Islamophobia will remain until the "real Islam" is revealed

Submitted by John Bastile (Malaysia), Oct 26, 2005 at 01:08

Sun Tzu, the author of "The Art of War", stated clearly that to win a war you have to "Know Yourself, and Know Your Enemy". Several terrorists' attacks such as 9/11 (New York), 10/12 (Bali) and 7/7 (London), the Western world and its people have the right to "Know the Enemy".

In the process of knowing the enemy, we were quickly informed that those inhumane acts are not perpetrated by muslims. Not real muslims anyway. Everytime an incident ocurred. Honour killings, for example, some muslims will come out and proclaim that these killings are not done by real muslims. Islam respects the equal rights of women. It must be a cultural thing. When Theo van Gogh made a movie about muslim women, he got killed. Some muslims then condemned the act and said that the murder is not done by a real muslim. Islam means peace. We we learned about muta, some muslims will say that they don't condone it. It's not real Islam. There have been so many ways of learning what "real" Islam is not.

Who is the "Enemy" then? The standard answer is muslims who have misinterpreted the quran. The majority of Muslims are pious and good people. Therefore, it's not real Islam that is the Enemy. Islam means peace. The prophet is most merciful and the perfect man.

The one mistake I believe that the muslims made is to make statements that cannot be defended. They have to learn that we will scrutinise their words for truth. We are not governed by mullahs who either have no answers or refuse to answer. Replies like "Allah knows best" will not be acceptable.

When the muslims tell us that "Islam means peace", we will investigate their history. We learnt that Islam was spread primarily through military conquests. Persia, India, Eygpt, and parts of Europe were conquered. That's how the religion spread.

When the muslims tell us that they live by the moral codes of their perfect man - the Prophet Muhammed, we will read the hadiths. We were shocked to learn the conducts of the prophet. Horror stories of rape, murder, assasinations, and ethnic cleasing were revealed.

When muslims tell us the Quran, containing clear messages of truth, was send down by God for mankind, we will read the book. The Quran become a bestseller after Sept 11. Later, we learnt that the clear messages in the Quran has been interpretated differently by more than 200 types of muslims. Thus, we will not be able to argue with any muslim because the moment we press further, a denial of "No, I don't subscribe to the Hadiths of Al-bukari", "No, my tafseers are different", will emerge. So, who is the "real Islam?

Dear Muslims, you made a big mistake. You should have just kept quiet about the above statements and pursue a strategy touching on human rights. Now, we have discovered the terror-filled verses from the Quran, we learnt about the life of your prophet - his belief and his vision for world conquest through military means. We learn about the incentives that suicidal jihadis get if they die in battle. Innocents have been killed. The Enemy is clear and present but who is the Enemy?

Your logic that the vast majority of muslims are peaceful may not hold water. During WWII, only 3% of Germans are Nazi-fanatics. That's enough to cause millions of death. I doubt that the majority of East-Germans and Russians are die-hard communists. Yet, we have to combat communism, as well as facism. As long as the majority of the "peace-loving" people will do nothing, the conflict with Islamism will be inevitable.

At the end, we are left with "Radical Islam" as the Enemy. As we discover the religion further, we come to realise that the term is redundant. Islam is quite radical on its own. Do we say "Radical Nazism"? Do we say "Fanatical White Supremacists". Do we welcome "Moderate Nazis"? Do we welcome "Liberal White Supremacists"?

Yes, the majority of muslims are peaceful people. People who do nothing when their mullahs sentence women to be stoned to death. People who are actually comfortable with the rituals of Islam and seek inner peace that only God can give. People, I suspect, have not yet read the Quran. Are they dangerous? No, I don't think so. Many of them are impoverished and uneducated. They will continue to be so. Once they have obtained economic wealth and education, their mullahs will lose power. Are they potentially dangerous? Yes, I believe so. All the Radical Islamists (redundant phrase) have to do is to invite these poor people to read the Quran and remind them of the high order of service to God, with the promise of 72 perpetual virgins in a Garden with wine-flowing rivers. Thus, every muslim is a potential jihadi and a murderer. As proven, the suicide bombers in London are home-bred. They did not suffer from poverty. They were not oppressed nor have seen their family members killed. They may not have even visited any Islamic countries. Yet, they were willing to die for their cause. They must have read the Quran, since they were fluent in quoting the teror-filled verses.

Who is the Enemy? I believe that it is the ideologies that Islam represents. However, not all muslims are the enemy. Muslims themselves are victims of Islam. Many cannot escape. However, every muslim is a "potential" soldier of the Enemy.

Just as communism. Many citizens in communist countries are victims themselves.

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