The Title of this post is a bit strange.Isn`t it? My Muslim friends will hate me for this and Non-Muslim friends will be bewildered for me choosing this title.Take my advice and read on.
9/11 changed the world.The strikes were on World Trade Centre.Repercussions were felt in Afghanistan,Pakistan and in India, in my house when I realised for the first time that my religion is being called the religion of terrorists.I was thirteen years old then and didn`t know much about world history,geography or politics.I saw the second flight crashing into the second tower live and I also witnessed both the buildings collapsing to rubbles on CNN. To me it was an spectacle.But as the days past and the 24-hours news channel started feeding the daily updates I got to know about Taliban (probably I had forgotten about the hijacking of the Indian Airlines flight 814 (VT-EDW) two years).Taliban, the muslim organisation of students ( talibs ) ruling Afghanistan and providing shelter to Osama Bin Laden the Al-Qaeda Chief and the mastermind of the 9/11. It was beyond my thinking that how can a man with so long beard with dozens of wives and scores of children and living in the caves of Tora Bora could plan anything so sophisticated.Then US attacked Afghanistan and then came daily news of fall of some Afghani city.Kandahar (another reminder of the Indian Airlines hijacking),Herat,Jalalabad,Mazar-e-Sharif,Herat,Ghazni,Kunduz and finally Kabul.
Seven years have gone by and we have had Muslim-Terrorist attacks in London, Madrid, Bali, Turkey,China and in our India not once but on dozens of occassions.We had terrorist countries like Afghanistan,Iraq,Palestine(they don`t even consider it to be a country) and Pakistan and then there were countries with Muslim-terrorist citizens like Iran,Saudi Arabia, Oman, Syria, Lebanon, Egypt and many others. I was told or rather we were told that we are Islamists- the Muslim terrorists but some of them were kind enough they said no dear you are not terrorists because NOT ALL MUSLIMS ARE TERRORISTS, BUT ALMOST ALL TERRORIST ARE MUSLIMS.
Now lets analyse the reasons why are we like this.Why are we the only terrorists.Is it really written in Quran to kill all the Non-Muslims.
The Qur'an says,"For those of you who kill a person save those who do mischief is as if he has killed the whole of humanity and those of you who save a life it will be as if he has saved all humanity".
But the non-muslims seem to know the version of Quran which says to kill all the non-muslims, to kill all the infidels and to forcefully convert all the non-muslims and that is what the Taliban and Al-Qaeda intend to do. Are the non-Muslims misinterpreting Quran and thus Islam? Here I being a Muslim say that yes the Quran is being misinterpreted by both the MUSLIMS and the NON-MUSLIMS.Lets talk about the misterpretation of the Quran by the Non-Muslims.Here I am citing only one example and you can find many others almost every where.
Many critics of Islam including Arun Shourie quote Surah Al-Tawbah chapter 9 verse 5
“… Fight and slay the Mushrik/Kafir (Hindu) wherever you find them …”
(Al Qur’an 9:5)
If you read the Qur’an, this verse exists but it is quoted out of context by Arun Shourie.
The first few verses of Surah Tawbah before verse 5 speak about the peace treaty between the Muslims and Muskhriks (polytheists) of Makkah. This peace treaty was unilaterally broken by the Mushriks of Makkah. In verse no. 5 Allah (swt) gives them an ultimatum to put things straight in four months’ time, or else face a declaration of war. It is for the battlefield that Allah says “fight and slay the Mushriks (i.e. the enemies from Makkah) wherever you find them and seize them, beleaguer them, and lie in wait for them in every stratagem of war”.
This verse is revealed and instructs the Muslims to fight in the battlefield and kill the enemy wherever you find them. But natural, any army general to boost up the morale of the soldiers and to encourage them will say “Don’t get scared, fight and kill the enemies, wherever you find them in the battlefield. Arun Shourie in his book ‘The World of Fatwas’ after quoting Surah Tawbah chapter 9 verse 5 jumps to verse 7. Any logical person will realize that verse 6 has the reply to his allegation.
Surah Tawbah chapter 9 verse 6 says:
“If any amongst the Mushriks (i.e. the enemies)
ask thee for asylum, grant it to him so that
he may hear the word of Allah and then
escort him to where he can be secure”.
(Al Qur’an 9:6)
Today the most merciful army general may tell his soldiers to let the enemy go, but Almighty Allah in the Qur’an says if the enemy wants peace do not just let them go but escort them to a place of security. Which army general in today’s day and age, or rather in the whole of recorded human history is ever known to have given such merciful instructions? Now will someone ask Mr. Arun Shourie why did he deliberately not quote verse 6?(Source:A lecture By Mr. Zakir Naik).
This is just a small example and you can find many others. The extent of the delibrate misinterpretation of the Quran can be understood by the fact that when I search "quotes from quran against terrorism" on goolge the initial links are
http://islamicterrorism.wordpress.com/2008/05/20/the-excessive-kindness-of-islam-quotes-from-quran-and-hadiths/ and
http://www.deceptioninthechurch.com/koran.html
and many others like these which are mere dedication to Quran Bashing and none of the links mentions the quote that I`ve mentioned above.I don`t criticise Non-Muslims for hating the Quran as even if they with very open mind sit on their PC and search for quotes in Quran against Terrorism they are fed with the quotes like “… Fight and slay the Mushrik/Kafir (Hindu) wherever you find them …”. They are being poisoned.
I`ll try to post the part-2 as soon as possible.I need to collect my thoughts and finish the topic as soon as possible as it can go on and on forever. Comments are always welcome.
2 comments:
I do not hate the title of your blog. It shows how the Muslims or more specifically Islam is being framed. First of all, if you are a born Muslim does not mean you are following Islam. To become a Muslim you must practice Islam. Now lets not go off topic.
I would really love to know the motto of the people who were behind all of the above incidents you are talking about. What is the motto of these terrorist? Why are they doing all this? Why are they purchasing AKs and Chinese Grenades and those expensive vests which are for saving them from bullets rather than cold? Do they want to create terror among people? If yes, why would they want to do so? To spread Islam?
This is not the right way to spread Islam.
There shall be no compulsion in (acceptance) of religion. The right course has become clear from error. So whoever disbelieves in Tagut and believes in Allah, has grasped the most trustworthy hand lock with no break in it. And Allah is hearing and knowing. 2:256
The Quran itself says that there should be no compulsion in acceptance of religion. Please notice It does not specifically talks about Islam but about any religion.
Most of the terrorist are Muslims. I do not agree with this. They are not because if they were, they would have known this verse and would have followed it. If they are trying to spread Islam at gunpoint, they are actually forcing people to do so and this is prohibited in Islam. They might be born Muslim but they are not following Islam.
If this was the right way, believe me either there would have been no religion in the world but Islam or there would have been no religion named Islam.
We really need to study our religion. It's not just like Muslims should study Islam but Hindus should also study Hinduism and Christians should study Christianity. People today much more interested in finding faults in other religions than looking for right guidance in their own religion.
gud example....this shows that there is lot of misunderstandings between both religions and its only the extremists from both sides who fuel hatred in each other...they try to bend the facts to their profits...
there is no moral real motives behind any terrorist attacks; its just one of the activities the extremists think they should do to reign in their extreme broken views.
noone is born as terrorist. they r made that so. Even the captured one himself told that he was just a small robber and he somehow came in contact with the terrorist orgn and was shown anti-india/kashmir videos and was motivatedly trained to go for all those who do not belong or follow their religion...
thinking should be changed...instead of finding faults in one or another's religion one should go about spreading the right things which r written in respective holy books..there is nothing written anywhere in the world that compels u to choose any one religion...its just the belief through which u try to follow certain traditions and believe in god.
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