EXTREMISM AND TERRORISM-VIEW OF ISLAM
All praise be to Allah the Lord of the universe,may the peace and blessings of Allah be upon all His Prophets and Messengers starting from Adam,Noah,Abraham,Moses,David,Jesus,Muham and all others.
Islam is a religion of peace and tolerance.However,in the present day world,terrorists,extremists who call themselves 'jihadist' carry out extreme activities hiding under the umbrella of Islam.I call it extreme activity because it is beyond normal.This article is meant to give Islam's view on the activities of these criminals.
Terrorism can be categorised under extremism.Terrorism is the use of violence means to implement a political,religious, or ethnical agenda.
An Islamic scholar defined extremism as an acting of doing things beyond normal and went further ahead to classify terrorism as a type of extremism.
What is 'jihad'?
Jihad in Arabic literally means struggle or strive.This term was used in the Qur'an in a different context as it was clearly stated in the Holy Qur'an chapter 61:v11 as I quote it's translation:'Believe in Allah and His Messenger and strive in His cause with your wealth and your soul,these are the best for you if you all know'.Striving with wealth as stated above means spending wealth in the cause of looking after one's family,neighbours,empowering muslims and even non-muslims etc with an evidence backing these from Qur'an9:v60 as I quote 'verily charity is the poor,the needy,the collectors,the ones we seek to please'.The one we seek to please as stated means those who are not muslims.
Soul as stated in the first verse I quoted means using our physical strength e.g to call people to Islam without disturbing them. A verse from the Qur'an backs calling people to Islam without disturbing or forcing them or use violence as I quote 'there shall be no compulsion in(acceptance of) the religion(Islam),the right course has become clear from the wrong'(Qur'an 2:v256).
All the above stated verses of the Qur'an have clearly defined jihad and it is now clearer that terrorism or extremism is not part of the teaching of Islam.
I will continue this topic in my next article