[Music]
in the name of Allah the beneficent the
most merciful I'd like to welcome you
dear viewers to another in our series
contemporary
issues May Allah's peace and bless
things Beyond each and every one of
you in this segment of our program we
begin another Topic in the previous
segments we were looking at uh Islamic
Finance Islamic banking Etc now we're
going to have a look
at what is referred to as Islam and
terrorism the issue of terrorism where
Muslims have been identified basically
as the world's terrorists when you use
the term Muslim people think terrorism
when you hear hear the words terrorist
you think Muslim terrorist you know this
if they don't put Muslim terrorist then
it's understood that you're dealing with
Muslims terrorism
really this is a part of that ancient
image which was promoted you know long
time back I mean myself in growing up
this was the kind of image that I had of
Islam you know before becoming a Muslim
myself you know that of a an Arab riding
in off the desert with his head headrest
flowing in the back holding a Quran in
one hand and a sword in the other hand
you know either you accept this Quran or
you lose your head that this was Islam
and how it spread violence a violent
religion the reality is that as we
mentioned earlier there's no forcing of
Islam in anyone nobody can be forced to
become a Muslim Allah says very clearly
in the Quran
there's no compulsion in
religion so there is no real case when
you go and look at you know how Islam
spread you'll not find uh that it's
spread by military means you know in
terms of the the Islam amongst the
people Islamic State may have expanded
its borders but the people themselves
they chose
Islam uh what you find is of course
there were military conflicts between
Islamic States and the existing powers
where there Rome or Persia or
India however after these areas were
defeated and Islamic rule was
established there then the
population gradually accepted Islam they
were they were not forced into accepting
Islam Muslims ruled Egypt Palestine
Lebanon and from the 8th Century there
was a sizable Muslim uh Christian
communities which existed in all these
countries for you know the past 13
centuries Muslim r ruled Spain for over
700 years and India for over a thousand
years and the vast majority of the
people of both Spain and India never
converted to Islam yes many of them did
but most didn't so it was not something
you know forced on people in fact the
largest Muslim country today is that of
Indonesia having over 200 million
citizens and not a single soldier Muslim
Soldier set foot in Indonesia Islam
spread there as it spread in Malaysia
and the Philippines by trade Traders
came out of the southern part of Arabia
from Oman from hadam and they traveled
to these areas and they traded with the
people they had been doing that for
centuries before Islam and they contined
to do it after Islam of course what
happened was that the people noticed the
difference between these people before
Islam and after Islam Islam guiding
their their
dealings in you know make requiring
certain honesty in their dealings Etc it
caused a change in the Outlook the
people held of these Traders you know
normally Traders you're expecting them
to be tricky you got to be looking out
for some tricks they what they're going
to try to do try to sell you something
you don't really want sell you something
which is not really good product Etc but
they want more money for it whereas they
found Traders coming now who are honest
if the product wasn't so good they tell
it's not so good if there's defect in it
they'll tell you where the defect it is
you know they'll only try to bring you
good things their profits may be less
but they are
honest this had a major impact on many
of the people with with whom they traded
same thing when you find Islam spreading
in terms of West African countries like
Nigeria Ghana Sagal Chad Niger it's all
spread there through trade it was
through the trading process people were
impressed with these Traders wanted to
know what their religion was and
accepted their religion themselves is
how Islam spread it was not spread by
the
sword it's the reality if we look at um
United United States of America
itself you have anywhere between 300 and
500 people converting to Islam
daily daily across the United
States where are the swords who is being
forced to accept Islam America which you
know stands as a place of you know
freedom of religious expression etc etc
you know people are choosing Islam for
themselves in huge numbers and everybody
recognized Islam is the fastest growing
religion in the world today in America
in particular there numbers of you know
cross the 7 to 8 million Mark and
constantly
increasing so the issue of Islam being
spread by the sword is a False Image it
is something as I said which is
ancient uh the Crusades was the
time in which these kind of uh images
were conjured up to try to motivate
people to go and take over Palestine
liberated from the quote unquote
infidels were the
Muslims but the real violence that came
came from the Crusaders they're the ones
who came in massacring people left and
right all through what they refer to as
Asia Minor which is like turkey
Constantinople all the way down to
Palestine they massacred
Muslims not only Muslims they massacred
Christians and Jews the Christians in
these areas here didn't hold the same
beliefs as the Catholics Roman Catholics
they had different beliefs different
ideas and the Catholics came through and
they massacred
everybody you know this was the reality
they weren't really liberating this
place for from the infidels they were
capturing it because it was a middle
point for the sale of of silks and and
spices and that into Europe they wanted
to capture that middle area and gain
trade increase their prophets this was
really the you know some uh Scholars
have identified it's been the real
motivating forces behind the so-called
Crusades well alhamdulillah they didn't
succeed you know eventually Allah raised
up Salah and he drove them out
reestablished Islamic rule in that area
and those who lived under Muslim rule
lived under there you know with proper
care they were taken care of in in Spain
when Jews were being driven out of
Europe everywhere out of Europe they
ended up in Spain under Muslim rule some
of their greatest writers philosophers
thinkers Mayon days Etc you know amongst
them um they were there in Spain in
Muslim Spain they the Jews living there
they learned Arabic Etc and you had Jew
Jew of Yemen you had Jews of Morocco
Algeria Etc I me you had Jews who were
in fact Arab Jews they spoke Arabic this
was their language but they were Jews
you know nonetheless and similarly
you've had Christians that we said
living amongst Muslims large communities
there in in Egypt you know of course
there is some kind of friction that
which should develop especially in these
times but uh Muslims have been very
tolerant they've kept Within their
borders huge communities of both
Christians and Jews as well as even in
areas in India where they ruled over you
know
pagans yet they did not force their
religion on the
people so the issue of Islam being
spread by the sword is definitely false
now the other issue of
terrorism the issue of terrorism which
has been defined in the American by the
American government as the threat
or the use of violence to advance a
political cause by individuals or groups
whether acting for or in opposition to
establish governmental
Authority when such actions are intended
to shock stun or intimidate a Target
group wider than the immediate
victims now this very precise definition
if we try to apply it in history we find
that it also applies to all of these
wars of Liberation from the American war
of independence to the French Revolution
we can apply this here you know so uh
what what we find is that where the
society you know has
designated uh this as honorable is not
called terrorism whether design at as as
dishonorable or it's against the
interest of certain societies then it is
called
terrorism however uh if we take one
element that of the killing of Innocents
you know the bombing or the violence
directed at innocent civilians Etc this
element is really the true element of
terrorism and this Islam is opposed to
it's opposed to it completely it doesn't
permit the killing of civilians and if
you look at the formation of the state
of Israel you find uh that it was Jewish
terrorist groups like the famous Stern
gang Etc which
introduced this uh foundation for
Israeli rule Jewish rule of what they
call Israel which was originally
Palestine they got in there they bombed
they blew up they chased out they
murdered Etc until Muslims cleared out
of area and they came in brought their
people in and and they expanded on that
basis but they are now considered to be
you know the good guys and all of those
were fighting to restore order to bring
things back to the way they were these
are now looked at as being the
terrorists the bad guys
well the so-called Muslim
terrorist uh which is a common phrase we
said found in the
media is really you know a deliberate
attempt to distort the image of Islam
because when you look at the IRA bombers
you know who used to put bombs in cafes
and blow up places and people and all
these kind of things they were never
referred to as Catholic terrorists
though it was a struggle of Catholics
against the Protestants you know they
didn't call him Catholic Terror
terrorists you know
similarly when uh Timothy McVey back in
1995 he blew up the CIA headquarters in
Oklahoma City they didn't call him a
Christian
terrorist 168 people were
killed though he was Christian and he
was a terrorist they didn't call him a
Christian terrorist you know though he
belonged to certain fundamentalist
groups Etc they didn't label him in that
way you know they just lab him as a
terrorist right but as soon as somebody
with a Muslim name is involved in any of
these kind of accident it is a Muslim
terrorist uh in fact what may be in
Arabic names not necessarily Muslim
names may be used to refer to both
Christians as well as atheists as in the
PLO for example you had a mixture of
these you know but everybody was now
labeled as Muslim Muslim
terrorists
now that we said basically is a misnomer
it is wrong there is a double standard
here we don't call people Christian
terrorists but we will call them Muslim
terrorists so there's a deliberate
attempt to distort the image of Muslims
on a world scale we should also consider
at the same time that to some degree you
do have some Muslim groups like in Egypt
you had Islam and the JAMA Jad Etc who
were involved in some major terrorist
acts you know people were innocent uh
civilians uh people on buses like in
luxur you know tourists Etc were
massacred by these groups you know in
their attempt to try to topple the
government you know this in fact the
much of the um activities that they've
been involved in we could really say
these are terroristic activities you
know they uh lend support to this
misnomer placed on the Muslim World
unfortunately some of the blame we have
to say falls on ourselves because there
are people involved in such acts and
they carry Muslim names some of them
even expose Islam and name and do it in
the name of Islam you know similarly you
find in in in southern Philippines today
you know the so-called Abu sayyaf group
and their activities they're very
terroristic kidnapping chopping off
people's heads and things like this for
ransom you know just Gathering money for
themselves
and the people involved in this are
children you look at their names their
ages you know that they are children and
in fact they're misguided here this is
not all the major groups the MF Etc have
all denounced them they don't support
their tactics at all these are IL
legitimate tactics this is not the
Islamic way
so we have to admit that to some degree
Muslims have contributed to this false
impression that is promoted worldwide
with with regards to
Islam uh even uh places like Algeria
where you know if there's some
atrocities going on this has been
attributed to the Islamic movement but
actually when you go and you research
into this situation you'll find that
it's not really them there are other
elements there that are involved in it
some people identify that these elements
are linked back with the government you
know and uh there activities are used to
discredit the Islamic movement which
they have succeeded to a large degree
however uh in
general uh the Islamic movement is still
supported by masses of the people and as
we said in the
end uh the discriminate use of violence
to promote any kind of political ends
Islam does not support at all we find in
32nd chapter verse 5 Allah saying anyone
who has killed another except in
retaliation it is as if he has killed
the whole of man humankind so this Islam
is a huge rebuke of this kind of
violence there um we can also say that
there are strict rules with regards to
conflicts Islam has strict rules what
can a Muslim Soldier kill he cannot just
kill any kind of living being that he
finds in the area he's only allowed to
direct his harm to
the people who are involved in fighting
people of taken up arms they're wearing
military equipment they're involved in
killing Muslims to fight against them to
protect the lives of Muslims perfectly
legitimate now there's a question which
arises along with this that of suicide
bombers you know people who strap huge
amounts of TNT or whatever you know
explosives around their bodies they go
amongst the midst of the enemy and then
they set these things off killing huge
numbers now the Tamil tigers in in Sri
Lanka you know they have been using this
method for a number of years the
stricken grave fear in the minds and the
hearts of the
people is this method acceptable well
for the taml Tigers you'll find that
they will go and blow up the president
they'll blow up all kinds of people
around them and everything like this I
mean this is indiscriminate use of
violence in the case of uh of the
struggles in for example Palestine you
know and currently now in
um in chachia some of these tactics have
been used the scholars have pointed out
that though
suicide in general in Islam is forbidden
to kill oneself to take something known
that you're going to die you know from
this thing this is in fact forbidden
Islam this is one of the basis of
forbidding smoking of Al smoking of
cigarettes because it can cause cancer
causing death
so it's prohibited on that basis
now uh the the concept of a suicide
bomber is different
a person who kills himself in normal
life he's killing himself because he
can't stand to live anymore he feels God
is unfair to him or whatever you know
life is no lost its meaning he just
wants to die get out of this right
that's his intention when you look at
the mind of the suicide bom it's a
different intention altogether his
situation is that he's not able to get
at the troops of the enemy they are too
heavily armed they don't have the type
of equipment that can deal with it so
the only other option they have is to
try to get some people amongst them and
then explode the uh charges that they
have to try to destroy the equipment and
to save the lives of their comrades so
this is not really considered to be
suicide in the true sense this is a
military action and human lives are
sacrificed in that military action this
is really the bottom line for it and
that's how we should look at it Islam is
opposed to terrorism in all
forms what is true terrorism but it will
not shrink from using violence to to to
gain some of its ends you know to
establish itself in certain areas to
gain control over certain things it
could use certain amount of violence but
to force somebody to become a Muslim
this is something inconceivable
unacceptable
islamically well with that de view
viewers we' like to thank you for being
with us in this segment which we call
this Islam and terrorism the issues
of killing
Innocents this is what we dealt with in
specific because the general definitions
of uh used by certain um departments and
governments and Etc which is the threat
or the use of violence to Advan
political causes by
individuals that's not sufficient to to
Define terrorism because includes the
American Revolution and the French
Revolution so when we talk about tourism
we when we talk about about terrorism
we're talking about indiscriminate use
of violence people are not selectively
killed because they represent the
military opposition but they are killed
to create fear and and and um and doubts
in the hearts of the
people so with that dear viewers like to
thank you for being with us and hope
that you continue to follow our program
the remaining episodes and we thank you
again for your support whatever letters
you've written out in with your
suggestions we've tried to include
basically everything that was available
so I now bid you farewell