API
The Islamic Stance On Terrorism
This subject translated into
Categories
Full Description
THE ISLAMIC STANCE ON TERRORISM[1]
Excerpted from Who Deserves to Be Worshipped?
Written by Majed S. Al-Rassi ([email protected])
Edited by Ann Ronayne
Read it online at www.saaid.net/The-clear-religion/017.pdf
every religion has adherents who pervert it, like psychiatric patients who try to steal the truth and replace it with an alternate narrative. Describing a terrorist group as Islamic is like describing the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) as Christian. After all, KKK members use a cross and believe in Christ, yet they have persecuted and killed African-Americans in the name of religion and Christ.
Terrorists have various religions and political ideologies, and massacres have been committed in many countries with the aim of 'cleansing' those countries. There are people who claim the Jewish faith although their behaviour has nothing to do with Judaism, just as there are people who call themselves Hindus but whose actions actually have nothing to do with Hinduism. Bearing this in mind, claiming that terrorists are Islamic is preposterous.
In Islam's sacred book, the Quran, God instructs us to say that {You have your religion, and I have my religion}. (109:6) In other words, I am free to practice my faith, and you are free to practice your faith, since there is {no compulsion in religion}. (2:256) This is despite the fact that Islam makes it clear that it is the only religion that is still intact and not distorted, and hence it is the only religion accepted by God in the Hereafter.
The Quran also declares, {Whoever kills a soul… it is as if he had killed the whole humankind, and whoever saves one, it is as if he had saved all humankind}. (5:32)
Does humankind have any greater sign of tolerance and mercy than this?
Keeping in mind these teachings, and analysing them fairly and logically, we can conclude that terrorist organizations that commit acts which contradict the teachings of Islam do not represent Islam at all.
[1] There is no universally accepted definition of terrorism; in general, it refers to threats and violence by a non-state actor against non-combatants, in the pursuit of ideological objectives and with the intent to create fear.
