Dear members of the list,
Assalamu Alaikum.I am forwarding to you an important article on terrorism from Al- Jazeerah.Soumaya Ghannoushi is a researcher in the history of ideas at the School of Oriental & African Studies, University of London.]
Shah Abdul Hannan
Where
does terrorism start?
It is interesting that while medieval Europe strove to dissociate the great achievements of the flourishing Islamic civilisation from the religion of Islam, today's West insists on referring all Muslims' ills, from democratic failure to economic decadence, to the Islam religion.
The
terrorist plague is no exception. Its agents, we are told, are the product of an
"evil ideology which must be uprooted". Even
so, this is only half of the truth. The questions we can not avoid are: why are
would-be bombers driven towards this evil theology and not any other, after all
it is hardly the only one on offer within the intensely diverse intellectual and
political Islamic map? What
triggers this radical ideologys shift from the abstract realm of ideas to the
concrete scenes of explosives, severed limbs and charred
bodies? If we
were Hegelians we would accept Blair and Bush's explanations of historical
phenomena by reference to ideology. " Take
the four bombers who a few months ago created carnage and mayhem in
The
striking picture that emerged from the media's scrutiny of every minutia of
their menial lives was of four unexceptional men, with calm ordinary lives, no
different from any Brit of their age.
Most were
born in
One was a
sports fanatic who adored cricket and hockey and worked at his father's fish and
chip shop, another was notorious for playing loud music in his Buckinghamshire
home, and the third for hiding in back alleys to sip beer with local
youths. Those who bury their heads in the sand and insist that that terrorism arises from an evil ideology need to answer to this question: Why did these young men revert to a terrifying and deviant theology that sanctions the killing of the innocent, rather than their parents' calm traditional faith, the peaceful theology of the scholars, the spirituality of Sufism, or the moderation of mainstream revivalist Islamism? That
these men were radicalised by the stormy political events that unfolded before
their eyes on TV screens and brought home to them the scenes of death, misery
and destruction in Falluja, Baghdad, Jenin and Gaza is undeniable.
The Chatham
House organisation, a respected
As the
former head of the Bin Ladin Unit in the CIA put it, "To deny that there is a
link between our foreign policies" and terrorism "is madness
itself". In
this globalised age dominated by the power of the image, the notion of geography
has almost been stripped of content.
They can no longer be kept away, to rage in distant lands and devour obscure nations.
They
inevitably spill over our shores, cities and villages, lay bare our
vulnerability and put an end to our false sense of
immunity. What
happened in
It
turns out it was not freedom or liberation America's tanks and B52s had
brought Baghdad, but death, destruction, chaos, sectarian schism and
al-Qaida.
In
al-Qaida's extremism they sought a medium of expressing the profound tensions
that seethed deep within them. Ideology, nationalist, socialist, or Islamist is,
after all, the medium through which socio-political grievances are
translated.
None
of the young men involved appears to have received a substantial religious
education, to have graduated from the theology departments of Islamic
universities, or even to have attended a separate faith school.
The
religious establishment has in fact been the object of fierce condemnation by
radical factions for its alleged estrangement from politics and acquiescence to
the political status quo.
Following
a sudden emotional upsurge, unrestrained by sound religious understanding and
adequate political experience, they slip into the bottomless abyss of violent
extremism.
Islam has always been the object of divergent strategies of interpretation.
The most
dominant has always been the calm and dignified Islam of the Ulama
(scholars). The evils of reality always metamorphose into evil ideologies. The trail of the bombers insanity leads back to these insane "foreign" policies, which are destabilising the world, breaking it into opposite trenches and tearing the fabric of nations, communities and families apart.
Unless
they are rectified, there can be little hope of our world emerging out of this
monstrous pit of hatred and violence.
[Soumaya Ghannoushi is a researcher in the history of ideas at the School of Oriental & African Studies, University of London.] The opinions expressed here are the author's and do not necessarily reflect the editorial position or have the endorsement of Aljazeera *************************************************************************** {Invite (mankind, O Muhammad ) to the Way of your Lord (i.e. Islam) with wisdom (i.e. with the Divine Inspiration and the Qur'an) and fair preaching, and argue with them in a way that is better. Truly, your Lord knows best who has gone astray from His Path, and He is the Best Aware of those who are guided.} (Holy Quran-16:125) {And who is better in speech than he who [says: "My Lord is Allah (believes in His Oneness)," and then stands straight (acts upon His Order), and] invites (men) to Allah's (Islamic Monotheism), and does righteous deeds, and says: "I am one of the Muslims."} (Holy Quran-41:33) The prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: "By Allah, if Allah guides one person by you, it is better for you than the best types of camels." [al-Bukhaaree, Muslim] The prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) also said, "Whoever calls to guidance will have a reward similar to the reward of the one who follows him, without the reward of either of them being lessened at all." [Muslim, Ahmad, Aboo Daawood, an-Nasaa'ee, at-Tirmidhee, Ibn Maajah] -------------------------------------------------------------------------- All views expressed herein belong to the individuals concerned and do not in any way reflect the official views of IslamCity unless sanctioned or approved otherwise. If your mailbox clogged with mails from IslamCity, you may wish to get a daily digest of emails by logging-on to http://www.yahoogroups.com to change your mail delivery settings or email the moderators at [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the title "change to daily digest". YAHOO! GROUPS LINKS
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