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AA,
Please find an interesting piece on the subject following my comments,
it is short and is worth your attention.
The biggest mistake media has made: Prefixing the word Terrorist with
the name of a religion.
All religions are beautiful, no religions teaches hatred. The bad work is
done by the Individuals for their benefit. They have used the religion and we
have let them. The biggest mistake of the media is to give credence and value to
the terrorists by ascribing a religion to them. Media guys, please
bark at the right people and not at the religion, no religion.
Insha Allah, in the next 14 years, the World Muslim
Congress plans to accomplish as much as we can in creating a
World Wider Registry for Muslim Organizations. The idea is
to create a sense of organization and well defined purpose
for each one to act and to bring them into the fold. The organizations
would register their name, mission, members, directors, events.... this would
also encourage them to learn to operate on a consultative basis. For the
negative people out there, if we don't do it, nothing will happen. We will
put in our effort and work at it, and leave the results to
Allah.
The following is a good piece to read and spread. A few months ago Dr.
Javed Jamil had listed the world conflicts for the last 1000 years,
starting with the crusades, that chronicled the events and religions that were
mis-used in those conflicts. I would request him to combine this and that list
and come up with a full draft for the list of world's conflicts. We need to give
this full currency.
May I suggest you to log in and post your comment at the link below? Number
of comments affirms the author. You can write at least one line or one
phrase...
Our priority, the Muslim priority in the world at this time ought to
be building good will to remove the false perceptions out there about
us.
Jazak Allah Khair
Mike Ghouse, President
World Muslim Congress
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Publication: Times Of India Mumbai
Date:Jul 23, 2006 SWAMINOMICS
Terrorism is certainly not a Muslim monopoly SWAMINATHAN S ANKLESARIA AIYAR
''All Muslims may not be terrorists, but all terrorists are Muslims.'' This
comment , frequently heard after the Mumbai bomb blasts implies that terrorism
is a Muslim specialty, if not a monopoly. The facts are very different.
First, there is nothing new about terrorism. In 1881,
anarchists killed the Russian Tsar Alexander II and 21 bystanders. In 1901,
anarchists killed US President McKinley as well as King Humbert I of Italy.
World War I started in 1914 when anarchists killed Archduke Ferdinand of
Austria. These terrorist attacks were not Muslim.
Terrorism is generally defined as the killing of
civilians for political reasons. Going by this definition, the British Raj
referred to Bhagat Singh, Chandrashekhar Azad and many other Indian freedom
fighters as terrorists. These were Hindu and Sikh rather than Muslim.
Guerrilla fighters from Mao Zedong to Ho Chi Minh and
Fidel Castro killed civilians during their revolutionary campaigns. They too
were called terrorists until they triumphed. Nothing Muslim about them.
In Palestine, after World War II, Jewish groups (the
Haganah, Irgun and Stern Gang) fought for the creation of a Jewish state,
bombing hotels and installations and killing civilians. The British, who then
governed Palestine, rightly called these Jewish groups terrorists. Many of these
terrorists later became leaders of independent Israel - Moshe Dayan, Yitzhak
Rabin, Menachem Begin, Ariel Sharon. Ironically, these former terrorists then
lambasted terrorism, applying this label only to Arabs fighting for the very
same nationhood that the Jews had fought for earlier.
In Germany in 1968-92, the Baader-Meinhoff Gang killed
dozens, including the head of Treuhand, the German privatisation agency. In
Italy, the Red Brigades kidnapped and killed Aldo Moro, former prime minister.
The Japanese Red Army was an Asian version of this.
Japan was also the home of Aum Shinrikyo, a Buddhist cult that tried to kill
thousands in the Tokyo metro system using nerve gas in 1995.
In Europe, the Irish Republican Army has been a Catholic
terrorist organisation for almost a century. Spain and France face a terrorist
challenge from ETA, the Basque terrorist organisation.
Africa is ravaged by so much civil war and internal
strife that few people even bother to check which groups can be labelled
terrorist. They stretch across the continent. Possibly the most notorious is the
Lord's Salvation Army in Uganda, a Christian outfit that uses children as
warriors.
In Sri Lanka, the Tamil Tigers have long constituted one
of the most vicious and formidable terrorist groups in the world. They were the
first to train children as terrorists. They happen to be Hindus. Suicide bombing
is widely associated with Muslim Palestinians and Iraqis, but the Tamil Tigers
were the first to use this tactic on a large scale. One such suicide bomber
assassinated Rajiv Gandhi in 1991.
In India, the militants in Kashmir are Muslim. But they
are only one of several militant groups. The Punjab militants, led by
Bhindranwale, were Sikhs. The United Liberation Front of Assam is a Hindu
terrorist group that targets Muslims rather than the other way round. Tripura
has witnessed the rise and fall of several terrorist groups, and so have Bodo
strongholds in Assam. Christian Mizos mounted an insurrection for decades, and
Christian Nagas are still heading militant groups.
But most important of all are the Maoist terrorist
groups that now exist in no less than 150 out of India's 600 districts. They
have attacked police stations, and killed and razed entire villages that oppose
them. These are secular terrorists (like the Baader Meinhof Gang or Red
Brigades). In terms of membership and area controlled, secular terrorists are
far ahead of Muslim terrorists.
In sum, terrorism is certainly not a Muslim monopoly .
There are or have been terrorist groups among Christians, Jews, Hindus,
Sikhs, and even Buddhists. Secular terrorists (anarchists, Maoists) have been
the biggest killers.
Why then is there such a widespread impression that most
or all terrorist groups are Muslim? I see two reasons. First, the Indian elite
keenly follows the western media, and the West feels under attack from Islamic
groups. Catholic Irish terrorists have killed far more people in Britain than
Muslims, yet the subway bombings in London and Madrid are what Europeans
remember today. The Baader Meinhof Gang, IRA and Red Brigades no longer pose
much of a threat, but after 9/11 Americans and Europeans fear that they could be
hit anywhere anytime. So they focus attention on Islamic militancy. They pay
little notice to other forms of terrorism in Africa, Sri Lanka or India: these
pose no threat to the West.
Within India, Maoists pose a far greater threat than
Muslim militants in 150 districts, one-third of India's area. But major cities
feel threatened only by Muslim groups. So the national elite and media focus
overwhelmingly on Muslim terrorism. The elite are hardly aware that this is an
elite phenomenon. *************************************************************************** {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] -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Recommended: http://www.ikhwanweb.com http://www.islamonline.net http://www.islam-guide.com http://www.prophetmuhammadforall.org -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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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