Terrorism: Will there be an end to it?

Is it the lot of a common man on Indian roads to be killed for no fault of theirs? Like so many other black days, once again a black Wednesday came when a bomb blast took a heavy toll of human lives in New Delhi on September 7.

The drama sans firm action like in the earlier blast tragedies continues as usual in the pictures of those two bearded suspect terrorists who might have placed that briefcase having the high intensity bomb. Huji has taken the responsibility of mauling innocents. Even the IM seems to have been a part of it. We know that this familiar drill will continue till another terror attack in future somewhere in India. While Muslims in their ghettos will be a dreaded lot as to whose turn would be there to be arrested under suspicion as has been stated in the Urdu daily Inquilab on September 8, 2011. I’ll go to my workplace toady carrying the stigma of sharing the same religion as the two bearded suspects. May be they will talk to me, be nice to me but at the back of their minds, might take me to be of the terrorists ilk. I, as a law abiding Indian Muslim, will maintain a low profile. What are these terrorists doing to us – the common Muslims?

Muslims must come out openly against terrorist outfits which are all committed to desecrate peaceful coexistence and harmony. The terrorists have been slaughtering innocent lives at railway stations, bus stops, trains, airplanes, temples and markets, courts etc. Many of the terrorists acting in the name of Islam cite Kashmir, Palestine, Chechnya, Iraq and Afghanistan to justify the killing of innocent lives. They have lost their moral compass.

They are able to misinterpret verses from the Quran to justify their heinous designs. Muslims must separate themselves from ‘Muslim’ terrorism. The word jehad comes from its Arabic root ‘jahada’ meaning ‘to struggle’. The word jehad has been so badly misused both by some wayward Muslim terrorists and Islam-baiters that it has completely lost its meaning.

Jehad is essentially a struggle against evil, both within and beyond us. Jehad-e-Akbar (The Greater Jehad) is a complete surrender to the Will of Allah. It calls for a total subjugation of ego and anger. The Muslim clergy, on its part, must get involved in weaning away the obdurate followers of Islam, following the message from the Quran that killing innocent people is a hell-bound sin. Let us not wage a war of religion but one of reason and tolerance. Let us engage in a dialogue. Let us prove all those who link Islam with violence wrong.

Also, a large majority of Muslims remain isolated from people belonging to other faiths. During these times, there’s a distinct divide between Islam and the West that is the worst thing to happen. Muslims should interact with people of other faiths. Interaction and dialogue inculcates tolerance in one’s self. Isolation will deprive the world from getting to know the true spirit of Islam and will let all the stereotypes keep getting reinforced.

Those who kill innocents have nothing to do with Islam. Sura Al-Baqr (Verse: 114) in the Quran states that Allah dislikes those who indulge in arson, loot and killings. Sura Al-Kafirun (Chapter: 30) mentions “Lakum dinokum waley yadeen” (You follow your religion; let them follow theirs).

Islam rejects violence in all its forms, but the jehadis take the terror path without bothering about the impact it can have on a common Muslim by making him the usual suspect. They don’t read those verses that declare that taking the life of even one innocent individual means killing the whole humanity. The jehadis use those verses from the Quran that are ‘contextual’ and by twisting and bending them they act self-deceivingly as human bombs. Islam has no room for suicide.

The President of India Islamic Cultural Center, Sirajuddin Qureshi, while strongly condemning the deadly act of bomb blast outside the Delhi High Court said that no religion can allow or motivate to do this heinous crime against  humanity and kill innocent citizens and added that in such times of turmoil, interfaith concord, at any cost must not suffer.

Muslim voices of sanity are not heard loudly very often. We have to agree in principle that killing of innocents cannot be justified irrespective of race, religion, place or ethnicity. Many are also guilty of not speaking out against the unjust acts of Muslims against non-Muslims.

A liberal Muslim must check a communalist Muslim and a communal Hindu be checked by a liberal Hindu. Muslim voices of sanity aren’t loudly heard. There shouldn’t be “ifs” and “buts” while condemning terror acts. We have to agree to the principle that killings of innocents cannot be justified irrespective of race, religion, place or ethnicity. A liberal Muslim must check a communalist Muslim and a communal Hindu should be checked by a liberal Hindu.