By: Tashbih Sayyed, Ph. D.
As a Muslim, I've followed with great agony and embarrassment the buildup of religious frenzy across the Muslim world in response to the cartoons published in a Danish newspaper. On the one side the show of force by Islamists underlined the extent to which Islam has been hijacked by radicals and on the other side it emphasized the vulnerability of open societies to the growing influence of militant Islam. The demonstration of violence by the Islamists forced the democratic societies to face up to the reality that Muslims without rejecting some of the basic precepts of political Islam can never integrate in a secular society. They will always remain a hurdle in the development of a pluralist setup and intellectual progress.
The dance of insanity performed on the streets in the name of Prophet Muhammad's love and honor has also forced many Muslims to come out of their slumber and ponder as to why their faith and their prophet have suddenly become a subject of criticism and ridicule by non Muslims? Is it really because the West has an anti-Islam agenda? Or is it because all of the terrorists are Muslims and all homicide bombers claim that their murderous acts are in-line with prophet's traditions?
Questions are being asked as to why there has traditionally been no effort on the part of Muslims to confront religious absolutism? Many agree that the Muslim silence in the face of growing Islamist radicalism has contributed in creating the perception that Islam is an evil faith. After all a religion is nothing but a sum total of its adherent's social conduct. The fact that the Muslim societies, at least in the modern history, have always presented a picture of violence and conflict and since religion always seem to be playing a role in them has strengthened the notion that Islam encourages violence.
It is very common in the Muslim societies to invoke the name of Islam and its prophet to win the support of the un-educated masses. Whether it is an honor killing or a gang rape ordered by a village committee of elders or an attack on a place of worship or a murder of an individual belonging to a minority sect, each and every atrocity is perpetuated in the name of religion. Now some people have begun to question the rationality of using religion or prophet's name to advance a political agenda or a selfish and violent cause.
If Muslim scholars would have condemned the two homicide bombers who attacked the barracks of American and French peacekeepers in Beirut in 1983, homicide bombings would not have gained currency and nobody would have been identifying Islam with terrorism. But they remained silent as the Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility and declared that it was an Islamic act. Their silence betrayed their complicity in the crime and today they have no right to complain as to why the non-Muslim world is presenting their faith in such unflattering colors.
Wahhabis have been presenting Islam as a license to kill non-believers. And since no Muslim scholar has ever thought of challenging the murderous ideology, the homicide bombings have now become a routine in the Muslim life – only this week, February 9th, 2006, a Wahhabi homicide bomber exploded himself in the middle of a Muslim religious procession in Hungo, Pakistan, killing dozens of faithful. Today in the Muslim world, homicide bombers are heroes and their mothers are compared with the holiest of women in the Muslim history.
Islamic radicals have been using Quran and Prophet's life to justify their criminal acts with impunity. Wahhabi religious scholars have been describing homicide bombers in Palestinian Authority as Mujahideen (holy warriors) and the dead murderers as 'Shaheed' (Martyrs) and Muslims response has been a long and resounding silence. Consequently, the 19 terrorists who hijacked the planes in September 2001 are not considered as terrorists but heroes by the Islamic community around the world.
Every time the Wahhabi killers raise their swords to behead an innocent human-being they shout Allah O Akbar (God is great). All the videos showing these beheadings display banners in the background that proclaims the love and devotion for Prophet Muhammad. All the homicide bombers have head bands with Shahadah (There is no God but God and Muhammad is His prophet) inscribed on it. Arab homes and streets are all plastered with posters that lionize murderers as martyrs. The terrorists who parade on the Arab streets like heroes sincerely believe that they will go to heaven and will eventually be in the company of 72 virgins. They have said so on television. With this primitive sociology on display every day in the Muslim world, can anyone in his or her right mind blame the non-Muslims for blaming Islam?
Muslims who are never tired of blaming non-Muslims for giving a bad name to their faith should, for their own sake, look at the images of their coreligionists holding swords over the heads of innocent foreigners in Iraq. Do they not look evil? I have always wondered if the Muslims realize the impact of statements written on banners behind Islamist head choppers. What kind of Allah and the prophet would bless the acts of barbarism? Those banners proclaim that the worst kind of barbarism is being carried out in line with Islamic teachings. Why shouldn't a non Muslim think that Islam is an evil faith when all of the fatawas (religious rulings) issued in Saudi Arabia and Egypt justify these killers and homicide bombers? Why has there been not a single fatwa that declares these barbarians infidel?
I am a Muslim and a Sayyed. That means that I am a direct descendent of Prophet Muhammad. I know that a true follower of Prophet Muhammad cannot support, train, sponsor and direct homicide bombings. Those who honestly love Prophet of Islam cannot behead human beings. They cannot be homicide bombers and murderers. That's why I sincerely believe that Osama's, Zarqawi's. Zawahiris and Wahhabism's prophet is not the same as mine. A prophet of peace cannot be a prophet of terrorists. Terrorist's prophet has got to be a terrorist.
(To be continued)
(The writer is editor-in-chief of Pakistan Today and Muslim World Today, California-based weekly newspapers, president of Council for Democracy and Tolerance and adjunct fellow of Hudson Institute.)
