Trying to understand extremism amongst Muslims
Americans are shocked that anyone, besides the French, would
not like
Soon after the 9/11 attack, President Bush asked “Why do they hate us?”
As far as I know, he has not answered the question
satisfactorily to himself or to
He and others have suggested that it is because
And there is not a simple answer. I offer my personal attempt at explaining the situation, looking at it from both perspectives, that of a Muslim and an American, to try to give you some understanding, though far from a complete understanding, for it is doubtful than anyone really understands it all.
It is not always easy to understand reactions of others, or why they are upset with us. As a personal example that many husbands may be familiar with, the wife is upset with you, and when you ask “What is the matter?” She snaps at you and says “You should know!” And she won’t tell you, and you keep thinking about what it is you could have done, and sometimes you never find out.
It is possible for individuals, groups and nations to offend others, or have others take offense, without realizing why or for what. Is it possible that some groups have taken offence, rightly or wrongly, based on their perception of events they attribute directly or indirectly to the US? It behooves us to try to at least understand their perception. Sometimes, those who take offense may be wrong, but the proper approach is to try and understand why they took offense, and if they are wrong, to convince them of their error, or apologize if there was an offense. Pretending there is no problem does not work with wives, and does not work with others, even if they are wrong.
One way to understand others is to put yourself in their position, put yourself in their shoes, even, as they say, walk a mile in their shoes. To understand the Muslim position, imagine yourself as a Muslim, if you can do so without going into shock. Since that may be really difficult for the average American, so I will also use examples, analogies and parallels from America to help in understanding.
Some people do not want to understand others because they think it implies that you agree with the others, that is not so, so do not be afraid of trying to understand.
It would be helpful for you to know a little about Islam, its origins, history, and beliefs.
Islam is unlike all other religions, in that it shares a common origin with Judaism and Christianity. Remember the promise of God to Abraham and Hagar to bless Ishmael and make him great nation, that his descendants would be as numerous as the stars?
That was fulfilled by the coming of Prophet Muhammad PBUH, about 600 years after Jesus, and he was given the Quran as God’s Word and Islam as the religion of Abraham.
That makes Islam a biblical religion.
Starting with the Prophet Muhammad, the Muslims grew to become the greatest civilization ever, embracing many nations and races, in fulfillment of the blessing given to Abraham, Hagar and Ishmael.
Muslim civilization contributed much to science, math, navigation, philosophy, education, and military institutions, foods, commerce, some of which is still evident in Western civilization.
There are some significant beliefs in common between Christianity and Islam
Muslims believe in the God of Abraham, Ishmael, Isaac and Jacob, the God of the Moses and the First Commandment, the God to whom Jesus addressed the Lord’s Prayer. We believe in Moses as a prophet of God, and the original Torah.
We believe in the Virgin Birth of Jesus, we consider Mary as the most blessed woman in all creation, we consider the original Gospel to be God’s word, and we believe that God raised Jesus up to Heaven and that Jesus will return in a Second Coming.
The practices are also similar to those of early, original Christianity: daily worship, fasting and charity.
Islam neither pacifist nor aggressive. It is militaristic, again in fulfillment of one of the other Biblical prophecies, and because military strength deters enemies from making war.
Jihad means striving for the sake of God, which includes fighting a just war, but is not limited to fighting. There are strict conditions in which just war may be made. Not for oil or land, or to overthrow regimes, but against persecution and oppression. The Quran does not say to make war on everyone, but to defend one's self and land, and to fight those who fight you, or those who persecute and oppress, or will not live in peace with you.
But even on battlefield, even in the heat of battle, innocents may not be killed, nor indiscriminate weapons like bombs used on civilians. There is no such thing as “collateral damage”, it is criminal to deliberately drop bombs on an area knowing that many civilians would be killed.
The Prophet Muhammad, after the conquest of Mecca, forgave the Quraish, who had made war against the Muslims for years. Another well-known example of Muslim chivalry in war is Salahuddin Ayubi, who fought against the Crusaders, and sent his personal physician to tend to Richard the Lionhearted, in recognition of which the British have named a troop carrier “Saladin” after him.
In the Quran, there is prohibition against forcible
conversion, and history bears out that Muslims have abided by this prohibition.
For centuries, the Spanish Christians
and Indian Hindus were ruled by Muslims, but there were no forcible
conversions. And the majority of Muslims
converted not by force, but by preaching, there being millions of Muslims in
Islam recognizes Jews and Christians as “People of the Book”, they are not classified as infidels, and that is not a basis for fighting them in of itself.
For centuries, Jews found relative safe haven in Muslim
lands, while merciless religious persecution against them went on in Christian
countries. The immigration of Jews into
the Holy Lands and the creation of
There is no clergy in Islam, so it is not a theocracy, there is no divine right of kings as in Judaism and Christianity, and the state and leaders are subject to the same rule of law as everyone else. The Islamic equivalent of democracy is called “shura”, which means mutual consultation, the implementation can vary with time, but it should be by the will of the people and not contradict the commandments of God and the guidance of His Messenger, Muhammad.
In the 1930s, Americans helped the Saudis develop their oil
wells, and the countries were on the best of terms. Things have changed. There are resentments in the Muslim nations
against
Americans have a high opinion of
There are some factors that are secondary in forming Muslims' opinion of America, but are mistakenly cited as primary reasons. They are not primary factors.
q Not
envy of
q Not uncivilized – the Muslim civilization dominated the world from 700 till 1500 and is part of the foundation of modern Western civilization, the non-decadent parts of Western civilization have been adopted as reflected in most Muslim countries and cities.
q Not a clash of civilizations.
q Dislike of Western cultural influences, immorality, promiscuity? Yes, but no more than Focus on the Family.
q Distrust
of colonizers: yes, for Western countries have double standards
when they talk of freedom and democracy.
The French killed over a million Algerians to hold on to
q Envy of freedom? Islam has a bill or rights and freedoms that are as comprehensive as any in the West.
q Envy of democracy? Islam has its own form of democracy, different from the divine right of kings as in Judaism and Christianity.
q Not aggressive warmongers. Islam is comparatively peaceful, aggression against peaceful nations is not permitted .
q Not to convert the world by force, since it is not permitted to forcibly convert
q Not driven by anti-Christian sentiment, though there is a reaction to the Crusader mentality and anti-Islamic Christian missionary propaganda
Is there any reason for Muslims to have any resentment
against US against the West in general? Though there is
anti-American sentiment in Europe, even in
Anti-democracy: It was not Communist Russia, but the
“democratic” Americans who overthrew democratically elected governments in the
Middle East and
Anti-Islam : In
Support for non-democratic regimes:
And when there is some sort of democracy, the
As regards freedom, ask the Palestinians, do they think
America's foreign policy is contrary to the principles it espouses within its boundaries. To be fair, America's foreign policy does not reflect the will of the American people, for American foreign policy has been taken over by lobbyists and PACs (Political Action Committees) of foreign nations who have the American politicians under their thumbs. These PACs do not really care about the price American citizens will end up paying for misguided foreign policies, using the politicians and media to convince the American public to support policies that are not in America's interests.
The Russians committed atrocities in
In other atrocities against Muslims, the
The sudden interest in freedom, democracy and human rights
comes across as inconsistent and hypocritical, especially when it is used as an
excuse to attack Muslim countries, while
The Jews deserved a homeland, a place they could be secure and safe, after centuries of persecution by Christians, after the Holocaust perpetrated by Christians.
Instead of
Americans think nothing of taking the land away from the
Muslims and giving it to the Jews. They
ask, why don’t they just accept it? The
world assumes that since the UN gave the land to Jews, the Muslim world must
abide by the UN’s decision, even if they were not consulted and did not agree
or accept the decision. We’ve just
experienced how much respect the UN commands with the world powers,
As analogy to understand the Muslim perspective: Suppose the UN declared that since the
territory of Texas once belonged to Mexico and now has a significant number of
Hispanic residents, it is going to give Texas to Mexico, how would Texans
react, how would Americans react? Aside
from some Coloradans, would they applaud the wisdom of the United Nations and
give
The fundamentalist evangelist Christians of America believe
that for Jesus to return in the Second Coming, the Jews must build the
Another cause for resentment is the perception of one-sided
support by the US of
Like
In the war on terror, President Bush gave the ultimatum “Are
you with us or against us?, there was no middle ground. If you turn the question around, ask it from
the Muslim point of view: “Is
The perception in Muslim countries is that America is
against Muslims and Islam, so there is resentment in the Muslim world against
the
Americans have a high opinion of
There is a great difference between perceptions of
So there is resentment against the
What is an extremist? An extremist could be described as one whose reaction to an event is different from the majority, one who has an extreme reaction, holds extreme views and positions. Even amongst Americans, if people see a person desecrating American flag, the majority will get upset, some will shout at the person, a few extremists will be ready to shoot the person. So the same event causes different reactions from patriotic Americans, including a few extreme reactions.
In any group, there are a range of reactions to events and
situations. So there are some people
amongst the Muslims who have an extreme reaction to perceived injury and harm
by
Muslims do not have the monopoly on extremism. Every large group has its extremists. The primary factors in extremism are nationalism, politics, power, territory, oil, persecution. There are parallels in other groups, and religion is a factor, but a secondary factor.
Terrorism in the Holy Lands is not new. It was
started by Zionists against not only the Arabs, but also against the
British who were governing the territory under a mandate. The Zionists were responsible for bombing the
Amongst the Palestinians it was the Christian George Habash of the PFLP which started acts of terrorism against the Israelis.
.Patriotic Americans can go to extremes and do something counter to true patriotism. Like Timothy McVeigh, killed hundreds of fellow American men, women and children, because his interpretation of the Constitution. Militias in the US hold extreme views and occasionally conduct violent acts, though kept in check by the FBI.
It is difficult to understand why someone would want to kill themselves and others.
So consider an example closer to home: do you really understand why the two Columbine kids, young men in an American high school would go on a rampage, killing others and then committing suicide? Was it persecution, humiliation to the point of desperation and anger? There are accounts of postal workers or other employees "going postal" and killing fellow workers and committing suicide.
If we can not understand what went on in our own state, why it happened, what causes fellow Americans to harm others in a suicidal rampage, we will not be able to understand what goes on in other places, Palestinians, Iraqis, Sri Lanka Tamil Tigers. Since there are similarities in the situations and reactions, it would appear that it is not primarily or exclusively a religious thing, and that other factors, like a reaction to persecution, suicidal tendencies, even brainwashing by others are involved.
Extremists in
Like the Christians and Americans, Muslims also have more than their fair share of nuts and extremists.
Religion is a factor in some cases of extremism, but it is a
secondary factor, not the primary factor.
The primary factors are political, military, nationalistic, like the
IRA. The IRA is not fighting for
Catholicism, but to get back the land occupied by the British in
They had done it before, with American help, during the
occupation of
The war in
After
So these people, trained by the
q Muslims unequivocally condemn terrorist attacks.
q Muslim
countries themselves have been victims of terrorist attacks. During the Russian occupation of
q Attacks on innocents are barbaric, uncivilized and contrary to Islam.
q After the attack on September 11, 2001, every single significant Muslim scholar and political leader expressed sympathy for the victims and their families, and condemned the attack.
q Americans have the perception that Muslim did not and do not speak out against terrorism. This is partly because of the sensationalist style of the American media. If thousands of top Muslim leaders condemn terrorism, it is not news and does not get reported, but if one crazy person in a cave makes wild statements, that is what the media reports, so the American public is left with an unbalanced view of Islam and Muslims.
q Terrorists work very secretly and are difficult to identify.
q One of the targets of terrorists are moderate Muslims, because they oppose terrorists and condemn acts of terrorism.
q If Muslims became aware of such pending attacks, it would be their duty to stop such evil. No true Muslim would allow innocents to be harmed.
q Muslims have the responsibility of educating other Muslims about the evil of terrorism, and about the false reasoning and misinformation used by leaders of the terrorists, so the ignorant and gullible do not get recruited. This is like Christians educating other Christians so that they do not get involved in the KKK and other White Christian Supremacist groups who attack Jews and blacks.
q Muslims and non-Muslims have the responsibility of denouncing all acts of terrorism, harming of innocent civilians, whether perpetrated by terrorist groups or by uniformed military forces, and taking action against both types of terrorism, since one type of terrorism breeds the other type of terrorism.
q Non-Muslims have the responsibility of supporting moderate Muslims, and not demonizing Islam and the Muslims. Wild misrepresentations and misinterpretations of Islam, jihad and war by Christian extremists serve only to strengthen the terrorists against moderate Muslims.
Are there solutions to the problems? What are the major issues, what areas need to be addressed?
Some suggestions to improve matters:
q No more attacks on Muslim countries as a first resort – try understanding and the use of diplomacy.
q Don’t impose American style government where it conflicts with Islam, asking Muslims to give up Islam.
q Live
up to principles and ideals on which
q Act like a superpower with foreign policy to match. Take foreign policy back from lobbyists and PACs of other nations.
q Follow the kindergarten rules – respect others, no bullying, no snatching.
q Do not treat mainstream Muslims as terrorists, thereby drive them away, try to understand their issues.
q Support mainstream, moderate Muslims, do not demonize Islam and the Muslims. Wild misrepresentations and misinterpretations of Islam, jihad and war by Christian extremists serve only to strengthen the terrorists against moderate Muslims.
q Terrorists are not going to stop, there is no reasoning with them, so the only recourse for you may be to continue to fight them.
This
is more than a Palestinian problem, even having a Palestinian state does not
address the broader Muslim issues. The
US needs to exert more influence on
The religious issues are separate from Palestinian statehood. A political solution will not solve the underlying religious issues, and there can be no real lasting peace without resolving the religious issues. If the Jews believe that the Holy Lands have been given to them by the God of Abraham, let them prove it to the Muslims that they deserve the land. Taking the Holy Lands from the Muslims by force or UN fraud will not work in the long term, as it did not work for the Crusaders. The problem may require the wisdom of Solomon, like the case in which two women contended for the one baby.
Christian fundamentalists and evangelists are scared of
Islam as a religious competitor, which it is.
They have resorted to demonizing Islam and Muslims, stirring up mischief
by falsehoods and misrepresentations.
Christian fundamentalists role is now of mischief makers, not peace
makers, they have become an obstacle to peace.
Christian fundamentalists and evangelists need to dialog with
Muslims. They also need to resolve their
inconsistent interpretation of the Bible, which they quote as basis for support
for
I would like to say I am optimistic about the future, but there are so many problems, lack of understanding, lack of willingness to dialog, other agendas, insincerity and extremism that I would like to reserve that opinion. There may a ray of light in the dark, but that’s all there is for now.