How can human beings who believe in killing, raping and driving people out of their homelands have anything to do with any faith or creed?
Source/Credit: The Dallas Morning News
By Huma Munir | March 23, 2016
“He who abandons kindness, abandons religion” are the words of the founder of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, Mirza Ghulam Ahmad.
As an Ahmadi Muslim, I believe strongly in our motto: Love for all, hatred for none. This is why I find it incumbent upon myself to condemn the heinous acts in Turkey, Ivory Coast and now Brussels, acts that go against the very ideals of what Islam stands for.
By killing innocent people, the so-called “Muslim” terrorists do not deserve to be associated with Islam in any way. Instead of kindness, they have shown a ruthless spirit that longs to murder people in cold blood. Far from being Muslim, these people don’t even deserve to be called human beings.
The only thing ISIS and other militant groups are good at is using Islam as a tool to manipulate people into committing acts of brutality. They raise slogans of jihad while being utterly ignorant of what the word means. While the Quran says that taking one innocent life is like killing the entire mankind, the terrorists value life so little that one wonders if they are not some made-up characters from a horror movie. The violence and the brutality these terrorists carry out seem unreal and unfathomable.
How can human beings who believe in killing, raping and driving people out of their homelands have anything to do with any faith or creed?
Faith — a word so powerful it drives me to tears — is meant to heal us from the wounds of our flaws and cleanse us from the atrocities we commit when we give in to our low desires. Islam says that the greatest jihad is the jihad of self-reformation, a process for human beings to engage in profound self-reflection and try to improve their characters. The terrorists that do not hesitate to take lives and do not stop to even think about the atrocities they are committing are in direct conflict with the Islamic teachings.
The Quran says that Prophet Muhammad was sent as a mercy to mankind. During his prophethood, Christians and Jews were granted full protection and freedom of religion. In fact, a recent study by Rice University translated old Islamic manuscripts. According to the study, the manuscripts showed that the Prophet Muhammad “desired a pluralistic society in which citizenship and equal rights were granted to all people regardless of religious beliefs and practices.”
But despite evidence of peaceful history between Muslims and people of other faiths, the terrorists continue to make a mockery out of my faith. And as they continue to do that, some politicians in the United States are more than happy to play into the hands of the ISIS narrative.
While I cannot control anything the terrorists do, as a citizen of this country, I believe I have the responsibility to speak up. I am afraid that as a country we are on a very dangerous path. If someone like Ted Cruz or Donald Trump becomes president, more and more people will have the chance to fuel hatred. Racism and prejudice will flourish under these people. Now more than ever, politicians, as well as the American people, must understand that most Muslims believe in peace and want nothing to do with terrorism. In fact, some of us were driven out of our homelands because we faced extreme religious or political persecution.
Unless non-Muslim Americans get to know Muslims better, it is impossible to look at the true causes of terrorism. It is important to know that terrorists are not motivated by Islam, and that militancy is deeply rooted in ignorance, greed and poverty. Without this knowledge, as a nation, we will never be able to tackle terrorism. With this knowledge, we will become empowered and move forward with bold solutions that will eradicate the cancer of extremism once and for all.
Most of all, it is important to educate ourselves because under Trump and Cruz, I am afraid we are inviting a genocide against Muslims.
Huma Munir is a high school journalism teacher in Austin. Reach her at humamunir1989@gmail.com.
Read original post here: Perspective: Terrorists have abandoned Islam | Huma Munir
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