TERRORISM - WARFARE
82. How do Muslims view terrorism?
The vast majority of Muslims unequivocally condemn terrorism. Terrorism, defined as the use of violence and threats to intimidate, coerce, or exact retribution, especially for political purposes, flagrantly violates at least three interrelated Islamic principles: respect for life, right to due process, and individual responsibility. The principle of respect for life prohibits the targeting of innocent civilians even during a state of war.
83. Is there anything in Islam that leads to suicide bombings or terrorism?
Suicide bombings violate the prohibition against suicide, and terrorism violates the prohibition against murder, one of the gravest sins prohibited by the Qur’an.
84. How do extremists justify their actions using the Qur’an?
While one cannot speak for their motivations or methodology, Muslim terrorists use the Qur’an the same way that Christian extremists such as the Ku Klux Klan and Aryan Nations or Jewish extremists such as Meir Kahane and Baruch Goldstein in Israel use the Bible: by taking phrases out of context and developing interpretations that serve their agenda.
They also ignore principles of the interpretation of texts followed by legitimate scholars of religion, above all the principle that a text must be understood with reference to the time, place, and situation in which it was given. The Qur’an, like other seminal religious texts, has a dual nature: one that is specific (particular or transitional) to the occasion, time, and place, and another that is universal and permanent, dealing with principles that apply for all times and places. The specific cannot be made to apply universally, while the universal always informs the specific. Ignoring this principle leads to arbitrary interpretations tailored to fit political agendas.
Most of the terrorism committed by people claiming Islam as their motivation is justified by a methodology that bypasses the bulk of classical scholarship. Various legal issues that pertained to the majority of the Muslim community were often left to the discretion and judgement of qualified scholars. ISIS and other similar groups, however, discount the role filled by traditional scholars. They promote themselves as “scholars” and then produce rulings far removed from what Muslims traditionally would find normative, acceptable, or humane.
85. In Islam, is it ever justifiable to kill innocent civilians?
We believe that Islamic teachings clearly prohibit killing innocent civilians. While there are obviously extremist Muslims who disagree with this stance, the position of the Muslim majority is clear, as demonstrated by repeated condemnations by Muslim scholars and leaders across the world.
86. Do Muslims, particularly those in America, support al-Qaeda? Did Muslims support bin Laden when he was alive?
According to a Pew survey taken in Middle Eastern countries and Indonesia (the world’s most populous Muslim-majority country) in 2011, only 15% of Muslims expressed favorable views of al- Qaeda, and only 16% had any confidence in bin Laden “to do the right thing in world affairs.” Among U.S. Muslims, terrorism has even less support; in the same year, 86% of Muslim Americans said that suicide bombing and other violence against civilians in defense of Islam are never (81%) or only rarely (5%) justified.
87. Why don’t Muslims condemn terrorism?
This question rests on a misconception, as Muslims have consistently and repeatedly denounced terrorism since September 11, 2001. For a large sampling of such condemnations, see this list. Another sampling is on ING website.
Unfortunately, these statements are rarely noted in the mass media in the US, leading many people to think erroneously that Muslims have not denounced terrorism.
This question, however, could also be answered with another question: why should Muslims be expected to repeatedly condemn terrorism? Are Christians or Jews expected to denounce violence or every irresponsible or destructive statement or action made in the name of their religions? The question seems to assume that Muslims support or condone every act committed in the name of Islam unless they specifically state otherwise. This assumption is clearly unjust and unreasonable.
88. Why are there so many Muslim terrorists?
Out of a total world population of around 1.8 billion Muslims, terrorists make up a tiny minority. A CNN article estimates the total number of members of Muslim terrorist groups as around .00625% of the world’s total Muslim population. Even if one assumes that there is a total number of Muslim terrorists several times that figure to account for “lone wolf” extremists and currently unknown groups, one still finds only a very tiny percentage of Muslims involved in terrorism or extremist violence.
What is true is that Muslim terrorists are very much in the public eye, especially in the U.S. and Europe, to the extent that some people erroneously believe that extremist violence is unique to Muslims. There are several reasons for this:
- Many actions of Muslim (and other) terrorists are deliberately designed to draw attention. The perpetrators of the 9/11 attacks knew and intended that images of these atrocities would dominate news around the world. Indeed, terrorism, which on the scale practiced today is something new in history, is intended precisely to draw public attention to the terrorists and their grievances.
- Closely related to the foregoing fact is the reality that terrorist violence can and does strike Western countries and hence poses a real danger to their citizens; it is, therefore, inevitably a matter of legitimate concern to Western publics (although the chance of one’s being killed in a terrorist attack is about the same as being crushed by falling furniture).
There appears to be a clear media bias which highlights terrorism committed by Muslims over that from other groups—even when terrorism from other sources poses a clear danger to people in the U.S. A database compiled by the Investigative Fund at The Nation Institute examines a nine-year period, from 2008 through 2016 and finds that far-right plots and attacks outnumber Islamist incidents by almost 2 to 1. Yet, according to a 2017 University of Alabama study of news coverage of all terrorist attacks in the United States between 2006 and 2015, attacks by Muslim perpetrators received, on average, 357% more coverage than other attacks. The study states: “The disparities in news coverage of attacks based on the perpetrator’s religion may explain why members of the public tend to fear the ‘Muslim terrorist’ while ignoring other threats.”
In other words, while Muslim terrorists make up a tiny percentage of the world’s total Muslim population, they loom very large in the public mind—for reasons both legitimate and not.
89. What is the role of Muslim Americans in combating terrorism?
There is no reason to assign a special role to Muslim Americans, who are overwhelmingly opposed to terrorism. Muslim Americans do, however, have a responsibility to educate Americans of other faiths about Islam, increase Islamic literacy in the Muslim American community, and clarify that terrorism is prohibited in Islamic teachings.
90. What does the Qur'an say about war?
Like other sacred scriptures, including the Bible, there are a number of verses about warfare in the Qur’an; they address the struggle of the early Muslims against the Meccans who fought and persecuted them first in Mecca and then after they established a state in Medina, where Muslims fought back for the first time. However, they make up a small percentage of the 6,000 verses of the Qur’an. In addition, it is important to keep in mind the following:
- A reading of the “warlike” verses in their context in the Qur’an invariably shows that they refer to situations in which the Muslim community was under attack, either through direct military aggression or forcible denial of legitimate rights of freedom of religion and expression; they refer to, and permit, only strictly defensive warfare. Aggression is clearly prohibited (Qur’an, 2:190).
- The earliest verse related to fighting (22:39) states that “permission [to fight back] is given to those who have been wronged,” clearly indicating that such permission is an exceptional allowance responding to a specific situation, and that peaceful conduct is assumed to be the norm for Muslims.
- There are strict rules of warfare outlined by the Prophet Muhammad and his successors that prohibit targeting civilians, specifically women and children, or even harming infrastructure or crops used by civilians.
91. When do Muslims consider war to be justified?
While there are differing views among Muslims on their interpretation of Qur’anic verses about war, as about other subjects, the majority of Muslim scholars today interpret the Qur’an to allow war only for self-defense, as delineated in the following verse: “Fight in the cause of God against those who fight you, but do not transgress limits by aggressing; surely God does not love transgressors” (Qur’an, 2:190).
The other justification for war in the Qur’an is to protect others from harm, but this is permissible only if the harm prevented is greater than the harm caused by the acts of war. This is the same as the principle of proportionality in the Christian doctrine of just war, which bears other similarities to the concept of war in the Qur’an.
According to the following Qur’anic verses, protecting others from harm includes defending people of other faiths: “To those against whom war is made, permission is given to fight, because they are oppressed. Verily, God is capable of aiding them. They are those who have been expelled from their homes in defiance of what is just, for no other reason than that they say, ‘Our Lord is God.’ Had God not restrained one set of people by means of another, monasteries, churches, synagogues, temples and mosques wherein God’s name is oft-mentioned would have been destroyed. God will certainly aid those who aid His cause” (Qur’an, 22:39-40).
92. What is Jihad?
The Arabic term jihad literally means striving or exertion of effort and encompasses both the internal struggle against harmful impulses and desires and the external struggle against injustice and oppression. Thus, the word can refer to military action against an aggressor, but this is by no means the only meaning of the term. Traditionally, Muslim sources distinguish between the “greater” and the “lesser” jihad. The “greater jihad” is described by Muslim scholars as an internal struggle to avoid negative actions and cultivate good character. The “lesser jihad” is the external striving for justice, in self-defense or against oppression. One can do this in one’s heart, with one’s tongue or pen, and, if these are ineffective, by forcibly trying to change an oppressive situation, similarly, for example, to the Allies in World War II who went to war against the aggression of Hitler. It should be noted, however, that violent revolution was often seen by classical scholars as the absolute last resort. The social chaos and mayhem that often ensue from overthrowing an oppressive leader were commonly viewed as much worse than the reign of an oppressor.
93. What does the Qur’an say about peace?
The Qur’an describes the desirability of peace and the means of attaining it in various passages, including the verse, “If they incline toward peace, then seek you peace also,” which clearly demonstrates that peace is a desired state to strive for. Another verse describes the blessings of peace: “‘Peace,’ a word from a Merciful Lord” (Qur’an, 36: 58). Furthermore, Salaam alaikum— “peace be upon you”—is the universal Islamic greeting; and as-Salaam is one of the 99 names of God, meaning “The Giver of Peace.” One of the best-known prophetic supplications is: “O God, You are peace, peace comes from You. Blessed are You O Possessor of Glory and Honor.” Furthermore, one of the various names for heaven is Dar al-Salam, “Abode of Peace.”
94. Are there any Muslim peacemakers?
Muslim peacemakers are working throughout the world, building bridges between people of different faiths. We believe that the work we are doing at ING to increase religious and cultural literacy and promote engagement and understanding among Americans of diverse backgrounds is the best antidote for conflict.
Contemporary Muslim advocates of nonviolence include Sari Nusseibeh in Palestine, Maulana Wahiduddin Khan in India, Muhammad Yunus in Bangladesh, and women leaders such as Rebiya Kadeer in the Uighur region of China and Iltezam Morrar in Palestine, who led a successful nonviolent effort to keep Israel from building its “separation wall” through the middle of a Palestinian village.
In recent history, examples of Muslim peacemakers include Abdul Ghaffar Khan, a close associate of Gandhi in India, who called nonviolence “the weapon of the Prophet” and organized the world’s first nonviolent army, the Khudai Khidmatgar or “Servants of God”; and, in Iran, the late Grand Ayatollah Muhammad ibn Mahdi al-Shirazi, a major leader among Shi’a Muslims, who upheld the tradition of Muslim nonviolence.
95. Why is there so much conflict between Arabs/Muslims and Jews?
Which Arabs and Muslims and which Jews are you referring to? Throughout the world where Arabs, Muslims and Jews are living as minorities in Christian-populated countries, they tend to be allies with shared interests and concerns, such as the promotion of religious literacy and the fight against anti-Semitism and Islamophobia. Muslim Americans and Jewish Americans are also often allied on domestic issues of social justice.
Where Jews live today as minorities in Muslim majority countries, such as Iran, the views are mixed. Some say they live in harmony with their Muslim compatriots, and others say that Jews are discriminated against.
Historically, Jews and Muslims generally lived in harmony in many Muslim-populated countries, such as Morocco, Iraq, and Egypt (and, at least until the mass migration of Jews to Palestine in the early 1900s, in Palestine itself). Jews refer to Muslim rule in Spain in their history books as a period of renaissance for Jewish life. During the Spanish Inquisition, when both Muslims and Jews in Spain were forced to convert or leave, many Jews fled to Muslim countries where they lived for centuries in security and prosperity. These Muslim countries, with rare and short-lived exceptions, never propagated the anti-Jewish sentiment that resulted in pogroms and other forms of persecution that occurred in Europe.
If the question is about the conflict between Palestinians and Israelis, then this is a recent conflict which began with the twentieth-century mass settlement of Jews in Palestine, and the subsequent creation of the state of Israel. In the eyes of most Muslims, this is less about religion than about the displacement and dispossession of many Palestinians—both Muslim and Christian—as the state of Israel was formed, which is why Christian Palestinians such as Edward Said and Hanan Ashrawi have been outspoken about this issue.
Today, the evils of anti-Semitism and Islamophobia have brought Jewish and Muslim communities in America together in a mutual effort to denounce bigotry and prejudice against religious minorities, as exemplified by the fundraising efforts of Muslim Americans following the attack on a Pittsburgh synagogue. In this way, Jews and Muslims are increasingly uniting in response to a common threat that targets both communities.
96. If Islam is considered to be a religion of peace, then why is there so much conflict in countries where Muslims live?
This question makes two assumptions: first, that there is more conflict among Muslims than among followers of other religions, and, second, that conflicts involving Muslims result primarily from their religion.
The first assumption is a false perception. Of the fifty Muslim-majority countries, the vast majority are at peace. Furthermore, many countries with non-Muslim majorities are involved in conflict. The United States, for instance, a Christian-majority country, is the world’s largest arms exporter and is involved currently in several armed conflicts and was previously involved in a number of conflicts, most famous among them the Vietnam War. The two largest world wars in history were fought mostly between Christian-majority countries (i.e., World Wars I and II).
The second assumption is likewise misleading. While religion is sometimes invoked by parties to support a war, religion is at most one factor among many in producing conflict, and usually not the most important one. Economic and political issues are generally the underlying causes behind most conflicts, including those involving Muslims.
Additionally, in many of these conflicts Muslims are the victims rather than the perpetrators of violence and conflict. Some current examples include: Myanmar, where close to a million Rohingya Muslims have been persecuted and driven from their homes by the Burmese army and militants in what has been called a genocide; in China, where one million Uighur Muslims have been detained in concentration camps; in Kashmir where a brutal crack-down has resulted in the oppression of all its Muslim residents following decades of repression; and ongoing conflicts over land and rights in Palestine. This has also been the case in previous conflicts in Iraq, Chechnya, Afghanistan, and Bosnia, where others instigated conflict to the great detriment, loss of lives, destruction, and suffering of the Muslims living in those countries.
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