On Islam and Its Ties to Terror
I recently recieved an e-mail forwarded to me by a yahoo group I'm in called American Turks. The author of this e-mail at one point used a quote which to me has always exemplified the way Islam has been stimatized by the West. "Not every Muslim is a terrorist, but evry terrorist seems to be a Muslim." I'm sure we've all heard that quote a million times. It suggests that there is something inherently more violent in Islam than in other religions, as other religions don't have terrorists.
Now, I am by no means a religious person. At best I'd be described as a secular-thinking, non-religious, Muslim. I'm probably more likely to be described as an agnostic. Religion just has never been that important to me. I do, however, have many friends and family that are practicing Muslims, so I find myself defending Islam in relation to other religions often. I really do not believe that Islam is any more violent a religion than Christianity or Judaisim.
Back to the quote at hand. First, we can look at America's history with terrorism. Before 9/11, the most well-known terrorist attack on American soil was not carried out by a Muslim, but rather a Catholic, extreme right-wing, white man who was a registered Republican and member of the NRA. Besides his extreme anti-government views, he's pretty much like any other average Joe in the US. Then we can cite the Basques in Spain. Us Turks know well about ASALA, the Armenian terrorist group that assasinated many prominant Turks. And then there is that fact that many organizations with Muslim members are actually non-religious. Many are, for example, socialist/communist like the PKK and DHKP/C.
One would expect some to counter that religious terrorists are exclusively Muslim. That again, is not correct. The struggle between the IRA and Britain can be charactarized as religious, because most of the Protestant population of Ireland actually welcomed British rule over the Catholic IRA alternative (which is why N. Ireland is still a British possession). In the US, the KKK was a Christian Protestant/white supremacist group, as they targeted Catholics as well as Afro-Americans. The Jewish Defense League is a terrorist organization, most well known for the Hebron massacre in which 29 Muslims were shot to death while praying in a mosque. There is even such a thing as Buddhist terrorism, though Buddhism is often praised as being the most peaceful religion by many. Aum Shinrikyo, a Japanese Buddhist terrorist organization, is most known for its sarin gas attacks on the Tokyo subway system that killed 12 and injured 54, affecting 980 more to a lesser degree.
The point here is that Islam is not the only religion to be perverted by those who wish to use it for evil. Sure there are more Muslim terrorist groups than Christian terrorist groups, but there are other factors that may have something to do with it. Muslim countries are generally poorer, and many of these countries are ruled by foreign-imposed autocratic dictators. The West can't ignore the fact that much of the violence we are seeing from the Muslim world is a backlash against Western imperialism of the past (and in some cases present).
Now, I am by no means a religious person. At best I'd be described as a secular-thinking, non-religious, Muslim. I'm probably more likely to be described as an agnostic. Religion just has never been that important to me. I do, however, have many friends and family that are practicing Muslims, so I find myself defending Islam in relation to other religions often. I really do not believe that Islam is any more violent a religion than Christianity or Judaisim.
Back to the quote at hand. First, we can look at America's history with terrorism. Before 9/11, the most well-known terrorist attack on American soil was not carried out by a Muslim, but rather a Catholic, extreme right-wing, white man who was a registered Republican and member of the NRA. Besides his extreme anti-government views, he's pretty much like any other average Joe in the US. Then we can cite the Basques in Spain. Us Turks know well about ASALA, the Armenian terrorist group that assasinated many prominant Turks. And then there is that fact that many organizations with Muslim members are actually non-religious. Many are, for example, socialist/communist like the PKK and DHKP/C.
One would expect some to counter that religious terrorists are exclusively Muslim. That again, is not correct. The struggle between the IRA and Britain can be charactarized as religious, because most of the Protestant population of Ireland actually welcomed British rule over the Catholic IRA alternative (which is why N. Ireland is still a British possession). In the US, the KKK was a Christian Protestant/white supremacist group, as they targeted Catholics as well as Afro-Americans. The Jewish Defense League is a terrorist organization, most well known for the Hebron massacre in which 29 Muslims were shot to death while praying in a mosque. There is even such a thing as Buddhist terrorism, though Buddhism is often praised as being the most peaceful religion by many. Aum Shinrikyo, a Japanese Buddhist terrorist organization, is most known for its sarin gas attacks on the Tokyo subway system that killed 12 and injured 54, affecting 980 more to a lesser degree.
The point here is that Islam is not the only religion to be perverted by those who wish to use it for evil. Sure there are more Muslim terrorist groups than Christian terrorist groups, but there are other factors that may have something to do with it. Muslim countries are generally poorer, and many of these countries are ruled by foreign-imposed autocratic dictators. The West can't ignore the fact that much of the violence we are seeing from the Muslim world is a backlash against Western imperialism of the past (and in some cases present).
posted by Semih Aydin at 3:03 PM
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