Editor’s note: I have taken the liberty to change the title of this article. It is because we must make a distinction between Islam and Muslims. It is not Islam at war, it is Muslims at war with each other for political reasons using Islam for that purpose.
Islam at war – with itself
From Aleppo in Syria to Quetta in Balochistan, Muslims are engaged in the slaughter of other Muslims. The numbers are enormous: over 93,000 killed in the Syrian civil war and over 48,000 dead in Pakistan. Millions have perished in similar intra-Muslim conflicts in the past four decades. Many wonder if the belief in Islam was sufficient to bind Muslims in peace with each other. Since the end of the Second World War, the world has moved in two distinct directions. The West, mostly Christian, has tried to minimise the intra-European conflict and has largely been successful with some exceptions. The Muslim world, on the other hand, has fallen into one violent conflict after another, involving mostly Muslims. Several intra-Muslim conflicts continue to simmer as proxy wars. In the 80s, the Iran-Iraq war alone left millions dead. More recently, a car bomb in Iraq on Sunday killed another 39 in the sectarian warfare between the Shias and Sunnis that killed at least 1,045 in May 2013.
As the violence amongst Muslims increases, most Muslims prefer denial or look for scapegoats. Those in denial believe no such violence exists and the entire issue is made up by the western-controlled media. Others blame it on scapegoats – Indians and Americans are the most frequently blamed. The overwhelming evidence, however, suggests that the sectarian and tribal divisions amongst Muslims and justifying violence in the name of religion are the primary causes of why Islam is at war with itself.
Categories: Asia
The tragedy, is at least partially, due to lack of attention, by the non-Ahmadi Muslims, to the peaceful interpretation of ‘Jihad’ by the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community.
Another reason, in my opinion, is failure of moderate Muslims to create a rational paradigm of Separation of Mosque-Church and State, for the Muslim masses, and leaving the interpretation of Islam to Mullahs, with concrete thinking.
The Holy Quran should be interpreted in its totality, when one reads about a verse about Jihad, one also has to remember that killing an innocent man is like a genocide, according to the same book, the literal word of Allah.