Jihad – The Misperceptions

re: Terrorism and islam
My 2 cents on this.
I see 2 main issues here:
1. Failure of Islam to change with changing times. Even though the book is the same, its message has to be put in the context of our present day living. If chopping off someone`s hand for theft was unavoidable in medieval Arabia (even then i hate to think how it could be desirable), it cannot be practised today. However, interpratations of Qoran (Shariat?) has not kept pace with the changing times. Mullahs have been living in a time warp.
2. The nexus between clergy and the ruling elite in forcing the entire muslim Ummah to a certain view to serve their narrow ends, which in case of mullahs is to perpetrate their hold over the population and in case of ruling elite, is to keep ruling. It is well known that Clergy in saudi Arabia are all in the payroll of the Saudi Royal family and it is Saudi Arabia which is becoming the focus for the extreme views that is coming out of there. Even Egypt has clergy under state payroll and have been airing extreme view points. The two, clergy and the ruling elte have a symbiotic relationship. They seem to say: you rub my back and i will rub yours.
What is needed today is a reawakening by educated muslims who should try and isolate the violent elements and bring Islamic teachings to the modern context. Only a modern prophet can do it. But then, when such a prophet comes along, the whole islamic world will reject him as Prophet Md (PBUH) has already said there will not be another prophet after him. Quiet a dilemma!
Sridhar

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freethinker

So many people of diverse backgrounds have written so much on jihad that it seems to have lost its meaning. It has indeed become a word of hatred, violence, radicalism, and negativism. No matter who writes on jihad, he will not succeed in restoring it to any worthy station. It is time we left it alone.

Battles are fought day and night without waging a jihad. Communal killings take place almost incessantly without a mention of jihad and not many people take any notice of them either. Terrorism is not the sole monopoly of the “holy warriors”; many of those who are fighting terrorism now had committed terrorist acts in the past and will do so again if it served their purpose. Human beings are sadly selfish and ruthless in attaining their ends by whatever means. Pointing accusatory fingers at people whom we do not like is human nature.

September 11 was a human tragedy and cannot be justified whatever way you look at it. The perpetrators were terrorists.

That said and done, let me mention that the author wrote some poignant lines in his article. For example, “Social equality might be a fundamental tenet of the theoretical Islam but virtually non-existent in all Muslim countries”. How true? What we write so frequently about Islam is indeed about ‘theoretical Islam’, which is practiced in none of the Islamic countries. Many of the authors of such perceptive articles also do not practice what they write. The closest that any country has come to practicing the theoretical Islam in its social aspects, is our USA or several other countries in the west. Majority of the Muslims do not practice what they preach; what they practice frequently contravenes what they preach and what they write. I had concluded one of my Opinion Columns at the Pakistan Link (Human Rights in the Islamic Milieu – 2, September 20, 2002) by stating, “Islam in theory is so very different from Islam in practice indeed”.

Another thought provoking line is, “Only by recognizing that the long term dividends of emulating the MIT, Harvard, and Oxford exponentially surpass….. Jihad Academies at Khost, Muridke, or Arora Khattak, we can make progress”. True, this indeed is noteworthy.

If the author is not a hermaphrodite – the article is….

re:#71 by faisaluno
You seem to get excited very fast. Did you read the article that you posted in its entireity? Tom Friedman goes on to say that Tamil diaspora realised the futility of violent struggle and has stopped helping these militants in Srilanka after LTTE was declared a terrorist organisation.
The Tamil struggle in Srilanka is entirely political. The LTTE suicide bombers never claimed to do these acts for the glory of hindu religion. They did it for their own narrow political end. Most (>99%) Tamilians (and certainly all level headed middle class Tamilians) in India do not approve of what LTTE has been doing. LTTE`s political patronage by Tamil politicians from India rapidly vanished after Rajiv Gandhi`s assasination, which was both traumatic and embarassing and shameful for Tamilians in India.
LTTE is the most ruthless terrorist organisation that has ever come into being. It humbled Indian Army and has kept Srilankan army at bay for several decades. It is however running out of steam. Recently, V.Prabhakaran, the LTTE supremo gave a press conference and showed interest in coming to an agreement. I think there is a truce right now. If there is something Islamic terrorists can learn, it is that no violent armed struggle ever lasts for ever and there comes a time when one has to find a peaceful solution. Violence never pays in the end.
Sridhar

godot

the author, another mealy mouthed apologist for islam, says, ``It would be unfair to mistrust the dedication and valour of the jihadis ``

...... you have to be a true believer or a total imbecile to get past this and still believe that he is sincere in getting over his fascination with the glory days of badr and the conquest of mecca ..........it is a stalling tactic ......... ``let`s fix dar-ul-aman and then we we destroy dar-ul-harb``........ most muslims are so full of their own piety and righteousness that they refuse to acknowledge that there might be something inherently wrong with their faith and value system .............. that`s the reason you cannot find three people in pakistan who are willing to publically declare that the blasphemy laws are a travesty and that women are people and that the poor pigs and hindoos are simply one of god`s creation ..........not to say that muslims are the only people who suffer from this debilitating disease ...... jerry falwell and pat robertson are prime examples of the crazy christians who have it equaly bad ............ but that does not absolve the ummah ............

................ we don`t need self-serving apologists to tell us that islam is good and that the muslims are bad ......... we need someone to tell us that, regardless of what the khulafa-i-rashiden did or said, it is not healthy to share your tent with your camel and beat your wife and break idols..............

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#14 by Rizwan on November 6, 2002 1:11pm PT

`Permission to fight is given to those against whom war is made, because they have been wronged. And Allah indeed has power to help those who have been driven out of their homes unjustly only for saying ``Our Lord is Allah.`` And if Allah did not repel some men by means of others, cloisters and churches and synagogues and mosques would have been pulled down wherein the name of Allah is oft remembered. And Allah will surely help him who helps Allah. Allah is indeed Powerful, Mighty.` (Al-Hajj 40-1)

This passage from the Holy Quran leaves no doubt whatever that a religious war is not permitted by Islam unless it is against a people who force another people to abjure their religion; unless, for instance, Muslims are forced to abjure Islam.

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How many islamic jihadic wars were fought in past for ``another`` people who were being attacked primarily because of their religious belief?

I need just one example.

-einsteinwallah

dost-mittar (#84),

I think it has a lot to do with putting up a front. I don`t think any father or mother however poor or illiterate will ``celebrate`` the death of a child (unless it`s a dysfunctional family). That is so inhuman.

A lot of it has to do with peer pressure, of being brainwashed by the leadership of whatever ``struggle`` their child is part of that he did it in the larger interests of the cause. The parents and family daren`t say that it was meaningless that their child died for fear of letting it down.

Picture of al-queida suspect detainees being transported to guantanmo bay.

http://europe.cnn.com/2002/US/11/08/detainees.pictures/

Picture of al-queida suspect detainees being transported to guantanmo bay.

http://europe.cnn.com/2002/US/11/08/detainees.pictures/

I am sure, dr aziz (who was detained for questioning) may be in this grp.

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#9 by sameerJB on November 6, 2002 9:00am PT

... When swords wielding Muslim hordes and invaders were hoisting flags over territory after territory in Asia and Africa using jihad, nobody bothered to challenge or reinterpret the meaning of jihad and other so-called peaceful aspects of Islam. ...

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Ottoman empire once touched Moscow and Vienna also. By the time WWI ended it shrunk to what is today Turkey. So, what went wrong? (In fact there is book entitled ``What Went Wrong`` on the topic of fall of Ottomans). Clearly their rigidity. And first source of rigidity is their strait-jacket religion. It is so stifling. No questioning can take place. So how can Science or Technology flourish?

Islamists constantly talk about all kinds of good things of west originating from their culture. Evidence for this is sketchy. The contribution of Aryans in Asia is ignored. Even when a lot of western culture owes to Islam a lot of this was secondary and borrowed from Greeks and Aryans and Westerners improved upon them immensely. Sure, west took whatever it found good from any source. In some cases they got from Islamic workers a copy of the original destroyed by wars etc.

Some Islamists mention Avicenna as a great example of how great scientific achievements were made during Islam`s days of glory. (One URL on his life: http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Mathematicians/Avicenna.html ). But Avicenna had to struggle during those times. He was thrown into prison by some Islamic rulers. I know what the reply of some Islamists would be. That these Islamic rulers were not true followers of Islam.

Islam in current form cannot survive for long. Islam has got to reform. Reform or disappear from face of earth. Reform or Get out.

-einsteinwallah

Dear Readers:
I remember reading somewhere a senior Pakistani politician Khan Abdul Wali Khan proclaiming (not verbatim) that he had been Pakistani for the last 40 years, Muslim for 1300 years and Pashtun for 4000 years. Without challenging the anthropological authenticity of his claim, I wonder, wouldn’t it be appropriate to go one step further, “we have been human beings for the last millions of years”?

As it was beautifully said, “life is too short to love, I don’t understand how people find time to hate”. What a misfortune that in our region, all of our energies are dedicated only to hating each other, under one pretext or the other. Our foremost interest/concern seems to locate dividing factors by all possible interpretations and then exploit them to foment resentment. Never ever we strive to identify, let alone magnify uniting features.

Is it really that hard to comprehend that pain has NEITHER any religion NOR any colour? The agony of a mother who has recently lost her offspring, the torment of a father whose daughter has been raped, is ALWAYS same, equally intense, regardless of the ethnic association, religious beliefs or colour of the hapless individuals in question. Just a bit of empathy is what required for realizing this rather simple fact.

It is heartrending to see Indians and Pakistanis picking on each other even here. Don’t you think, it is our – the comparatively better educated, affluent section of South Asian societies – principal duty and prime obligation to promote goodwill, friendship, communal harmony among different peoples and beliefs.

As far as this article is concerned it doesn’t seem to me, in contrast to some of the respondents, that the author has not been blunt enough in denouncing the ill-deeds, atrocities and/or violence being committed in the name of Islam. Well, short of invectives it would be difficult to be more explicit than him while criticising Muslims for their wanton code of conduct as well as highlighting their number of shortcomings.

Make love not war.
Regards

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#4 by ferozk on November 6, 2002 5:11am PT

...

The salvation of Islam lies in the person and once that person begins to understand the message of Islam, which is peace, and starts to change for the better, the religion of Islam will emerge out of its dark ages. etc etc

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Can that person sometimes criticise somebody`s interpretation of Islam? Or will s/he be executed for committing apostasy?

-ew

Abrar,
I feel really bad for you. Now, here you wrote a wonderful, self-analytical and self-critical article, correctly pointing to the problems today`s Muslim faces. But it appears that some readers at Chowk: 1) Genuinely do not understand what you wrote, 2) Do not want to understand what you wrote, 3) Want to drown you in the Arabian Sea with their vicious and virulent attacks so you never come back with another similar article, 4) Are so blind in their self-righteousness and hatred that an article like this annoys them greatly.

You must remember, however, just because you are a Pakistani and a Muslim, better you write more you will be hated at Chowk. Here at Chowk, as a Pakistani and a Muslim, if you write in a self-condescending, self-hating and self-degrading manner, you will be adored and showered with accolades. Such is life at Chowk. It`s a very poisonous atmosphere here for people like you. Good luck surviving.

But you must keep writing, their ignorance, bias and blind hatred notwithstanding. You know exactly where the problem of today`s Islam lies. I, for one, want to hear more from you. Thank you again for this wonderful article. I will make sure it gets distributed to people who really matter.