Another barbaric
bombing attack occurred in a Western country.
Although the perpetrators are suspected to be
Muslims, no mosques were burned, no neighborhoods
were devastated and no one was lynched. Compare
this, for example, to what happened a few weeks
back when just the suspicion of desecrating the
Quran had led to bloody riots in several cities of
the Islamic world which left gratuitous destruction
and death.
The main conflict
facing the globe today is neither a religious war
nor a conquest by the West for strategic or economic
gains. It is the result of a clash between two
cultures. It is a war between backwardness and
bigotry against freedom and tolerance. It is a war
between Islamic fanatics and the rest of the world
including a large majority of the Muslims.
The Muslim nations have
always provided fertile breeding grounds for
religious extremism. Most Islamic countries,
especially in the Arab world, allow no individual
freedoms and are plagued by rampant ignorance and
poverty. The masses are therefore easily enticed by
the fundamentalists' promises of glory and
empowerment. The long years of indoctrination in a
twisted ideology have produced easily excitable mobs
blinded by religious fervor and manipulated by
their spiritual leadership.
In the West, children
learn to listen to, accept and tolerate the Other
while the fundamentalists’ children are taught to
silence, reject and eliminate the Other. The West’s
democratic systems are based on laws protecting the
universal rights of each individual while their
“Shariaa” is based on what they alone believe to be
right. Politics in the civilized world evolve with
the needs and developments of the times while their
politics are founded on narrow interpretations of
Islamic laws as old as the religion itself. In the
civilized nations, criminals are punished and
brought to justice regardless of their victims'
ideology or identity while the “Believers” glorify
and praise aggressions against the “Infidels”.
Venomous ideologies
justify bad actions to otherwise good people.
Although some in the West are still confounded in
their political correctness to do so, it is time to
frankly ask good Muslims to take a responsible and
historic stand against extremism in Islam. Muslims
have to understand that their ambivalence is only
strengthening the fundamentalists. While a few are
courageously fighting back , more Muslims should
join to halt the evil that is done in the name of
their religion. This includes requiring more
reforms in the Islamic countries and establishing a
clear separation of religion and State. Only the
Muslims can change the terrorists’ culture of death
and destruction into a culture of life and
prosperity. They alone can rescue their
coreligionists from the grips of the backward forces
who want to imprison them in the dark caves of
fundamentalism.
For Islam to be truly
a religion of compassion and peace, all Muslims
should be liberated because only free minds can have
genuine compassion and live in lasting peace.
