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It's not enough for Muslims to be revolted by terror
Posted: 30-Nov-2008
Posted: 30-Nov-2008
"They knock on my door aggressively but I don't open it, I stay very quiet." The caller pauses briefly before continuing. "But I am fine." These were the words of UAE national Rashid al Owais, a 40-year-old marble trader whose business took him to Mumbai last week.
Rashid, a Muslim and an Arab, was among the hostages of the co-ordinated terrorist attacks by a cowardly crew of criminal gangsters. He was speaking to Dubai TV on Thursday night from his hotel room in the Oberoi Trident, where he had been holed up since the beginning of the siege. Naturally, the UAE was one of the first countries to condemn this "reprehensible crime".
The situation of the UAE is unique: its ties with India go back hundreds of years, and it is a country where the peaceful Indian community constitutes a majority of the foreign residents. The Organisation of the Islamic Conference, an association of 56 Islamic states, also condemned the terror attacks stating that "these acts of violence contradict all human values and can be justified by nothing". Nothing is the key word here.
Since the evil attacks of September 11, moderate Muslims dread the news of yet another "holy attack" in which the name of their religion – which means peace – is used as an excuse for bloodthirsty savagery. In fact there is an unannounced air of relief among Muslims whenever perpetrators of violent attacks turn out to be from non-Islamic fundamentalist backgrounds. Such was the case during the Virginia Tech university massacre in April 2007 in which 32 mostly students were killed by a South Korean.
We like to remind others that like Rashid al Owais, Muslims are victims of terror, too. We also are mindful of other notorious non-Islamic groups that perpetuate violence, including Eta in Spain and the Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka. The latter are responsible for up to 60,000 deaths and more than 200 suicide attacks, one of which took the life of Rajiv Gandhi, the then prime minister of India.
The perpetrators of last week's Mumbai attacks could not have chosen a more powerful symbol of humanity than India, with its beautiful mosaic of ethnicities – a mosaic that will undoubtedly continue to shine despite the crimes of an unrepresentative minority who hijack Islam whenever the state of their miserable existence dawns upon them.
India is a proud nation in which the Hindu majority embraces many minorities such as Muslims and Christians, and where they are able to dream and flourish. This is the country of Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam, who as a poor boy in the mid 20th century was forced to sell newspapers to pay for his studies, but who grew up to be elected as the 11th president of over a billion people earlier this decade.
This is the country, too, of Azim Premji, a young Stanford graduate who had the opportunity to turn a fledgling family business called Western Indian Vegetable Products Limited, into a global software giant now called Wipro, making him until recently it's richest citizen.
This is the country of Shah Rukh Khan, an orphaned Muslim boy who rocketed into movie stardom and yet respects the religion of his wife and continues to place the Holy Quran next to Hindu gods in his house. This is the country of the Taj Mahal, the most magnificent Islamic structure in the world, built by the Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan in memory of his wife Mumtaz Mahal.
But most importantly, this is the country of the everyday man and woman, Hindu, Christian and Muslim, who wake up each morning and often embark on a journey that could last several hours, leaving their loved ones behind in order to build better lives for their families. This vision of humanity is at odds with the beliefs of terrorists, brainwashed thugs who also leave their homes and embark on a journey – but in their case to commit murder.
It is not enough for moderate Muslims to be revolted by the attacks in Mumbai as we have been revolted by the attacks on the New York office towers, Amman wedding, London transport system, Madrid trains, Beslan school, Jerusalem pizzeria, Baghdad markets and numerous other places. It is time to take a serious stand against these perpetrators and reclaim our religion.
Muslims must be more vocal in their sentiments regarding such criminals, and Islamic states must counter this behaviour proactively. To borrow from an unpopular phrase, the Islamic states must launch a psychological pre-emptive strike against these terrorists and more importantly those who encourage them. Muslim preachers who fail to condemn terror must either be re-educated or discredited completely, and those who excuse terror using certain conflicts as a pretext must be silenced because the poison that they spread today will come back to haunt us all tomorrow.
Some media outlets can also act as a conduit for the terrorists' propaganda. The stories of reformed radicals such as Sayed Imam, also known as Dr Fadl, must be highlighted to the ignorant minority. Our message must be clear: "These acts of violence contradict all human values and can be justified by nothing."
Nothing.
This article was published in The National newspaper on Sunday 30-11-2008 @import url(/zscripts/rte/zirte.css);
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"attacks...that arise due to a deep sense of abandonment, a feeling of being left out, and being called " terrorist" time and again."
So terrorists kill because people call them terrorists and because they feel "left out".
Great logic mate.
P.S. I may not reply to your future comments because I'm trying to be "accepted by the west". [Report Abuse | Email to a Friend | Reply to this Comment]
I am not in total disagreement with the authors assertion. I would however like to point out the following:
We should look at State terrorism and not just stop at condemning these types of attacks [and they need to be condemned in everyway possible] that arise due to a deep sense of abandonment, a feeling of being left out, and being called " terrorist" time and again for just belonging to a particular creed/race/faith.
I have been reading comments regarding this event and following news channels and appalled by the terrorist terrorist terrorist chants of misguided zealots and inebriated islamophobics [as always happens]. Most unfortunately, our own brethren catch the contagion and in their desire to be accepted by the west [do we really need acceptance?] keep pointing in the wrong direction.
People identify the symptom and still fail to see the problem
[respectfully the author is trying to do the same in some ways],
Lets stop all kinds of terrorism [including state terrorism] from Israel towards Palestians/other muslims, India towards its Muslims internally and in Kashmir, American terrorism in Iraq & Afghanistan, Russian terrorism in Chechnya...a recognition of these problems will go a long way in alleviating peoples sense of reclusiveness/abandonment and perhaps make this world a better place and automatically take care of the increasing number of disenchanted ones who can easily be brainwashed into doing senseless things since they feel,
'pushed to the wall'.
Did anyone call those who razed the Babri mosque Hindu terrorists?, did anyone call the LTTE tigress who killed Rajiv Gandhi a Buddhist terrorist; did anyone dare called Timothey McViegh a Christian terrorist? (what about Hitler, was he a Christian terrorist too?).
Stop this Muslim/Islam phobia, Read about real Islam, lets not be swayed by warped ideology and at the same time not at all try and be apologetic to the world by adding superlatives to Islam.
We can only Muslim or not Muslim (there is nothing else like moderate, extremist, modern et al).
Once there is a reassessment of our self-image, there will be change - real change. We need to stand up for our rights and not be afraid to call a wrong a wrong, and fully support a right.
Note:
Case in point [the author will note]:
Didnt we see Dubai acquiesce (and still doing that in many ways) to the whole world by way of its virtual positioning - Dubai was/is and wanted to be secular and I am not arguing the wisdom (or otherwise behind the ideology). However, when it came to US accepting DP Worlds (a Dubai - secular country plausibly) ownership of their ports, everyone knows what argument they gave and how they still perceived Dubai to be.....!...... [Report Abuse | Email to a Friend | Reply to this Comment]