WHY WE ALL MUST FIGHT EXTREMISM
Non-Muslims need not fear Islam, or Muslims
“Allahu akbar” — God is great. I believe this with all my heart. And yet that same heart breaks at the thought that this has now become the clarion call for murderous terrorists, who wreak havoc in God’s name, seemingly all across the world, from Paris to Mali to San Bernardino, and so many places in between.
In the aftermath of all this carnage, with the fear and paranoia toward Muslims in the West at an all-time high, the most important question now becomes, “How do we move forward”?
For me, it’s a multi-part question, because there are two distinct groups — Muslims and non-Muslims — who each need to understand what role they must play for our society to become stronger out of these tragedies, rather than split apart or be seized by paranoia.
First off, what do Muslims need to do at this critical time?
For me, the single most important thing is for Muslims to come out with a highly vocal response that condemns this concept of a bloody, violent Jihad, in the absolute strongest terms.
I say this because, as a leader within the Muslim community, I’ve had conversations with countless Muslims and non-Muslims across the country, and given many interviews on issues surrounding Islam and terrorism, and the most repeated theme is the so-called “silent 99 per cent” of Muslims who are perceived as never speaking out.
Recently a colleague of mine wrote an article for the Ottawa Citizen denouncing terrorism in Islam, which a woman from the U.S. picked up online and shared in a heated Facebook debate, in response to a person who challenged her by asking, “why are all of the socalled ‘good’ Muslims not speaking out about the atrocities that are being perpetrated by ISIS in the name of their religion right now?”
This shows that while the Muslim community’s response in recent years has become more vocal, there is a pervasive sentiment among non-Muslims that there is a general silence from Muslims that is both deafening and damning — a silence that indicates that perhaps Muslims are in tacit agreement with such a Jihad and that the underlying ideology of the faith bounds them so.
To combat this perception, Muslims must speak out in a big way, and do whatever they can to leave no doubt in anyone’s mind about how utterly un-Islamic these attacks are. They must start by showing that the Qur’an and the Prophet teach peace and are diametrically opposed to terrorism of any form. It is the Qur’an that states “whosoever killed a person ... it shall be as if he had killed all mankind” (33:5), and it was the Prophet who stated that “the greatest Jihad is that which is waged against one’s self.”
But how you get this message out is important. The situation calls for nothing less than massive awareness campaigns that get the message across in a big way and actually penetrate the Zeitgeist. After the attack on Parliament Hill last year, I was fortunate enough to partner with some other leaders in the Muslim community to launch a nationwide anti-radicalization campaign, called Stop the CrISIS, which actually ended up going international, and proved that this is what non-Muslims need to see and hear to really feel our solidarity.
This understanding was forever cemented for me one night in late 2014, during a charity fundraising dinner held by a Muslim charity group, in which then-prime minister Stephen Harper acknowledged that “your words and your actions are of great importance … non-Muslims want to hear from Muslims that Islam is a force of peace in our country and not something to be feared. You offer them this reassurance.”
That, in a nutshell, is why the Muslim community needs to speak out loudly against atrocities, and work within the community to correct wrongly held notions of Jihad and Holy War.
How do non-Muslims in the West need to respond? Well, they have to realize that while the people of the world are under attack, so too are Muslims. Not only do innocent Muslims bear the brunt of these atrocities in Syria and throughout the Middle East and parts of Africa, but here in the West there is a real and dangerous backlash in the wake of such attacks.
The mosque in Peterborough, Ont., being set on fire, the hijabwearing woman in Toronto getting beaten up, the Quebec man who threatened to kill one Muslim a week — these things worry Canadian Muslims. Since the attacks, I’ve spoken to dozens who are expressing anxiety at the current social atmosphere and the rising anti-Muslim incidents. But it doesn’t have to be like that. Non-Muslims need not fear Islam or their fellow Muslim citizens. We are part and parcel of the fabric of Canadian society. We love Canada and we love you. We are your neighbours and colleagues and friends, and your brothers and your sisters. We are you.
And this religion we follow is not a manual for militants; it is a guide for over 1.6 billion people, and for 99.99 per cent of us, it gives us inner peace and spiritual uplift; and teaches us that to get closer to the Creator, we must serve the creation.
So let’s not let this fringe group of twisted terrorists tear us apart. We’ve worked too hard for this beautiful society we’ve created. We must be wiser than that. The peace and stability of our society depend on it.
As Martin Luther King Jr. once said, “We must learn to live together as brothers, or perish together as fools.”