Last Wednesday, a British soldier was brutally killed by two terrorists on the streets of Woolwich in broad daylight. When the world including the Muslim community expressed shock at this barbaric attack and condemned it, there was one man who refused to abhor this evil act. Recently, on the BBC Newsnight programme, a radical Islamist imam named Anjem Choudary (known to one of the terrorists) refused to condemn the brutal attack and beheading of a young soldier in the name of British foreign policy. Although he represents only a tiny faction of the largely peaceful Muslim community in Britain, his behaviour and reaction towards this attack reveals an inherently evil and dangerous ideology he and his followers believe in. This ideology was not produced by Anjem but it is a prevalent and fundamentalist ideology held by thousands of dangerous and hate-filled people in the Muslim world.
If someone asks me, ‘What is the greatest political threat that the world is facing in the 21st century?’, I would have to say ‘Islamism’. What is Islamism? Islamism is a radical socio-political ideology that calls for the implementation of Sharia Law and an Islamic political system around the world. This theocratic ideology has been a major threat to world peace especially since 2001. Proponents of this ideology argue that their ideology has its roots in the Quran. But the vast majority of Muslims reject this as deliberate misinterpretation of their holy book. Historically, Islamism has its roots in the Muslim Brotherhood, the oldest Islamic political organisation in the world and predecessor of modern terrorist organisations such as Hamas, Al-Qaeda, Hezbollah and so on. Since the inception of this ideology, it has been responsible for numerous barbaric and savage attacks around the world. Some examples include the Lebanon US consulate bombings, World Trade centre bombings, 9/11, 7/7 London bombings, 2004 Madrid Train bombings, 26/11 Mumbai attacks, first and second intifada, 2003 Riyadh compound bombings, 2002 Bali bombings, countless suicide attacks in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan and the list goes on.
Now some might argue that the spread of Islamism is due to the west’s foreign policy. That is true but in no way did the west go out of its way to harm the Muslim world. In the context of certain world events, the US adopted an unintelligent and irresponsible foreign policy which unfortunately led to unintended consequences that the world is suffering today. For example, according to the 9/11 commission report, one of the reasons why Al-Qaeda attacked the US was because of the presence of western soldiers in Saudi Arabia. That is not totally America’s fault. In 1990-91, when Saddam Hussein occupied Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states requested the help of the west. Saudi Arabia wanted some US forces to stay even after the war as the region was still too fragile. No one at the time ever imagined that Bin Laden and his associates would be too offended by this and the west underestimated the threat posed by Bin Laden and his organisation. Laden was not even liked by his own countrymen and was thrown out of Saudi Arabia.
During the 1980s and 1990s, despite numerous aggression by Islamist radicals against the west, the US or its allies did not retaliate in a major way. The US did not wage war against any Muslim country (apart from the Gulf War) even after Islamist atrocities such as the hostage crisis in Iran, the bombing of the US consulate in Lebanon, the bombing of the World Trade centre etc. The US even sided with the Taliban and Al-Qaeda against the Soviets in the 1979 invasion of Afghanistan. Hollywood movies like Rambo 2 reveal the cordial relationship the west largely had with the Muslim world during the Cold War period. But 9/11 was the last straw and it revealed the serious danger poised by Islamist terrorists. The threat of Islamism today is as serious as communism was before its collapse in 1991.
The only people who can effectively destroy Islamism is the Muslim world. Radicals normally don’t listen to anybody but if there was any chance, they would listen to their own community. Just like Burma, South Africa, the UK and so on sorted out their problems with the military junta, Apartheid regime and IRA respectively by themselves, the Muslim world needs to actively try and stop Islamist fundamentalists. But even this is proving very difficult especially in light of the Arab Spring which has led to fundamentalist Islamist groups coming to power in many Middle-Eastern countries. And it is sad that the US and the UK are making the same mistake they made in Afghanistan by supporting the so-called rebels in Egypt, Syria and Libya.
Now I havent mentioned the big elephant in the room which is the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. But it is too complicated to even begin to explain and I will address it in a separate article. Nevertheless, the problems between Israel and Palestine is no reason for Islamists to kill and terrorise innocent people.But that is what they want in order to change world events in their favour. In conclusion, the ideology of Islamism is a dangerous and humongous threat to world peace. Apart from war and destruction, its existence and actions are causing and worsening Muslim persecution, racism and fascism around the world. Therefore, Islamism is as dangerous and evil to the Muslim world as to the rest of the world. I feel sorry for the majority of the peaceful Muslim community. But it is time for them to say ‘enough is enough’ and stamp out radicals among them. Its not enough for leaders of the Muslim community to condemn gruesome and barbaric Islamist attacks. They have to actively and passionately root out this ideology from among them through education (especially of the youth), banning of radical Imams, teaching the principle of forgiveness and so on.
To my fellow Christians, I urge you to pray for our Muslim brothers and sisters to deal with Islamists among them. Pray also for the western governments to change their foreign policy of war and retaliation and pursue Christ’s principle of grace and forgiveness. Pray that Islamists and anti-Muslim fascists will see the light of Christ and be captured by His Love. In order to achieve some kind of peace, the blame game must stop and unconditional forgiveness should be activated by both sides. It was because of unconditional forgiveness that there is peace in South Africa. The black community could have tried and executed Apartheid leaders and supporters in 1994. But they didn’t and that is the simple secret of peace.
If God forgave us unconditionally through his son Jesus Christ after all we did and are doing to him, why not us, his beloved creation, forgive one another?
Visit my blog at Christcentrist | A Christ-centred viewer of this world
If someone asks me, ‘What is the greatest political threat that the world is facing in the 21st century?’, I would have to say ‘Islamism’. What is Islamism? Islamism is a radical socio-political ideology that calls for the implementation of Sharia Law and an Islamic political system around the world. This theocratic ideology has been a major threat to world peace especially since 2001. Proponents of this ideology argue that their ideology has its roots in the Quran. But the vast majority of Muslims reject this as deliberate misinterpretation of their holy book. Historically, Islamism has its roots in the Muslim Brotherhood, the oldest Islamic political organisation in the world and predecessor of modern terrorist organisations such as Hamas, Al-Qaeda, Hezbollah and so on. Since the inception of this ideology, it has been responsible for numerous barbaric and savage attacks around the world. Some examples include the Lebanon US consulate bombings, World Trade centre bombings, 9/11, 7/7 London bombings, 2004 Madrid Train bombings, 26/11 Mumbai attacks, first and second intifada, 2003 Riyadh compound bombings, 2002 Bali bombings, countless suicide attacks in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan and the list goes on.
Now some might argue that the spread of Islamism is due to the west’s foreign policy. That is true but in no way did the west go out of its way to harm the Muslim world. In the context of certain world events, the US adopted an unintelligent and irresponsible foreign policy which unfortunately led to unintended consequences that the world is suffering today. For example, according to the 9/11 commission report, one of the reasons why Al-Qaeda attacked the US was because of the presence of western soldiers in Saudi Arabia. That is not totally America’s fault. In 1990-91, when Saddam Hussein occupied Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states requested the help of the west. Saudi Arabia wanted some US forces to stay even after the war as the region was still too fragile. No one at the time ever imagined that Bin Laden and his associates would be too offended by this and the west underestimated the threat posed by Bin Laden and his organisation. Laden was not even liked by his own countrymen and was thrown out of Saudi Arabia.
During the 1980s and 1990s, despite numerous aggression by Islamist radicals against the west, the US or its allies did not retaliate in a major way. The US did not wage war against any Muslim country (apart from the Gulf War) even after Islamist atrocities such as the hostage crisis in Iran, the bombing of the US consulate in Lebanon, the bombing of the World Trade centre etc. The US even sided with the Taliban and Al-Qaeda against the Soviets in the 1979 invasion of Afghanistan. Hollywood movies like Rambo 2 reveal the cordial relationship the west largely had with the Muslim world during the Cold War period. But 9/11 was the last straw and it revealed the serious danger poised by Islamist terrorists. The threat of Islamism today is as serious as communism was before its collapse in 1991.
The only people who can effectively destroy Islamism is the Muslim world. Radicals normally don’t listen to anybody but if there was any chance, they would listen to their own community. Just like Burma, South Africa, the UK and so on sorted out their problems with the military junta, Apartheid regime and IRA respectively by themselves, the Muslim world needs to actively try and stop Islamist fundamentalists. But even this is proving very difficult especially in light of the Arab Spring which has led to fundamentalist Islamist groups coming to power in many Middle-Eastern countries. And it is sad that the US and the UK are making the same mistake they made in Afghanistan by supporting the so-called rebels in Egypt, Syria and Libya.
Now I havent mentioned the big elephant in the room which is the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. But it is too complicated to even begin to explain and I will address it in a separate article. Nevertheless, the problems between Israel and Palestine is no reason for Islamists to kill and terrorise innocent people.But that is what they want in order to change world events in their favour. In conclusion, the ideology of Islamism is a dangerous and humongous threat to world peace. Apart from war and destruction, its existence and actions are causing and worsening Muslim persecution, racism and fascism around the world. Therefore, Islamism is as dangerous and evil to the Muslim world as to the rest of the world. I feel sorry for the majority of the peaceful Muslim community. But it is time for them to say ‘enough is enough’ and stamp out radicals among them. Its not enough for leaders of the Muslim community to condemn gruesome and barbaric Islamist attacks. They have to actively and passionately root out this ideology from among them through education (especially of the youth), banning of radical Imams, teaching the principle of forgiveness and so on.
To my fellow Christians, I urge you to pray for our Muslim brothers and sisters to deal with Islamists among them. Pray also for the western governments to change their foreign policy of war and retaliation and pursue Christ’s principle of grace and forgiveness. Pray that Islamists and anti-Muslim fascists will see the light of Christ and be captured by His Love. In order to achieve some kind of peace, the blame game must stop and unconditional forgiveness should be activated by both sides. It was because of unconditional forgiveness that there is peace in South Africa. The black community could have tried and executed Apartheid leaders and supporters in 1994. But they didn’t and that is the simple secret of peace.
If God forgave us unconditionally through his son Jesus Christ after all we did and are doing to him, why not us, his beloved creation, forgive one another?
Visit my blog at Christcentrist | A Christ-centred viewer of this world
