Spilling blood of innocent does not ‘glorify’ religion
discussing the roots causes of terrorism and radicalism, some international and Muslim commentators usually emphasize in their arguments concepts like “misinterpretations” of the Holy Quran, using quranic verses “out of context.” Sometimes, those who comment on the phenomenon of Terrorism tend to blame poverty, unemployment, and social injustice in some Muslim and Western societies for encouraging some young Muslim men to join terrorist groups. However, it is also illogical to blame the spread of jihadist ideologies, beheading of innocent people, engaging in hostile and aggressive actions against nun-Muslims on misinterpretation of the holy book. Moreover, poverty or unemployment do not necessarily validate participating in terrorism. In fact, few of the leaders and more of the foot soldiers of current terrorist groups come from affluent backgrounds; some have received a state of the art education; some terrorist have graduated from Western educational institutions! We have almost exhausted all “rational” interpretations of an irrational action: joining radical and terrorist groups can be interpreted and analyzed with reasons other than those typically used to examine why some Muslim youths and young men join terror groups.
I would argue that a more appropriate interpretation of radical recruitment is the following: due to certain psychological and personal reasons, joining a terrorist group seems to represent, in some cases, an escape from an overwhelming family and social environments. Some of the newly recruited terrorists might believe that joining DAESH for example might help them fulfill some kind of personal independence. In other words, due to the powerful instigation of terrorist media channels, the kind of apocalyptic discourse they use, many of their new recruits do actually believe that they are joining what they think as the final battle between Muslims and infidels! It is of course difficult to counter such apocalyptic thinking, some Muslim young men and women are vulnerable to what they view as an appealing religious discourse.
Moreover, current Islamic orthodox scholarship does not seem to be an effective tool to counter the rise of terrorism. What seems to be needed in fighting such destructive and apocalyptic ideologies is an insistence that Islam continues to be a tolerant and a peaceful religion; while some Muslims are not. There seems to be a fine line between religion and radicalism; those who go over the top become radicals; those who engage in balanced and productive lifestyles as modern Muslims continue to live in peace and harmony with their surroundings.