Islam and Political Terrorism (Part 2), by Zeinab Al-Rekabi

Islam Between the Fringe of Political Terrorism and Irrational Clerical Interpretations



Human carnage around the global community has potentially proliferated in the past decades. Many of these atrocities hypothetically occurred under the name of religion or ethnicity. Nevertheless, the former factor explicitly encompasses the greatest impact amongst the adherents of the world’s greatest religions. Huntington (1996) states that populations of similar race can be separated by civilization; and populations of differing race can be united by civilization, in this case religion. Therefore, many clashes or atrocities that occurred in the 20th and 21st century happened between groups that adhered to different religions or cults. Moreover, the countless bloodshed amongst the different races occurred because of their difference in religion not their difference in language. As in the case of Lebanon, Hourani (1992) unveiled how the clashes that occurred between the Lebanese inhabitants whom shared a common culture and language suffered a struggle for power, which divided between the inhabitants of Lebanon according to religious terms. Therefore, we observe conflict between divergent religious groups, not between different races.
In connection to the above notions, the terrorism epidemic has gradually proliferated in the preceding years, which has led to global carnage and at the same time to global awareness. Furthermore, in Iraq many extremist and radical Islamists have terrorized the lives of the Iraqi population and the allied forces. These fanatical Islamists whom illegally entered Iraq through the peripheries of the country, came to create instability and chaos in the country. Consequently, their religious decrees (Fatwa) which were either delivered by an indoctrinated fundamentalist or by a financially and socially satisfied cleric, stated the significance of massacring innocent men, women, and children. The crucial objective of these barbaric actions was to promote the occurrence of a civil war in Iraq, in order to destabilize the remnant stability left and to create chaos and fear in the lives of the Iraqi population.
Additionally, the violence that is present in Iraq targets ethnic or religious groups, and political parties. Subsequently, this violence is sponsored and encouraged by many radical Islamists organizations that promote hatred and aggression. These terrorist organizations commit these actions against humanity, under the name of Islam. Moreover, these terrorists are categorizing Islam as a religion that supports violence, hatred, and aggression and at the same time they are formulating a hypothetical Holy war against innocent civilians. These fanatical factions are indoctrinating the mindset of the Arab and Muslim youth by invoking the significance of obliterating the unworthy Muslims, the Christians, the Jews, and the other religious groups. Accordingly, these Islamists are classifying the unworthy and the worthy under their own irrational and false interpretation of Islam. In contrast to the above, there is no compulsion in religion (Koran, Al-Baqarah, 256), which signifies that forcing and imposing religious jurisdictions upon other religious minorities is literally outlawed. Therefore, how can these alleged Muslims whom inculcate extensive infrastructures that indoctrinate and culture the naïve and unrefined citizens towards violence and aggression declare they adhere to the basic principals of Islam, and adopt the humble life of Muhammad the Prophet. Islam is a religion of peace that educates mankind toward the path of enlightenment not to the course of ignorance; hence these alleged Muslims decline the fundamental ideals of Islam.
The absence of the political alienation spectrum in the region leads many of its citizens towards the upbringing of radical methods of interpreting educational and religious texts, henceforth this illogical technique of the analysis and elucidation of the educational and religious texts leads many of the Arab and Muslim youth towards ignorance, which diverges into many branches, in which the most momentous is terrorism. Due to the oppressive one party system’s and monarchies in the Arab and Islamic world and the oppressive laws imposed upon its inhabitants by the leaders, these factors promote terrorism and violence in the region and in the free nations.
The solution to the obliteration of the propagation of the terrorism epidemic is the inculcation of a liberal and democratic ideology that will transform the Iraqi society into a sophisticated and modern society that will adhere to the principals of liberal democracy. Moreover, this will influence the regional countries to withhold the same passive and rationale position in order to achieve, justice, freedom, and peace in Iraq and the region.

Zeinab Al-Rekabi
March 19, 2004



References:

The Noble Qua’ran, Surah: Al-Baqarah. Verse 256.
Hourani, Albert. A History of The Arab Peoples. New York: Time Warner, 1992.
Huntington, Samuel P. The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of the World Order. London: Simon and Schuster, 1996.