By Akbar Ahmed
The Daily Star
Story Summary
The outrageous killings at the Westgate shopping mall in Nairobi, Kenya, and the All Saints Church in Peshawar, Pakistan, last month once again prompted legitimate questions about what can be done to stop terrorist violence.
In the case of the Pakistan attacks, a splinter group of the Taliban in Pakistan gave a statement saying that their actions were in retaliation to American drone strikes.
While religious rhetoric has been abused to mobilize support, Islam has little or nothing to do with it.
Traditional pillars of society were challenged and sometimes even destroyed by a combination of military attacks, drone strikes, suicide bombings and tribal rivalries.
Violence begets violence.
If tribal revenge, rather than Islam, is at the root of the actions of these groups, then we are missing an opportunity to address root causes as part of the solution.
Read more: http://dailystar.com.lb/Opinion/Commentary/2013/Nov-13/237681-religion-wasnt-behind-two-recent-terrorist-attacks.ashx#ixzz2kbaCOASq
(The Daily Star :: Lebanon News :: http://www.dailystar.com.lb)
I cannot imagine anything more insane. What does the church attended by Pakistanis have to do with American bombing? If the terrorists had wanted to strike America, they should have gone to the American Embassy in Islamabad or any consular office. They are companies with American interest doing business in Pakistan. Any of those could have been targeted. In Nairobi, the attack was carried out by the al-Shabbab group whose avowed aim is to establish a muhammadan enclave in Somalia. It was reported that some hostages who were able to prove their muhammadan identity were released after the womwn were cautioned to dress ‘properly’. So, who is this article meant to deceive, the gullible of some fools?
Namelee: For once I agree with you. The church attendance in Peshawar definitely has nothing to do with American bombing. Regarding the al-Shabbab group: They want first of all political power. Religious talk is just a pretext. Therefore the ‘spirit of the article’ is correct: Religion was not behind the bombing. Deranged political power plays are.
Rafiq A. Tschannen,
“THEREFORE THE ‘SPIRIT OF THE ARTICLE’ IS CORRECT: RELIGION WAS NOT BEHIND THE BOMBING”.
Which of the two bombings had nothing to do with religion?
The Nairobi bombers want to take political control of Somalia. The Peshawar bombers want to take political control of Pakistan. Both are murderers and killers and terrorists. They are acting against all the religious teachings. see: http://www.alislam.org/terrorism.html
Not the religious teachings I know. There is no difference between the state and religion. So said Muhammad. The Taliban in Afghanistan demonstrated that perfectly.
Iran is even a more perfect example where the ‘elected’ government is subordinated to the religion. Every action taken by the government must receive the approval of the grand ayatollah. He decides on who can contest an election and controls the armed forces.
Namelee: If you read The Muslim Times carefully you will have noticed that TMT is striving for ‘separation of Mosque/Church and State’.
Rafiq A.Tschannen,
The Muslim Times is an Ahmaddi production and as far as I know the Ahmaddis constitute an insignificant percentage of the ummah. They are not in control of any country. Advocating a separation of the mosque/state is purely academic. Besides, there is no quranic basis for such separation.
It will however, please them to see a separation of the Church and State because that means secularism.
Rafiq, please let me know the last time TMT campaigned for or supported a secular party in any election in a muhammadan country. You would notice that within the last ten years, at least, the islamist parties have always done better than the secularists in such elections. That trend clearly rejects any notion of separating the mosque from the state.
Namalee. Yes, the Ahmadis are still an ‘insignificant percentage’, however, this ‘insignificant percentage’ has done quite well lately, even in Arab countries (where I am residing). We have patience.
Rafiq A. Tschannen,
I also asked about the last time TMT supported a secular party or candidate in an election in a muhammadan country.
Given that I have only recently joined this blog, I may be ignorant of such support or campaign.
Namelee. We are politically neutral. Our brothers and sisters are free to be politically active, but TMT would not officially support any political candidates.
Rafiq A. Tschannen,
I have just read an article on the BBC website credited to Baroness Warsi, the muhammadan British Conservative cabinet minister, that Christians in the Middle East, the birth place of the religion,
now face extinction because of persecution. They are seen as outsiders and held accountable for the actions of the West. That is reminiscent of the attack on the church in Pakistan.
I am yet to see TMT champion the cause of such targeted religious groups who are now being forced to flee their ancestral homes. But I have seen a post where the commentator hoped for the massive conversion of young Christians in America and Europe to muhammadanism.
Is that the meaning of ‘unifying all religions’?
Namelee: I did in the past point out for instance how the Christians of the East are being ‘left out in the cold’ without support from the Christians of the West. In Jordan the relations with the Christians are very good. That is why it is never in the News. Several new churches have been built recently, without any problems (and again: without being ‘Newsworthy’).