Our Allegien­ce Is Only To Islam

yvonne_ridley.jpg

The Ara­bic lan­guage is one of the cor­ner­stones of Islam, as we have heard today from our broth­er, so I do apol­o­gize in advance that this is one of the many areas of Islam I’ve yet to mas­ter. Islam­i­cal­ly, I am very young, hav­ing revert­ed in 2003. And while I have much to learn I can iden­ti­fy with the frus­tra­tions shared by young Mus­lims today. I know 911 had a huge impact on the world, but it wasn’t real­ly the start of some­thing. It was the con­tin­u­a­tion of a lega­cy of US impe­ri­al­ism and its fear of Islam.

Just over ten years ago, fit, young Mus­lims across the globe flood­ed into Bosnia to help their broth­ers and sis­ters fight for their sur­vival against the Serbs who were car­ry­ing out a geno­cide sanc­tioned by the silence of a watch­ing world. The jihad brought togeth­er Mus­lims from all nation­al­i­ties, sta­tus and cul­ture. All were unit­ed ; even those who could not trav­el to fight helped in oth­er ways such as fund-rais­ing, pub­lic aware­ness events and demon­stra­tions. The impact was to stop the geno­cide. West­ern inter­ven­tion, when it hap­pened, came only after it was appar­ent that that the Bosn­ian Mus­lims were head­ing for vic­to­ry. The estab­lish­ment of an Islam­ic state deep in the heart of Europe was sim­ply too much to bear and so the West inter­vened. This is not my con­clu­sion, but US Pres­i­dent Bill Clin­ton admit­ted it in his auto­bi­og­ra­phy.

This fear of Islam has now evolved in the last 10 years to such an extent that the blood of our broth­ers and sis­ters is now flow­ing like rivers across Chech­nya, Kash­mir, Pales­tine, Afghanistan, Iraq and we saw recent­ly what hap­pened to Lebanon. I have walked through many of those killing fields and let me tell you the twist­ed, blown up limbs of our Mus­lim broth­ers and sis­ters look exact­ly like those pulled from the rub­ble of the Twin Towers.

Yet the mes­sage of today is quite clear. Mus­lim blood is a cheap com­mod­i­ty. Mean­while tens of thou­sands of inno­cent Mus­lims con­tin­ue to be tor­tured in far away dun­geons and cages in Guan­tanamo Bay, Bagram air­base in Afghanistan, Abu Ghraib, Diego Gar­cia and ghost pris­ons through­out the world. Oth­ers are tor­tured in Syr­ia, Jor­dan, Moroc­co, Tunisia, and Alge­ria and even here in Egypt. Broth­ers are being tor­tured at the behest and request of the Unit­ed States.

So what sort of mes­sage does that send out to our young people ?

They read about the hero­ic exploits of Salahud­ddin Ayy­oubi, Khalid bin Walid, Tariq bin Ziad and lis­ten intent­ly to sto­ries of courage and brav­ery about our beloved Prophet Muhammad.

Do you know, five years ago I had nev­er even heard of the Prophet, but now I would give my last drop of blood to pro­tect his name, his hon­our and his mem­o­ry. Even in death he con­tin­ued to show how strong he was by unit­ing the Ummah in protest at those vile car­toons from Den­mark. Our mod­ern-day heroes include those two six­ties mar­tyrs, Mal­colm X and Sayyid Qutb, both whose writ­ings have helped define me as a Mus­lim. These are the sort of role mod­els and influ­ences our youth need to fol­low, but instead they receive con­fused and mixed messages.

One minute they are told to fear no one but God Almighty, while the next minute they are told to dilute their Islam and keep their heads down. Since the events of 9 – 11, there has been an unre­lent­ing cam­paign launched to change Islam into some­thing more palat­able to West­ern soci­ety. The vision is a sec­u­lar and cul­tur­al Islam at peace with the world through her sub­mis­sion to her oppres­sors rather than to God Almighty ; an Islam devoid of jihad, shari­ah and khi­lafah ? The very things we are com­mand­ed by God Almighty to imple­ment in order to estab­lish Allah (T)’s deen on this earth. And it is in evi­dence every­where I look. Hijab are being ripped off the heads of my sis­ters in Tunisia, France and Turkey. Sis­ters in Hol­land and Ger­many are also in the fir­ing line.

Amd in Britain, we have Jack Straw, the for­mer British For­eign Sec­re­tary who ques­tioned the veil ? I am not hav­ing a white, mid­dle-aged man telling me how to dress. Keep out of my wardrobe and that of every sis­ter on this plan­et. I pick up the news­pa­pers in Cairo today to dis­cov­er the Min­is­ter of Cul­ture has called the wear­ing of the veil a regres­sion. How dare he say that ? Why are the men in Egypt stand­ing by and doing noth­ing to silence him ? He is insult­ing the hon­our and dig­ni­ty of every Mus­lim woman who choos­es to cov­er. Farooq Hos­ni is a dis­grace to Islam. What sort of mes­sage does he send out to our young peo­ple with his weasel words ? The niqab, like the veil, like the hijab has become a sym­bol of a rejec­tion of those neg­a­tive West­ern lifestyles like drug-tak­ing, binge-drink­ing and promis­cu­ity. It is a state­ment telling the West we don’t want to be like you.

These Arabs who choose to be more west­ern than West­ern­ers make me laugh. Do they real­ize how pathet­ic they look in the eyes of the rest of the world ? This Min­is­ter should be sacked from his post for dis­hon­or­ing every sis­ter who choos­es to cov­er. I sup­pose he hides behind such descrip­tions as mod­er­ate ? Again, what sort of mes­sage does that send to our young peo­ple ? If we ask them to be mod­er­ate does that not sug­gest that there is some­thing wrong with Islam that it needs to be toned down, dilut­ed ? The last time I came to Cairo, I was called an extrem­ist by none oth­er than the Sheikh of Al-Azhar, Sheikh Tanta­wi. The rea­son for this ? Because I would not shake his hand. What is a mod­er­ate and what is an extrem­ist ? I real­ly don’t know. I am a sim­ple Mus­lim. I fol­low no schol­ars or sects, I mere­ly fol­low The Prophet and the Sun­nah. Does that make me an extremist ?

I once said being a Mus­lim is a bit like being preg­nant. You are or you are not. Who­ev­er heard of any­one being mod­er­ate­ly or extreme­ly preg­nant ? Islam has been under attack for 1400 years and we should have learned by now to put our trust in no one but Allah (T). Yet there are those who con­tin­ue to kiss the hand which slaps them. I am afraid that we can no longer put our trust in to some­one just because they might wear Islam­ic dress or have a long beard ? I notice quite a few long beards in here today, but I am not refer­ring to you, broth­ers. There are those Mus­lim lead­ers who claim to guide and pro­tect us but not all of them have our inter­ests at heart. Our young peo­ple are going to have to be very dis­cern­ing since the events of 911, Bali, Madrid and the Lon­don Bomb­ings, to name a few.

There are indi­vid­u­als who for years ral­lied the mass­es to stand up for jus­tice and sup­port mujahideen groups around the world and now some have become embar­rass­ing­ly silent while oth­ers con­demn armed jihad, por­tray­ing mujahideen as ter­ror­ists and extrem­ists who fol­low a dis­tort­ed ver­sion of Islam. In some ways we are all to blame. Our great­est shame has been our silence while mar­tyr­dom oper­a­tions in Pales­tine and oth­er occu­pied lands have been con­demned as acts of ter­ror as wit­nessed in 911 and the July 7 bomb­ings. Our young peo­ple have to be taught that what is hap­pen­ing in Pales­tine, Kash­mir, Chech­nya, Iraq and Afghanistan is legit­i­mate resis­tance against a bru­tal mil­i­tary occu­pa­tion, while crimes like 911 and the Lon­don bomb­ings are bla­tant ter­ror­ism. Equat­ing the two only betrays our broth­ers and sis­ters who have no oth­er option but to fight or face being wiped off the face of this planet.

The new slaves of the West crit­i­cize Islamist par­ties and gov­er­nance by Shari­ah. Even stu­dent and youth move­ments which con­sis­tent­ly cam­paigned for Pales­tine and Iraq have sud­den­ly lost their tongues in a bid to be seen as mod­er­ate”.

In Britain we have an inva­sion of what I call the Hap­py Clap­pies”. They are being flown in by the Gov­ern­ment from the US, Cana­da, Yemen and Mau­ri­ta­nia to preach a dilut­ed form of Islam. They are poi­son­ing the minds of our youth and we should be very wary before the Hap­py Clap­pies spread across the world. They attack Wah­habi groups in the most cyn­i­cal man­ner. Some even mis­use nasheeds, and I am deeply afraid that the Hap­py Clap­pies are infect­ing our nasheeds with the excess­es of west­ern pop culture.

The end result of all this has been a dilu­tion of the deen of Allah (T), a weak and paci­fied Islam will­ing to accept the sta­tus quo in which Mus­lims are oppressed and sub­ju­gat­ed ; an Islam in which Mus­lims are con­tent to sing and dance the night away to nasheeds, to con­cen­trate on bet­ter­ing their life in the West and to con­demn the actions of their broth­ers and sis­ters who coura­geous­ly resist occu­pa­tion and oppres­sion with what­ev­er they have. Even mak­ing du’a for them now has become a crime. How long before we are told not to even pray for the mujahideen ?

One of the great­est mil­i­tary gen­er­al the world has known, Salahud­din Al-Ayyu­bi, the lib­er­a­tor of al-Quds, was once asked why he didn’t smile. He answered back that how could he smile while he know­ing that Masjid al-Aqsa, remained under Cru­sad­er occu­pa­tion. I won­der what he would make of the state of the world today. I won­der what advice he would give our youth ? This is a world where Arab lead­ers bel­ly-danced shame­less­ly in front of Amer­i­ca while hand­ing Iraq over on a plate. The same Arab lead­ers look the oth­er way as our beau­ti­ful Pales­tine is con­tin­u­al­ly raped and sodom­ized, and that oth­er great daugh­ter of the Arab world, Lebanon — Where was the Arab world when she was so bru­tal­ly assault­ed ? And the war drums are beat­ing again. Not only is the whole world watch­ing, but so are our chil­dren, our youth, and our future. We must nature them, and inspire them with tales of the Prophet (P) and the Saha­ba.

As long as the Ummah con­tin­ues to throw up fig­ures like Khalid bin Walid, Salahud­din Al-Ayyu­bi, Sayyid Qutb and Mal­colm X, all is not lost. The more we are oppressed by the tyrants, the more we will fight back. That is the nature of Islam. And this is the Islam our youth need to fol­low, be guid­ed by and inspired. Farooq Hos­ni and his ilk are pale imi­ta­tions of real men. They have cas­trat­ed them­selves in a pathet­ic attempt to become more West­ern than the West­ern­ers. He will be con­signed to the his­to­ry books with bare­ly a sen­tence while the courage and hero­ic resis­tance of our broth­ers and sis­ters will go down in chapters.

A rapid­ly increas­ing num­ber of Mus­lim youth are now real­iz­ing that no mat­ter how hard they com­pro­mise their deen to blend in with the wider soci­ety, when things go sour, they will be treat­ed with sus­pi­cion. The more we are told to for­get shari­ah, khi­lafah and jihad, the more Mus­lims will pay the blood price to uphold these val­ues. The jihad we are wit­ness­ing in Pales­tine, Iraq, Afghanistan, Kash­mir and Chech­nya is some­thing noble, a just war against injus­tice and tyran­ny. The actions of the jihadists pose absolute­ly no threat to the West or West­ern lifestyles and their resis­tance is not only jus­ti­fied but embraced and encour­aged by inter­na­tion­al law.

The real reli­gious extrem­ists who pose the great­est threat to rad­i­cal­iz­ing our youth are the Chris­t­ian Fun­da­men­tal­ists in the White House and Down­ing Street. Bush and Blair have become al-Qaeda’s finest recruit­ing offi­cers. More and younger Mus­lims are wak­ing up with the real­iza­tion that it is not ter­ror­ism or extrem­ism that is being tar­get­ed but Islam itself. It is up to the Ummah to lead and inspire our youth, just as the Prophet (P) led and inspired mil­lions and con­tin­ues to do so.

And the first les­son we must teach our youth is to fear none but Allah (T).Endmark

This is the text of Yvonne Rid­ley’s speech at EWAMY, Cairo, Egypt. The title giv­en for the speech is our own.

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13 responses to “Our Allegien­ce Is Only To Islam”

  1. Marriyah Avatar
    Marriyah

    Why are the men in Egypt stand­ing by and doing noth­ing to silence him?”

    Why are mus­lims so con­cerned with silenc­ing peo­ple its his opin­ion, yes the west is respon­si­ble for most of the prob­lems in the world, our cul­ture of drug-tak­ing, binge-drink­ing and promis­cu­ity.” as yvonne put is not to be emmu­lat­ed but the west is not the only place where these kinds of activ­i­ties take place. The west like oth­er cul­tures also has a good side like democ­ra­cy and free­dom of thought what­ev­er you believe about the west being anti mus­lim it still remains as one of the most accept­ing con­ti­nents in the world unlike the east. Accord­ing to yvonne the wear­ing of the veil is to show you dont agree with the so called west­ern way- wow there’s me think­ing it was reli­gious. she just proves a thought i have main­tained for a long time that the wear­ing of the niquab is polit­i­cal. as with most eli­ments of islam nowa­days every­thing seems to be for show.

    if you want to see per­se­cu­tion look into how chris­tians are treat­ed in the East, unlike mus­lims who in Britain are allowed to build mosques and prac­tise your reli­gion freely, in the east chris­t­ian are killed and refused basic human rights but i dont sup­pose yvonne cares about that.
    I swear she only became a mus­lim because she was about to be killed by the tal­iban… she’s just jump­ing on the band wagon.

  2. shadowofears Avatar
    shadowofears

    The top­ic in this dis­course is a some­what con­tin­u­a­tion of the dis­cus­sion in the pre­vi­ous dis­course on Jihad. My inten­tion here, Insha’Allah(God Will­ing) is to prove once again, as I feel I did in the Jihad dis­cus­sion, that Ter­ror­ism is an act out­side True Islam­ic Teach­ings. Where­as the Jihad doc­u­ment dealt with past his­to­ry, this doc­u­ment will deal with mod­ern his­to­ry to only a small extent, as I do not wish to become repetitive.

    What is ter­ror­ism exact­ly ? The Cana­di­an Win­ston Dic­tio­nary defines ter­ror­ism as follows ;

    …to fill with great alarm and fear ; reduce to a state of ter­ror ; to gov­ern by meth­ods which arouse terror…”

    We have seen through­out his­to­ry many exam­ples of ter­ror­ists and ter­ror­ism, for instance, the Cru­sades, the Inqui­si­tion, the New Eng­land Witch Hunts, Lenin, Stal­in, Pol Pot, Mus­soli­ni, Adolf Hitler, the IRA, the Ku Klux Klan, Tim­o­thy McVeigh, David Kor­resh and Miloso­vich, just to name a few. The evil actions of those men­tioned speak for them­selves, with the crimes they per­pe­trat­ed against human­i­ty. Sad­ly, today, ter­ror­ism con­tin­ues at a fever­ish pace, with no end in sight. Anoth­er sad fact is that the word Ter­ror­ism” has some­how become syn­ony­mous with the word Mus­lim”. The reli­gion of Islam is being pre­sent­ed by cer­tain media and reli­gious groups as a reli­gion of war and vio­lence. The term Islam­ic Fun­da­men­tal­ists” seems to be the in vogue catch phrase when it comes to describ­ing the actions of a mis­guid­ed few. How­ev­er, when one exam­ines the true mean­ing of the word Fun­da­men­tal­ist”, you will real­ize that the Fun­da­men­tals of Islam do not con­form to the actions of ter­ror­ists. Quite the con­trary, Islam is a reli­gion whose fun­da­men­tal teach­ings per­tain to peace and under­stand­ing and it is these True Qur’an­ic teach­ings that I wish to explore here, Insha’Allah(God Will­ing). It is sad to think that when­ev­er a crime is com­mit­ted by a Mus­lim, the reli­gion of Islam is put on tri­al. If we were to fol­low that anal­o­gy, and con­sid­er­ing that, with the excep­tion of Lenin, Stal­in and Pol Pot, all the above men­tioned indi­vid­u­als and groups were Chris­t­ian or from a Chris­t­ian back­ground, is it right to blame all Chris­tians and the reli­gion of Chris­tian­i­ty for the crimes com­mit­ted by these ter­ror­ists ? And con­sid­er­ing that the fathers of com­mu­nism were all Jew­ish or of a Jew­ish back­ground, would it be prop­er and fair to blame all Jews and the reli­gion of Judaism for the evils of com­mu­nism ? No, it is not right and just the same, to blame all Mus­lims and the reli­gion of Islam for the crimes com­mit­ted by ter­ror­ists is equal­ly wrong. My wish, Insha’Allah(God Will­ing), is to show that ter­ror­ism is a con­cept that is non-con­form­ing with The Holy Qur’an and the reli­gion of Islam. I have no wish to get polit­i­cal or to dis­cuss pol­i­tics. I have no desire to become spe­cif­ic in regards to recent world events. My pur­pose here, Insha’Allah(God Will­ing), is to present Islam as a reli­gion that does not preach terrorism.

    Now, what exact­ly is a just fight ? Is there such a thing as a just fight ? Do we not have the right to defend our­selves in the face of tyran­ny, oppres­sion and sup­pres­sion ? If one wish­es to do you or your loved ones harm, would you not defend your­self and your loved ones ? Would you not be will­ing to give your life in order to save the life of the one you love ? Your wife, hus­band, broth­er, sis­ter, moth­er, father, child and maybe even your pet. It is a nat­ur­al instinct we all have, the instinct to pro­tect those whom we love. Even to defend one’s land and home is equal­ly jus­ti­fied. The con­cept of Turn The Oth­er Cheek” is just not a prac­ti­cal teach­ing, espe­cial­ly in today’s world. Allah(swt) knows this, He cre­at­ed us, so He knows what is in our hearts. Allah(swt) says in The Holy Qur’an ;

    Per­mis­sion to fight is giv­en to those on whom war is made, because they are oppressed. And sure­ly Allah is able to assist them ; those who are dri­ven from their homes with­out a just cause except that they say, Our Lord is Allah’.”

    Surah Al-Hajj:39 – 40

    Allah(swt) also says ;

    And strive hard for Allah with due striv­ing.” Surah Al-Hajj:78

    No ratio­nal think­ing per­son can find fault in these Words of Almighty God. It is the duty of all of us to fight for what is right and just. How­ev­er, it is impor­tant that we do not trans­gress the bounds as Ordained by Allah(swt);

    And fight in the way of Allah against those who fight against you but be not aggres­sive. Sure­ly, Allah loves not the aggres­sors.” Surah Al-Baqarah:190

    What we are Com­mand­ed by Allah(swt) is to fight only those who fight you. This is not ter­ror­ism, this is self defense. Who can argue with this ? In self defense, there are also guide­lines to fol­low. Allah(swt) tells us ;

    But if they desist, then sure­ly Allah is Most For­giv­ing, Mer­ci­ful.” Surah Al-Baqarah:192

    And if they incline towards peace, incline thou also towards it, and put thy trust in Allah. Sure­ly, it is He Who is All-Hear­ing, All-Know­ing.” Surah Al-Anfal:61

    Allah(swt) also tells us ;

    So, if they with­draw from you and fight you not, and offer you peace, then Allah allows you no way against them.” Surah Al-Nisa:90

    Now I ask ; how does this sound like the teach­ings of ter­ror­ism ? We are told by Allah(swt) that we have every right to defend our­selves, but at the same time, we are com­mand­ed to cause no mis­chief. We are com­mand­ed by Allah(swt) to cause no war, for Allah(swt) hates war. Allah(swt) tell us ;

    When­ev­er they kin­dle a fire for war Allah puts it out, and they strive to make mis­chief in the land. And Allah loves not the mis­chief mak­ers.” Surah Al-Ma’idah:64

    The act of self defense is to extin­guish aggres­sion, not add to it. We are even told by Allah(swt) not to hold any ill feel­ings towards those who made war against us. Allah(swt) says ;

    And let not hatred of a peo­ple, because they hin­dered you from the Sacred Mosque, incite you to trans­gress.” Surah Al-Ma’idah:2

    Now, how can any­one inter­pret these pas­sages as the teach­ings of ter­ror­ism ? As Mus­lims, we are for­bid­den to even take our own lives. Allah(swt) tells us ;

    And kill not your­selves. Sure­ly Allah is ever Mer­ci­ful to you.” Surah Al-Nisa:29

    In light of these pas­sages from The Holy Qur’an, one can eas­i­ly see that ter­ror­ists are act­ing out­side the True Teach­ings of Islam. These sui­cide bombers are act­ing out­side the Deen of Allah(swt).

    The only proof text those who oppose Islam have, and I do mean the Chris­t­ian Evan­ge­lists, is a pas­sage of The Holy Qur’an tak­en com­plete­ly out of con­text. It reads as follows ;

    …slay the idol­aters, wher­ev­er you find them…” Surah Al-Tauba:5

    The above pas­sage in ques­tion deals pure­ly with the defen­sive bat­tles Prophet Muhammad(saas) and his companions(ra) had to deal with in the face of the Quraysh tyran­ny. When read in its prop­er con­text, the mes­sage is clear and yet Chris­t­ian Evan­ge­lists nev­er cease to use this pas­sage to spread the lie that Islam preach­es vio­lence and mur­der. What the Chris­t­ian Evan­ge­lists fail to real­ize is that one can eas­i­ly do to cer­tain pas­sages of the Bible as they do to The Holy Qur’an. I give you the fol­low­ing examples ;

    a) Deuteron­o­my 7:1 – 6 (Whole­sale Genocide)

    b) Num­bers 31 (Slaugh­ter of the Midianites)

    c) 1 Samuel 15 (Slaugh­ter of the Amalekites)

    d) Psalms 137:9 (Blessed are the baby killers)

    e) Matthew 10:34 (Jesus came to Bring a sword, not peace”)

    f) Luke 12:53 (Jesus says he came to Bring fire, not peace”)

    g) Luke 19:27 (Jesus says in a para­ble, All those who did not want me to rule over them, bring them here and slay them in my presence)

    h) Luke 22:36 (Jesus tells his fol­low­ers to Pur­chase Swords”)

    i) John 2:15 (Jesus attacks peo­ple with a whip in the Temple)

    If we were to fol­low the same cri­te­ria as the Chris­t­ian Evan­ge­lists do, as per­tain­ing to cer­tain pas­sages of The Holy Qur’an, we can also do the same with the Bible and claim that all crimes against human­i­ty com­mit­ted by those who pro­fess the Chris­t­ian faith were act­ing in accor­dance with the teach­ings of their faith. How­ev­er, it would be wrong to do so as we would be low­er­ing our­selves to the lev­el of these liars. As Mus­lims, we must set a bet­ter exam­ple than that.

    No greater man to obey the com­mands of Almighty God than Prophet Muhammad(saas). Prophet Muhammad(saas) has been wrong­ly accused of acts of ter­ror­ism by cer­tain reli­gious lead­ers both past and present. They have no evi­dence to sub­stan­ti­ate their false claims oth­er than the evi­dence that they them­selves fab­ri­cate. I would like to share with you now some exam­ples in the form of Hadiths of Prophet Muhammad(saas) which show the com­pas­sion­ate nature of this True Prophet of Almighty God.

    As nar­rat­ed by Saheeh Mus­lim #1744 and Saheeh Al-Bukhari #3015, when Prophet Muhammad(saas) and his followers(ra) were defend­ing them­selves against the aggres­sion of the Quraysh, he would pro­hib­it the Mus­lims from killing women and chil­dren, as well as from caus­ing plunder.

    We also find nar­rat­ed in Saheeh Mus­lim #1731 and Al-Tir­mizi #1408, Prophet Muhammad(saas) say­ing, “…Do not betray, do not be exces­sive, do not kill a new born child”. This runs in sharp con­trast with what is relayed in the above men­tioned Bib­li­cal pas­sages, most notably Num­bers 31.

    Prophet Muhammad(saas) also said, as nar­rat­ed by Saheeh Al-Bukhari #3166 and Ibn Majah #2686 the fol­low­ing, Who­ev­er has killed a per­son hav­ing a treaty with Mus­lims shall not smell the fra­grance of Paradise…”.

    Prophet Muhammad(saas) had also for­bid­den pun­ish­ment and tor­ture as was nar­rat­ed by

    Abu-Dawood #2675.

    Nar­rat­ed in Saheeh Al-Bukhari #6871 and Saheeh Mus­lim #88, Prophet Muhammad(saas) list­ed mur­der as the sec­ond of the major sins. The first, of course, is asso­ci­at­ing part­ners with Almighty God.

    We also find nar­rat­ed in Saheeh Al-Bukhari #6533 and Saheeh Mus­lim #1678, Prophet Muhammad(saas) warn­ing us that on the Day of Judge­ment, The first cas­es to be adju­di­cat­ed between peo­ple on the Day of Judge­ment will be those of blood­shed”. This means both killing and injuring.

    Now I ask ; does this sound like the teach­ings of a ter­ror­ist ? Can any­one pos­si­bly inter­pret these words as con­don­ing ter­ror­ism ? Quite the con­trary, these are words that can eas­i­ly be used to con­demn ter­ror­ism. So com­pas­sion­ate was Prophet Muhammad(saas) that he even encour­aged Mus­lims to be kind to ani­mals and not hurt them. When Prophet Muhammad(saas) was march­ing towards Mec­ca with his 10,000 fol­low­ers, they came upon a dog who had just giv­en birth to a lit­ter of pup­pies. Prophet Muhammad(saas) placed a guard, Ju’ayl of Dam­r’ah, over the dog and her lit­ter of pup­pies to ensure that they would not be harmed in any way. Inci­den­tal­ly, this is also the event in which Prophet Muhammad(saas) for­gave all those who had made war against him and the ear­ly Mus­lims, which fur­ther refutes the accu­sa­tion of him being a terrorist.

    As nar­rat­ed in Saheeh Al-Bukhari #2365 and Saheeh Mus­lim #2422, Prophet Muhammad(saas) said, A woman was pun­ished because she impris­oned her cat until it died. On account of this, she was doomed to Hell”.

    We also find nar­rat­ed in Saheeh Al-Bukhari #2466 and Saheeh Mus­lim #2244 the fol­low­ing by Prophet Muhammad(saas), A man walk­ing along a path felt very thirsty. Reach­ing a well, he descend­ed into it, drank his fill and came up. Then he saw a dog with its tongue hang­ing out, try­ing to lick up mud to quench its thirst. The man said, This dog is feel­ing the same thirst that I felt’. So, he went down into the well again, filled his shoe with water and gave the dog a drink. So, Allah thanked him and for­gave his sins.” The Prophet(saas) was asked, Mes­sen­ger of Allah, are we reward­ed for kind­ness towards ani­mals?’ The Prophet(saas) said, There is a reward for kind­ness to every liv­ing ani­mal or human’”.

    A sim­i­lar sto­ry is relat­ed about a Jew­ish har­lot who had done the same act of kind­ness to a dog and Allah(swt) for­gave her of all her sins. Addi­tion­al­ly, while tak­ing the life of an ani­mal for food, Mus­lims are com­mand­ed to do so in such a man­ner that caus­es the least amount of fright and suf­fer­ing to the ani­mal as pos­si­ble. As nar­rat­ed in Saheeh Mus­lim #1955 and Al-Tir­mizi #1409, Prophet Muhammad(saas) said, When you slaugh­ter an ani­mal, do so in the best way. One should sharp­en his knife to reduce the suf­fer­ing of the animal”.

    These exam­ples are a far cry from the por­trait paint­ed of Prophet Muhammad(saas) and true Mus­lims as blood­thirsty, rav­en­ous ter­ror­ists. On the con­trary, this shows the kind heart­ed nature of Prophet Muhammad(saas) and that he could nev­er have preached ter­ror­ism nor act­ed as a terrorist.

    In light of these and oth­er Islam­ic texts, the act of incit­ing ter­ror in the hearts of defense­less civil­ians, the whole­sale destruc­tion of build­ings and prop­er­ties, the bomb­ing, maim­ing and tor­tur­ing of inno­cent men, women and chil­dren, much like what is going on in parts of the world this very day, are all for­bid­den and detestable acts accord­ing to Islam and True Mus­lims. Mus­lims fol­low a reli­gion of peace, mer­cy and for­give­ness, as proven by the exam­ples list­ed in this chap­ter and the vast major­i­ty of Mus­lims have noth­ing to do with the vio­lent events some have asso­ci­at­ed with Mus­lims. If an indi­vid­ual Mus­lim were to com­mit an act of ter­ror­ism, this per­son would be guilty of vio­lat­ing the Laws of Islam.

    May Allah(swt) guide us all to the truth, Insha’Allah(God Willing).

  3. Xman Avatar
    Xman

    HeiGou is an extreme anti-islam­ic nutjob who pre­tends to know Islam. He used to rant & rave on oth­er web­sites inc. the Guardians com­ments pages.

    He is utter­ly blind to the bias that emanates from his soci­ety towards us. His fanati­cism has con­vinced him that HE is the inno­cent vic­tim & Mus­lims are the evil per­pe­tra­tors of vio­lence. As he says above
    You all have cho­sen vio­lence as your path and it will only be resolved through violence.”

    Who start­ed the vio­lence?? Who occu­pies whom?? Who has the most armaments??

    I agree that it will even­tu­al­ly be resolved only through violence.

  4. HeiGou Avatar
    HeiGou

    Abdul Mutal­ib said on 7 Decem­ber 2006:“I offer no exam­ple. And I can say for sure you have nev­er been there before. You say, Bush et al go out of their way to claim they are not fight­ing Islam but peo­ple who dis­tort the mes­sage. Does he know about Islam­ic teach­ings in the first place ? Mus­lims know how these types of peo­ple go extra length to anni­hi­late Islam. The only thing is that the Mus­lims don’t have effec­tive means to respond. We dif­fer in our think­ing and chances is that it not reconcilable.”

    Of course not because you have none. I have looked at the West­ern media for bias and God knows I have had these sorts of con­ver­sa­tions before. I assure you, you will not find evi­dence of what you claim. What Bush knows is irrel­e­vant. What counts is what he is try­ing to do and it is not fight Islam. Your claim is sim­ply para­noia. Bush is not try­ing to destroy Islam and you can pro­vide not one shred of evi­dence that would even sug­gest so. Mus­lims” don’t know any such thing by the way. Mus­lims only have them­selves to blame if they have no effec­tive means of respond­ing. The world is an open place to any­one with a mes­sage or a prod­uct peo­ple want. I agree it is not rec­on­cil­able. You all have cho­sen vio­lence as your path and it will only be resolved through violence.

  5. Abdul Mutalib Avatar
    Abdul Mutalib

    HeiGou :
    I offer no example.
    And I can say for sure you have nev­er been there before.
    You say, Bush et al go out of their way to claim they are not fight­ing Islam but peo­ple who dis­tort the message.
    Does he know about Islam­ic teach­ings in the first place ?
    Mus­lims know how these types of peo­ple go extra length to anni­hi­late Islam. The only thing is that the Mus­lims don’t have effec­tive means to respond.
    We dif­fer in our think­ing and chances is that it not reconcilable.

  6. HeiGou Avatar
    HeiGou

    Abdul Mutal­ib said on 1 Decem­ber 2006:“If you guys read news/​analysis from the west­ern media and make con­clu­sion about Islam based on what you have read, chances are you are going to be bias about Islam. Unfor­tu­nate­ly there is no cred­i­ble Islam­ic news agency to coun­ter­bal­ance the bias. What not check the source of Islam­ic teach­ings and decide for your­self. Be open mind­ed and don’t depend on what peo­ple say about Islam when mak­ing up your mind.”

    Been there, done that. What do you think has been report­ed recent­ly that is biased about Islam ? Bush et al go out of their way to claim they are not fight­ing Islam but peo­ple who dis­tort the mes­sage. Indeed if the media has any bias it is a pro-Mus­lim and pro-Islam one. Sin­gle exam­ple of any­thing you think is biased in the non-Mus­lim media ?

  7. Abdul Mutalib Avatar
    Abdul Mutalib

    If you guys read news/​analysis from the west­ern media and make con­clu­sion about Islam based on what you have read, chances are you are going to be bias about Islam. Unfor­tu­nate­ly there is no cred­i­ble Islam­ic news agency to coun­ter­bal­ance the bias.
    What not check the source of Islam­ic teach­ings and decide for yourself.
    Be open mind­ed and don’t depend on what peo­ple say about Islam when mak­ing up your mind.

  8. cahaya Avatar
    cahaya

    Mus­lims need not wor­ry about oppres­sion from the West. Mus­lims are doing a fine job of killing each oth­er. More Iraqis have died from Mus­lim vio­lence than from the bombs and bul­lets of the occu­piers”.

  9. HeiGou Avatar
    HeiGou

    The prob­lem with Ms Rid­ley is that her hatred of the West dis­torts every­thing she says and does. Sure Mus­lims are dying all over the world — but she only cares when she can blame the West. No men­tion of Dafur ? Of course not. No men­tion of the Iran-Iraq War ? Nope. Where are Mus­lims being tor­tured the most — in Guan­tanamo where their biggest risk is eat­ing them­selves to death or Cairo ? Dam­as­cus ? Even Sau­di Ara­bia ? We know the answers to those ques­tions too but of course Ms Rid­ley does not care if the West can­not be blamed.

    As for her claims that Mus­lims’ first all­ie­gance is to Islam, fine. Time to deport all Mus­lims from the West. You can­not, as some Jew­ish guy once said, serve two masters.

  10. islamispeace Avatar
    islamispeace

    I love read­ing sis­ter Yvon­ne’s arti­cles. She is a very gift­ed writer. May Allah bless her.

  11. Julaybib Avatar

    Does Ms Rid­ley know Sayyid Qutb was, in his lat­er writ­ings, influ­enced by Carl Schmidt — the Ger­man fas­cist philosopher ?

  12. Arnold Avatar
    Arnold

    Where’s the rest of my post ?

  13. Arnold Avatar
    Arnold

    Bill Clintin’s speech on Bosnia

    When I took office, some where urg­ing imme­di­ate inter­ven­tion in the con­flict. I decid­ed that Amer­i­can ground troops should not fight a war in Bosnia because the Unit­ed States could not force peace on Bosni­a’s war­ring eth­nic groups, the Serbs, Croats and Mus­lims. Instead, Amer­i­ca has worked with our Euro­pean allies in search­ing for peace stop­ping the war from spread­ing and eas­ing the suf­fer­ing of the Bosn­ian peo­ple. We imposed tough eco­nom­ic sanc­tions on Ser­bia. We used our air pow­er to con­duct the longest human­i­tar­i­an air­lift in his­to­ry and to enforce a no-fly zone that took the war out of the skies. We helped to make peace between two of the three war­ring par­ties — the Mus­lims and the Croats.

    But as the months of war turned into years, it became clear that Europe alone could not end the con­flict. This sum­mer, Bosn­ian Serb shelling once again turned Bosni­a’s play­grounds and mar­ket­places into killing fields.

    In response, the Unit­ed States led NATO’s heavy and con­tin­u­ous air strikes, many of them flown by skilled and brave Amer­i­can pilots. Those air strikes, togeth­er with the renewed deter­mi­na­tion of our Euro­pean part­ners, and the Bosn­ian and Croat gains on the bat­tle­field, con­vinced the Serbs, final­ly, to start think­ing about mak­ing peace.

    http://​www​.cnn​.com/​U​S​/​9511​/​b​o​s​n​i​a​_​s​p​e​e​c​h​/​s​p​e​e​c​h​.​h​tml

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