This article does not aim at condoning any act of terrorism. Every human life is precious and of infinite value and killing one is like triggering a genocide. (Derived from Al Quran 5:33). We have the best collection for counter terrorism
By Muhammad Zafrullah, from 2012
Someone recently sent me an e-mail containing a German Muslim scholar’s response to a question about “Islamic Terrorism”. It is hearsay in that I do not have proper reference but hey it does contain some interesting points. So I am including it almost as I received it. (I say “almost” because I had to make some changes to pacify the word processing software.)
A German Muslim scholar was asked on a live TV show about terrorism and Islam. He said:
Who started the First World War? Was it Muslims?
Who started the Second World War? Was it Muslims?
Who killed about 20 million Aborigines in Australia? Was it Muslims?
Who sent the nuclear bombs to Hiroshima and Nagasaki? Was it Muslims?
Who killed more than 100 million Indians in North America? Was it Muslims?
Who killed more than 50 million Indians in South America? Was it Muslims?
Who took about 180 million of African people as slaves, of whom 88% died and thrown in the Atlantic? Was it Muslims?No, they weren’t Muslims! First, you have to define terrorism properly. If a non-Muslim does something bad, it is a crime. But if a Muslim commits the same act, he is a terrorist.
First remove this double standard, and then come to the point!
Now let me add my half penny’s worth. The trouble with the world today is it’s ruled by crooks; whether they are recognized as rulers or not. They know that if there is peace and harmony in the world they would be out of business. So they keep inventing ways of causing problems.
One of the ways of causing a hullabaloo these days is to prepare a nondescript person/journal to publish something against Prophet Muhammad. The crooks in the Muslim world take the cue and start agitating. For them agitation is not complete if some building is not destroyed or someone is not killed. (For without that the media would not be interested!) The result usually is that the media pick up the footage of those angry acts to provide another proof that the Muslims are the terrorists.
The media anywhere are of course out to get more and more viewers/readers. Some of them would go to any lengths, i.e., appointing pretty red heads to find ways of doing illegal eaves-dropping in search of sizzling new stories. So you cannot blame them much. But the Western governments stay neutral during such episodes. Squarely criticizing both sides, at times, but jealously guarding the hate mongers’ right to free speech.
Suggested Reading
Islamophobia Is A Global Crisis — And It’s Time We View It That Way
All Terrorists are Muslims…Except the 94% that Aren’t
Four Recent Terrorists from a different religion
The Root Cause of Terrorism: An Unholy Thought
Muslims Are Not Terrorists: A Factual Look at Terrorism and Islam
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights and Islam!
Two Hundred Verses about Compassionate Living in the Quran
Forty Hadiths or Sayings of the Prophet Muhammad about Compassionate Living
Categories: Behaviour, Counter Terrorism, Double Standard, Europe, Hypocrisy, Islamophobia, Treachery
the pscychological language that is used to invent a new challenger when the old one is no longer a challenge, it’s a very lucrative business to the entertainment industry , what will we do without gladiators, and wrestle mania and boxing. you have to protect pschological and emotional free speech and expression to create your next challenger and if the poor unsuspecting idiot falls for it, a new movie will be released next week, and let the historians begin writing and signing autographs
what low and miserable species humans are becoming.
Shall I really now put an endless list with all victims of muslim Jihad or wars that muslims started or led against each other? Especially considering that the west is critical towards his own culture/past/religion. A characteristic muslim countries are totally lacking which again could be seen in the reactions to the islam movie. When do you start to criticize your own religion and past?
Concerning slaves:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arab_slave_trade
Where are the buddist or hinduists that blow themselves up in busses worldwide while shouting Allahu akbar or something similar linked to their religion? I’m missing the videos where christians behead people while refering to Jesus or reciting something from the bible. Hindus, buddists, jews? When you all the time deny that these things exist because of your religion then there will be never a cure. In another post I argued with Mr. Shah about the life of Muhammad. When will you start to criticize Muhammad for his life and actions? I never got real arguments why his actions were in anyway justifiable with what you would call a good person especially as a “prophet”. I really can’t believe that you all share the values of Muhammad. Do you never deal with your own sources in a critical way? Do you all grow up with a “dont ask dont question and dont think about it” attitude?
batjoe, who ever you are: Please try to read The Muslim Times and related websites with an open mind. You will see that we are against all forms of terrorism. Our Motto is: Love for All and Hatred for None. Never did we support ‘terrorists’ of any kind, on the contrary, we are primary victims in many countries, starting with Pakistan. Still, I noticed that you cannot ‘disclaim’ any points in this list.
Slavery?
I thjink slavery was started in Rome and not by Islam …. please educate yourself before you come to open your mouth
Slaves?
Who took the Africans to the discovered Amerioca and killied millions upon millions of them?:
“It should be clear, then, that only the Quran has anything of value to contribute on the issue of Slavery in the Modern World, and that contribution could go a very long way to change attitudes radically, worldwide, to ease the lot of victims of Modern Slavery, and to free vast numbers of those victims.
It should also be clear that the abusive and barbaric form of Slavery practised by the so-called Islamic State, Boko Haram, et al, violates everything the Quran teaches about Slavery, but bears many similarities to Slavery according to the Torah.”
@
https://glynsparkes.wordpress.com/slavery/
All Terrorists are Muslims … Except the 94% that Aren’t
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZnBObSkH6I&w=420&h=315%5D
I could disclaim points in the list as far as number of victims is concerned e.g. only 60 million indigenas lived in north and southamerica in 1492 together. How then these eggaareted death tolls? But that is not the point, that would lead to an unimportant sidediscussion. But the thing is I dont deny these things and no one in the west finds these things good. We learn them at school in a critical way. And in the muslim world? Do you also learn that your countries such as egypt, marroko, tunisia, algeria, turkey etc.. once were christian nations? As I said i also could give hundreds of millions of deaths from “muslim” wars. Even in germany we have memorials of villages that were raided by the turks. We criticize our own religion or culture and past. That is the big difference. For that reason we dont go on rampage if there are burned bibles or a gay Jesus or something. 170 000 christians are killed mainly in muslim countries because of their faith. Yet we dont do anything to you except that we pay money for development and aid you in anyway. Why dont you say that some sharia law is bad? Again, because you are unable to criticize even aspects of your religion. Everything evolves and moves but the muslim countries culturally and socially stand still in the 7th century. No criticism => no change!
I honestly believe you that you dont defend “terrorist” in any way and that you are not that much different from me in general. But then I wonder why dont you ask for the reasons for you beeing persecuted and all the bad things of intolerance in muslim countries. Why are you not persecuted by christians or buddists, but by other muslims? You never criticize your prophet or own religion, you do not even discuss about facts if they are not pleasant. Why? Do you really defend all actions from Muhammads life? I’m repeting myself but the difference between westeners and muslims is: We can criticize our entire past or religion and culture yet we dont fear to lose our identity. Criticizing our church and religion made us strong. You not. You fear if you criticize anything then islam will be lost and disappear in the history books.
Zia, no one of the other terrorist claims to be acting in Gods name. The Allahuakbar shouters do. And letterbombs to politicians is far less morally bad than bombing innocent people in busses just because they are “infidels” and killing as many as possible. Muslim extremists are declaring you to infidels not I or westeners. Thats why you are seeking asylum in western countries and not in Saudi Arabia, the holy land of islam.
Again, batjoe. Yes, Muslim extremists are declaring us infidels not westerners. We never say or think that Muslim extremists are right in killing while shouting Allah-o-Akbar. That is why are a teaching and preaching The True Islam, through The Muslim Times and alislam.org (and all other affiliated newspapers, books, magazines, and TV stations http://www.mta.tv). We appreciate many things ‘western’, ok, let me, Inshallah, bring some more articles on that topic in the near future. Thanks for understanding.
If you can write Allah-o-Akbar, then how can’t you shout the same while detonating an explosive and run away?
Later the security agencies would easily put someone’s corpse having muslim identity, already fake encountered and claim to shot dead the culprit, while yourself smiling in the den.
Do you know that Jesus is originally Semite and has nothing to do with Europe?
Do you know that The European Romans are those who killed our Jesus?
Do you know that you have NOTHING tom do with Christianity and the Bible as you deviated the Message of Jesus by “reforming” every word in it
The original bible is still ours written on a leather pitch and you follow your own Satanic reformation
Stop talking about Jesus that YOU came from Rome to kill our Semite Jesus !
The Real Face Of Jesus @
http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/health/a234/1282186/
Intolerance has no religion. I can see extremists Christians, Jews, Muslims and atheists. You want me to see only extremist Muslims, but, how can I be blind to 6000 years of human history.
Cane who killed Able, out of jealousy, was not a Muslim terrorist, as he lived 3500 years before Islam.
There are bad people in all religions and they do bad things for their selfish reasons and then provide rationalizations from politics and religion.
The Prophet Muhammad was a perfect man in the context of his time, so I will apologize for him and a few Christian writers have done the same. We do not need to follow his actions in a literal sense, but, only in the context of our time.
I am not an apologist for all Muslims, only for Muhammad, may peace be on him and his message as understood by the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community. The post that I link here has two short books by Christian writers defending the Prophet, which you can read online:
http://www.themuslimtimes.org/2012/09/uncategorized/the-muslim-times-response-to-anti-islam-film
The Prophet Muhammad was a perfect man in the context of his time, We do not need to follow his actions in a literal sense, but, only in the context of our time.
GOOGLE; HOW TO FOLLOW THE SUNNAH RASULULLAH RIGHTLY IN 21ST CENTURY?
Wassalamu’alaikum wrwb
And above all, Muslims didn’t descend directly from heaven. They are among the existing races converted to Islam.
So, it’s but natural that few of them could fail to embrace whole peace with Islam. It will take time to abdicate hereditary violence.
Batjoe says: “And in the muslim world? Do you also learn that your countries such as egypt, marroko, tunisia, algeria, turkey etc.. once were christian nations? As I said i also could give hundreds of millions of deaths from “muslim” wars.”
War is indeed killing business, if you do not kill there’s chance that you’d be killed. It would be nice to know the exact numbers but I am certain that number would include only soldiers and it would be less than the number of civilians murdered in Hiroshima and Nagasaki alone. Why am I so sure? I am sure because Man had not invented efficient killing machines yet.
Yes we learn at school that most of North Africa was under Christian control before Muslims took control over there. For the most part the Knights at Malta or Tripoli claimed the land and the knights were not known to be very kind. So were the Christians in North Africa killed off by the Muslims like the Indians were by the Whites? No, people from the Berber race still live in North Africa. Were they converted forcibly to Islam? No, freed from the shackles of the knights they were extremely grateful to the religion that recognized them as equal humans. So much so that it was the Muslim Berber forces that conquered Spain.
I often say that the early Muslims, who conquered a large chunk of the globe, were neither genies nor supernatural beings; they were just ordinary people with ordinary physiques. What conquered them the world was their adherence to truth and fair play that Islam taught them. If you look the Islamic history at the right places you would find city gates being opened for the invading Muslim armies by the civilians, against the wishes of their rulers. The reason was the word was out that Muslims were better and fairer than the rulers they had got.
If the Muslims were so much into converting and Killing Spain would be Muslim today. Spain is a very good example for those who want to see if Muslims believed in converting people by force. There was a time when the Muslims ruled over almost all of Spain. I say almost because there were some Christian states in the mountainous part and there were large chunks of Christian populations in “Muslim” Spain. The result was that the rulers of the mountainous states kept increasing their influence and the “Muslim” Spain kept shrinking. India is another example and so is a large chunk of Eastern Europe of places where Muslims ruled for extended periods of time, but stayed in minority.
I did not include Turkey in the above because Turkey came to be from within what was once the Byzantine Empire. Of course conversion to Islam was a reaction to the cruel ways of their former rulers.
Having said all that let me close this with the following thought. All religions teach kindness to our fellow creatures and all other basic virtues. But as God Almighty has chosen not to come out and punish our misdeeds directly, mainly for our benefit, some folks stop fearing Him after noting that He did not punish them for some transgressions. When you stop fearing God you find all sorts of excuses for being cruel to God’s creatures. There have been some examples of that among all religions and Muslims are no exception. Fairness demands that we condemn all inhuman and inhumane acts with the same vehemence that we do some.
Muhammad Zafrullah,
I really asked myself if i should answer at all to someone claiming that muslims armies were all welcomed by the foreign peolple, killed no civilians and only soldiers and the other wishthinking you said. Thats exact the uncritical way of ones own history that is so far spread in the muslim world. Mohammed himself did not even act that way you are fantasizing of. Read the hadith if you dont believe. Moreover you dont need technical weapons to kill other people. Sudan, Ruanda, Nigeria or any riots that daily take place show that a club or stick is enough. With the same lack of historic knowledge i could claim that the sojvet rule of Afghanistan was totally peaceful. The people were happy to get rid of the bad muslim rulers. Moreover the russians did not kill civilians and were all very nice. If they really had killed civilians there would be no more muslims today… blablabla And there are still Indians living in North America. And even more in South America. They were no civilians killed and the people were happy that they got civilization and christianity and not their poor other faiths they had. They welcomed the europeans and even fought their own rulers. blablabla I am just using the same propaganda style you are using.
And eastern europe: They hate muslims because for hundreds of years they suffered from them. Raiding, taking their wifes to harems, taking their children as janitschars, and depending on the muslim ruler more or less killings. Convert or die is a typical islamic rule. Why do you think the Spains were so happy when they were free of muslims rule? Because then they were not second class citizens and were free of fear of the next massacre to them if the muslim ruler wants to. To be lawless in comparison to muslims, and to have to pay higher taxes moreover is an indirect form of forced conversion. The number of Jihad victims in India alone is said to be up to 80 million. And so on and so on….
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arab_slave_trade
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muslim_conquests
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spread_of_Islam
What happend before the first crusade:
http://atheism.about.com/library/FAQs/christian/blchron_xian_crusades01.htm
I dont claim that all of the numbers are correct but i hope that you read at least for the beginning these wiki articles and then later your hadith. Just to get a glimpse of facts.
Sorry, but what you have written is so fictional and an insult to the people who suffered who were supressed and killed.
Never forget in your thinking that it were muslim armies at that time that conquered other nations, these wars were not for self defence.
From your quotations: “Jews and Christians in Persia and Jews and Monophysites in Syria were dissatisfied and sometimes even welcomed the Muslim forces, largely because of religious conflict in both empires” (from your quotations).
There are many quotations like that. Anyway, Islam in Indonesia and in Africa below the Sahara and in China all spread without any military power what-so-ever.
And is spreading now, to me, for instance.
Zia,
you are right that intolerance has no religion. But i think you also must admit that in islam it is very easy to justify your intolerance or even your violence with your religion. You say that Muhammad was perfect in his time and that not all should be transfered to present time. Why not just say that he commited crimes that in no time on earth were seen as good or normal. Why this complex thing with “perfect at his time”. All the argumentation is based on that dogma that he was perfect. Although it really is impossible to justify some of his actions as morally good. If you would read about someone from a neutral stance (without that dogma he is perfect) and read all the things Muhammad did, would you still say that this person is perfect? I highly doubt that, since the values of your islam, as far as you tell me, totally contradict what Muhammad did.
Concerning the sources of the christian writers in defence of Muhammed. There are hundreds of writers that say the opposite starting from Martin Luther to Kemal Atatürk and ending at Karl Marx. Moreover these writers give no source why they think so. If i google i will find writers that say pleasant things about any prominent person in history no matter if good or bad. I rely on the primary sources just as the hadith and i am more interested on your personal views than on views of any philosophers or other people. The hadith and the Quran is what counts, not more because they are the sources which are supposed to be true according to islam.
Batjoe! If you had read the last paragraph of what I wrote for you, you would understand that I am not ruling out unfair killings but they could not amount to much. There’s no use throwing all those history things at me as I have already noted in one my posts at a newsgroup that “History has this nice bad habit of being written by the victor.”
I have learned to glean the truth from those (victors’ writings) if and when my own knowledge of history comes short and I am no historian. Let me give you an example, from an area closer to my heart, of how the victor writes the history. A considerable number of Mathematical results were proved or stated by Muslim Mathematicians but most of them go under the names of Europeans who “rediscovered” them, under dubious circumstances, hundreds of years later. Here’s a discussion of an English inventor http://mathforum.org/kb/message.jspa?messageID=3756573
Muslims needed logarithms for their calculations in astronomy but john Napier was not astronomer, I got the clue from his other “inventions”.
Newton and Leibnitz are credited for “inventing” the Calculus. I got suspicious from the fact that the same idea emanating from two different places is a rarity. It turns out that the calculus was known to people at Kerala prior to both these fellows. I looked up Kerala and it had had contacts with Muslim sailors for a long time. Check this out:
http://mathforum.org/kb/message.jspa?messageID=5248813
There is much more where that came from. This is just to give you how much misrepresentation there is. Let’s get back to our problem at hand. I am a sort of independent guy; I am not prepared to give credit or blame where it does not belong. (I have suffered a lot for it and still there is no chance that I would mend my ways.) You talked about East Europe. To my knowledge there was some rough handling there via the new converts to Islam who really did know what Islam stood for but having converted to Islam became the darlings of the state and hence were given top govt. positions. They were often very cruel to their brothers from their old faith. In some cases some revenge was involved too. This was a very thoughtless approach of the Ottomans to governing the conquered lands. (I have not read anywhere but I have a feeling that the mozarabs (the new converts who were dubbed “like-Arab) in Spain, committed similar atrocities, though at limited levels.) But you cannot blame Islam for that. You can blame lack of training and you can blame the then rulers for that but not the teachings of Islam. As Mr. Tschannen has pointed out
Then there are killers among Muslims today. They have a rather violent interpretation of Islam. Generally Muslims abhor that approach but the media presents the antics of the militants as Islam. (The victor writes the current events.) Ordinary Muslims keep voicing their concerns, as I have done at several occasions. Here’s what I wrote recently:
http://open.salon.com/blog/mzafrullah/2010/09/05/animal_behavior
So please do not generalize looking at the behavior of the murderous militants. They do not represent the true face of Islam. If you are not a professional out to criticize Islam and Muslims to “establish” that the world would be better without Muslims, then you would seriously read about Islam. It is a beautiful religion. I know that I would not be a Muslim if I was not convinced that Islam is a religion of peace and a true religion. As Mr. Tschannen has pointed out, there are whole countries that became Muslims without any government or military intervention. (Indonesia and other countries in that area converted to Islam through their contacts with Arab sailors who frequently visited those islands for spices etc.)
PS. By the way you say “Sorry, but what you have written is so fictional and an insult to the people who suffered who were supressed and killed.”
If what I wrote was so “fictional” then explain to me how did Islam and Islamic rule spread like a wild fire and stayed.
Oops the sentence in quotes “To my knowledge there was some rough handling there via the new converts to Islam who really did know what Islam stood for but having converted to Islam became the darlings of the state and hence were given top govt. positions.”
should be
“To my knowledge there was some rough handling there via the new converts to Islam who really did not know what Islam stood for but having converted to Islam became the darlings of the state and hence were given top govt. positions.”
there are black sheeps in every community
I want to implore u to take annual leave in ur office and use d period to find the truth about Islam and Christianity. I want to say boldly without any form of regret that the so called Christianity of TODAY has been formed based on lies and deception. Many things are not in order with the so called new Testamnt and old bible. In fact there are many questions to answer by christians. When u find d truth about something let us try and release our mind to take it. Many christians find it difficult to accept d truth even after knowing it. I av a lot to say but let me purse for a while.
From my view, Most Muslim always blame others if there was bad thing befall into them, and never mirror them self.This is a big problem in Muslim communities.
Allah has warned His people as following;Good thing come from Allah and bad thing come from your self.
What we see today in Islamic countries, Muslim killing Muslim, or Arab killing other Arab, because the believe in his master than Allah or Al quran.
Allah also warned in Quran.
They have taken their Scholars and their Rabbi as gods beside Allah,QS 9;31
O humankind, follow what has been sent down to you from your Lord, and do not follow any masters ( i.e; the ancient scholars such as : imam Muslim, Imam Bukhari, Hurrairah, other narrators, imam Hanafi, Safie, Osma bin Laden, ISIS’s leader blindly etc. other than Him.( al Quran ) . Little you heed to advice! (How many a town We have destroyed! Our punishment came upon them at night or when they were having a nap at midday. QS 7;3-4.
Because of that most Muslim in Arab Countries believe in the Book of Hadith or believe in IDOLS, Allah curse and punish them with civil war. Muslim killing other Muslim or Arab killing other Arab, look at Iraq, Syria n other Islam countries have bee destroyed.
Very sad, pity, heart breaking n embarrassing.
May Allah guide all extremist Muslim Scholars to the right path of Islam, ameen
With my love
Allahu akbar, indeed what prophet muhammad (S A W) said will surelly happen. When human beign has even less faith in ALLAH (S W A) it affect every aspect of his life, (negetively). What would it look like, when at all he has no faith?. To ALLAH we shall all return,and he (ALLAH) shall grant us with what ever we did. Fear ALLAH. Follow the teachings of prophet muhammad only and alone. Leave those who think of islam as terrorism or anything. Great men always encounter violence opposition with the minds of of the midocrates. ALLAHU AKBAR