslim rulers. Similarly, during the era of Sultan and the Mughal in this sub-continent there was almost no evidence of communal riots. Moreover the Muslim rulers nurtured and took care of the history, tradition and cultural heritage of the people of other religion. If we consider up to 15th century as the golden age of Islam, we would find many months’ long battles and wars that took place due to various political reasons and at the same time there had been hundreds of years of peace, harmony, prosperity, resourcefulness and stability.
At present the activities of the so called Muslim militant invader, named “Islamic State” and “Buko Haram” can simply be termed as “Terrorism” based on the report we are getting from the media. If we look back to the history of Islam, we will find no such instances of barbaric and horrifying activities being conducted by the ISIS and the Buko Haram. They are certainly not representing the teachings and the true values of Islam. In the name of Jihad they are making thousands of young Muslim confused about the real Jihad. Interestingly this is also evident that most of the leaders of those groups were once closely related with western world, culture and lifestyle. During the golden age of Islam (up to 15th century) the Muslim rulers, clerics and the preachers conveyed the peace, prosperity, humanity throughout the world. Mohammad Ben Kashim- the conqueror of the Sindh, Tariq- the conqueror of Spain, Saladin- one of greatest winners of the Crusade Wars and many more showed us the true Islamic style of leadership and statesmanship.
When king Rechard was about to be defeated at a combat with Salauddin, the sword that fell from Richard’s hand was lifted and brought back to his hand by Salauddin. Even when Richard became ill Salauddin himself, being disguised, took extra care of Richard until his recovery. Later on when Richard came to know about the magnanimity and generosity of Salauddin then their enmity converted to deep friendship and in their remaining lifespan they never made the crusade happen. The main intention of early Muslim leaders was to propagate the divine and peaceful message of Allah (SWT) to serve the humanity, but not to act as a typical invader or colonialist or the looters of wealth depriving the native people. Wherever they went, they took that country as their own country, embraced the native people as their kith and kin making family ties with them.
In 1492 when the Muslims were expelled from Spain hundreds of them were killed or burnt alive and millions of books of different libraries set under fire. But those helpless Muslims were not given shelter by any Non-Muslim countries. But during the late 14th century the Jews were expelled from Europe by the Christian and they were cordially welcomed and given safe shelter in Turkey by the contemporary Ottoman Emperor. Moreover when the Christianity was declared as the state religion in Europe (1450-1480) no permission was given to build Synagogue (prayer house of the Jews) there. After taking shelter in Turkey the Jews started enjoying their religious and political freedom fully. On the other hand in 1492 queen Isabell and king Fardinand expelled the Jews from Spain. Conversely the Ottoman Emperor, Bayzid-2 cordially welcomed more than 250000 Jews and gave them shelter in Turkey.
Islam has never been expanded by the power of sword. If it was not so then they had not been rooted out completely even after ruling Spain for almost 800 years. On the other hand despite remaining under the Muslim rule for almost 600 years the Muslim population is now 25% only in India. Moreover no Muslim military forces were deployed in the largest Muslim country, Indonesia, Malaysia and in the West African Coastal area for taking political control of those regions. Only the Muslim businessman and merchants conveyed the message of Islam to those locals and being fascinated with the honesty, integrity, conducts, trustworthiness, etiquette and manner of those merchants the native people willingly converted to Islam. Similarly despite remaining 1400 years under the control of Muslim, more that 14 million Coptic Christians are still living in the Middle East peacefully.
There are hundreds of thousands of such instances in the Islamic history where it is evident that the real followers of Islam just conveyed the message of peace, harmony and unity through social, political and economic activities to all over the world. And simply because of that numerous world famous scholars, think tanks, academician, scientist, philosophers, politician highly praised Islam and its Prophet, Mohammad (PBUH) keeping themselves free from being biased and communal. At the same time a significant number of those great persons took shelter under the peaceful ad tranquil shadow of Islam. After 9/11 despite huge propaganda against Islam and the Muslim Islam is still the most rapidly expanding religion in the world. So there is a big urge to all the people of real conscience, peace loving and truth seekers- please justify Islam and the Muslim from a neutral point of view standing against all deliberate propaganda being carried out against Islam and the Muslim all over the world.
© Copyright: Reserved by the writer (Noore Alam Siddiqui)
