VOICE OF GLOBAL UMMAH
Volume 226, May 5, 2013
Editors: Mohamed & Rashida Ziauddin
In the Name of Allah, the Most Beneficent and the Most Merciful
(www.xeniagreekmuslimah.wordpress.com)
Editorial:
In
this E-Zine, our spotlight is on the exceptional article authored by
Juan Cole titled: "Terrorism and other Religions". If you analyze the anti-Islamic news, most of them are
myopic in nature and miserably fail to view the situation from a long
term perspective. When we mean long term, we don't mean past few years
or past few decades, but instead we mean the entire spectrum of the twentieth century. Juan Cole eloquently connects the dots between wars,
nationalism and religion. While the death of even a single human being is tragic enough for the immediate family members, relatives and friends, most people may not be aware of the fact
that as Juan Cole in below article, rightly pointed out, that in the 20th century, while
Muslims through war and political violence may have killed
about two million people, the Christians have killed FIFTY TIMES that
number totaling 100 million. Such shocking statistic is totally lost
with a certain part of the biased anti-Islamic media who are not only short sighted
focusing on the present but have also miserably failed in their
ethical obligation of being unbiased and instead have deliberately
and viciously covered their NEWS with layers of their personal anti-Islamic
bias and hate. Then on the opposite side of the isle, we have the
perverted anti-Islamic Muslims who have completed twisted the
beautiful Islamic teachings of PEACE AND UNIVERSAL BROTHERHOOD and
resorted to spewing hate against Christians and Jews, who from the
true perspective of Islam are the same family of the Abrahamic faith
and PEOPLE OF THE BOOK. Unfortunately, both the extremist Muslims and the
anti-Islamic non-Muslims are doing nothing but festering hate and contributing to increased bloodshed, mayhem and
destruction in the sea of humanity. When will both of above groups realize that their
intense hate of each other is never going to bring peace. Instead it
will only lead to more chaos and destruction. We have a dream
that someday people of all faiths will respect each other for what
they are without imposing their value system on the other and be more
tolerant of each other and learn to peacefully co-exist.
Verse (ayah) 256 of Al-Baqara is one of the most quoted verses in Holy Quran. It famously notes that:
"there is no compulsion in religion".
The need of the hour is for more intense INTERFAITH ACTIVITIES FOR THE COMMON GOOD. We dream of the day when people of all faiths get together and be the ARMY OF PEACE to defend all innocent men, women and children and to work together to eliminate the extremists from all religions who have deviated from their respective mainstream religion. While we are glad that various Muslim organizations came immediately out in the open to condemn the recent Boston bombings, we ardently hope that the Imams and Religious Leaders become more aggressive in their Friday sermons and other meetings to strongly condemn the extremists and develop a zero-tolerance for such anti-Islamic criminal behaviors that prey on the innocents.
Terrorism and the other Religions
by Juan Cole
by Juan Cole
(www.loonwatch.com)
Contrary to what is
alleged by bigots like Bill Maher, Muslims are not more violent than
people of other religions. Murder rates in most of the Muslim world
are very low compared to the United States.
As for political violence, people of Christian heritage in the twentieth century polished off tens of millions of people in the two world wars and colonial repression. This massive carnage did not occur because European Christians are worse than or different from other human beings, but because they were the first to industrialize war and pursue a national model. Sometimes it is argued that they did not act in the name of religion but of nationalism. But, really, how naive. Religion and nationalism are closely intertwined. The British monarch is the head of the Church of England, and that still meant something in the first half of the twentieth century, at least. The Swedish church is a national church. Spain? Was it really unconnected to Catholicism? Did the Church and Francisco Franco’s feelings toward it play no role in the Civil War? And what’s sauce for the goose: much Muslim violence is driven by forms of modern nationalism, too.
As for political violence, people of Christian heritage in the twentieth century polished off tens of millions of people in the two world wars and colonial repression. This massive carnage did not occur because European Christians are worse than or different from other human beings, but because they were the first to industrialize war and pursue a national model. Sometimes it is argued that they did not act in the name of religion but of nationalism. But, really, how naive. Religion and nationalism are closely intertwined. The British monarch is the head of the Church of England, and that still meant something in the first half of the twentieth century, at least. The Swedish church is a national church. Spain? Was it really unconnected to Catholicism? Did the Church and Francisco Franco’s feelings toward it play no role in the Civil War? And what’s sauce for the goose: much Muslim violence is driven by forms of modern nationalism, too.
I don’t figure that Muslims killed more than a 2
million people or so in political violence in the entire twentieth
century, and that mainly in the Iran-Iraq War 1980-1988 and the
Soviet and post-Soviet wars in Afghanistan, for which Europeans bear
some blame.
Compare that to the Christian European tally of, oh, lets say 100 million (16 million in WW I, 60 million in WW II– though some of those were attributable to Buddhists in Asia– and millions more in colonial wars.)
Compare that to the Christian European tally of, oh, lets say 100 million (16 million in WW I, 60 million in WW II– though some of those were attributable to Buddhists in Asia– and millions more in colonial wars.)
Belgium– yes, the Belgium of strawberry beer and
quaint Gravensteen castle– conquered the Congo and is
estimated to have killed off half of its inhabitants over time, some
8 million people at least.
Or, between 1916-1917 Tsarist Russian forces — facing the Basmachi revolt of Central Asians trying to throw off Christian, European rule — Russian forces killed an estimated 1.5 million people. Two boys brought up in or born in one of those territories (Kyrgyzstan) just killed 4 people and wounded others critically. That is horrible, but no one, whether in Russia or in Europe or in North America has the slightest idea that Central Asians were mass-murdered during WW I and looted of much of their wealth. Russia at the time was an Eastern Orthodox, Christian empire (and seems to be reemerging as one!).
Then, between half a million and a million Algerians died in that country’s war of independence from France, 1954-1962, at a time when the population was only 11 million!
Or, between 1916-1917 Tsarist Russian forces — facing the Basmachi revolt of Central Asians trying to throw off Christian, European rule — Russian forces killed an estimated 1.5 million people. Two boys brought up in or born in one of those territories (Kyrgyzstan) just killed 4 people and wounded others critically. That is horrible, but no one, whether in Russia or in Europe or in North America has the slightest idea that Central Asians were mass-murdered during WW I and looted of much of their wealth. Russia at the time was an Eastern Orthodox, Christian empire (and seems to be reemerging as one!).
Then, between half a million and a million Algerians died in that country’s war of independence from France, 1954-1962, at a time when the population was only 11 million!
I could go on and on. Everywhere you dig in European
colonialism in Afro-Asia, there are bodies. Lots of
bodies.
Now that I think of it, maybe 100 million people killed by people of European Christian heritage in the twentieth century is an underestimate.
As for religious terrorism, that too is universal. Admittedly, some groups deploy terrorism as a tactic more at some times than others. Zionists in British Mandate Palestine were active terrorists in the 1940s, from a British point of view, and in the period 1965-1980, the FBI considered the Jewish Defense League among the most active US terrorist groups. (Members at one point plotted to assassinate Rep. Dareell Issa (R-CA) because of his Lebanese heritage.) Now that Jewish nationalists are largely getting their way, terrorism has declined among them. But it would likely reemerge if they stopped getting their way. In fact, one of the arguments Israeli politicians give for allowing Israeli squatters to keep the Palestinian land in the West Bank that they have usurped is that attempting to move them back out would produce violence. i.e.,
the settlers not only actually terrorize the Palestinians, but they form a terrorism threat for Israel proper (as the late prime minister Yitzhak Rabin discovered).
Now that I think of it, maybe 100 million people killed by people of European Christian heritage in the twentieth century is an underestimate.
As for religious terrorism, that too is universal. Admittedly, some groups deploy terrorism as a tactic more at some times than others. Zionists in British Mandate Palestine were active terrorists in the 1940s, from a British point of view, and in the period 1965-1980, the FBI considered the Jewish Defense League among the most active US terrorist groups. (Members at one point plotted to assassinate Rep. Dareell Issa (R-CA) because of his Lebanese heritage.) Now that Jewish nationalists are largely getting their way, terrorism has declined among them. But it would likely reemerge if they stopped getting their way. In fact, one of the arguments Israeli politicians give for allowing Israeli squatters to keep the Palestinian land in the West Bank that they have usurped is that attempting to move them back out would produce violence. i.e.,
the settlers not only actually terrorize the Palestinians, but they form a terrorism threat for Israel proper (as the late prime minister Yitzhak Rabin discovered).
Even more recently, it is difficult for me to see
much of a difference between Tamerlan Tsarnaev and Baruch Goldstein,
perpetrator of the Hebron massacre.
Or there was the cold-blooded bombing of the Ajmer shrine in India by Bhavesh Patel and a gang of Hindu nationalists. Chillingly, they were disturbed when a second bomb they had set did not go off, so that they did not wreak as much havoc as they would have liked. Ajmer is an ecumenical Sufi shrine also visited by Hindus, and these bigots wanted to stop such open-minded sharing of spiritual spaces because they hate Muslims.
Buddhists have committed a lot of terrorism and other violence as well. Many in the Zen orders in Japan supported militarism in the first half of the twentieth century, for which their leaders later apologized. And, you had Inoue Shiro’s assassination campaign in 1930s Japan. Nowadays militant Buddhist monks in Burma/ Myanmar are urging on an ethnic cleansing campaign against the Rohingya.
Or there was the cold-blooded bombing of the Ajmer shrine in India by Bhavesh Patel and a gang of Hindu nationalists. Chillingly, they were disturbed when a second bomb they had set did not go off, so that they did not wreak as much havoc as they would have liked. Ajmer is an ecumenical Sufi shrine also visited by Hindus, and these bigots wanted to stop such open-minded sharing of spiritual spaces because they hate Muslims.
Buddhists have committed a lot of terrorism and other violence as well. Many in the Zen orders in Japan supported militarism in the first half of the twentieth century, for which their leaders later apologized. And, you had Inoue Shiro’s assassination campaign in 1930s Japan. Nowadays militant Buddhist monks in Burma/ Myanmar are urging on an ethnic cleansing campaign against the Rohingya.
As for Christianity, the Lord’s Resistance Army in
Uganda initiated hostilities that displaced two million people.
Although it is an African cult, it is Christian in origin and
the result of Western Christian missionaries preaching in Africa. If
Saudi Wahhabi preachers can be in part blamed for the Taliban, why do
Christian
missionaries skate when we consider the blow back from their pupils?
Despite the very large number of European Muslims, in 2007-2009 less than 1 percent of terrorist acts in that continent were committed by people from that community.
Terrorism is a tactic of extremists within each religion, and within secular religions of Marxism or nationalism. No religion, including Islam, preaches indiscriminate violence against innocents.
It takes a peculiar sort of blindness to see Christians of European heritage as “nice” and Muslims and inherently violent, given the twentieth century death toll I mentioned above.
missionaries skate when we consider the blow back from their pupils?
Despite the very large number of European Muslims, in 2007-2009 less than 1 percent of terrorist acts in that continent were committed by people from that community.
Terrorism is a tactic of extremists within each religion, and within secular religions of Marxism or nationalism. No religion, including Islam, preaches indiscriminate violence against innocents.
It takes a peculiar sort of blindness to see Christians of European heritage as “nice” and Muslims and inherently violent, given the twentieth century death toll I mentioned above.
Human beings are human beings and the species is too young and too interconnected to have differentiated much from group to group. People resort to violence out of ambition or grievance, and the more powerful they are, the more violence they seem to commit. The good news is that the number of wars is declining over time, and World War II, the biggest charnel house in history, hasn’t been repeated.
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