The War on Error seeks to shatter the myths about ‘us’ and
‘them’ distorting the views of one another held by ‘Westerners’ and ‘Muslims’. This
series takes a number of misconceptions on both sides and deconstructs them.
Myth 1:
‘Not all Muslims are terrorists but the majority of terrorists are Muslim’
This is a common refrain amongst
apologists for America’s so-called ‘War on Terror’. But this is absolutely
untrue. Every religion (and almost every ideology) has its fair share of
terrorism/violent resistance groups...
Christian groups include the KKK
and anti-abortion Army of God in the USA, the brutal Lord's resistance Army in
Uganda, etc.
Jewish groups include the Kahane
Chai today. Previously, the Lehi/Stern Gang was designated as a terrorist
organisation by the British.
Hindu groups include the Tamil
Tigers in Sri Lanka.The oldest Sikh group is the Babbar Khalsa which
wishes to establish a Sikh state (Khalistan).
Then there is the Aum Supreme Truth
in Japan.
That’s not to mention all the
violent anarchist and communist groups around the world.
And, of course, when one brings
state-perpetrated terrorism into the equation, then the picture changes even
more dramatically.
Myth 2: ‘There is a global crusade against Islam’
Quite a few Muslims seem to be
convinced that the ‘West’/‘Christendom’ has launched a modern-day crusade
against Islam. They point to the situation in Iraq, Afghanistan, the perfect
storm forming against Iran, Chechnya, Palestine, the earlier ethnic cleansing
in Bosnia/Herzegovina and even Kashmir to support their view.
But these conflicts are not part of
a coordinated campaign nor are they a global conspiracy against ‘Islam’. Each
of these conflicts has its own very peculiar and particular causes and
motivations, and the fact that they happen to be targeted at Muslims is quite
often incidental – even if some do try to dress up their geopolitical and
economic designs in ideological garb.
For instance, the fact that Iraq
and Iran sit on billions of barrels of oil reserves is more pertinent than the
fact that they are Muslim. If these two countries were Buddhist, the world’s
eyes would still be on the black gold in their geological depths. The fact that
they are Muslim was all the better because it allowed the warmongers to dig
deep into the ancient rivalry between Christendom and Islam.
Afghanistan was the most convenient
target for a superpower looking for revenge for the murderous attacks of 11
September 2001. The Taliban, by harbouring Osama bin Laden and his crew, did
not help avert an attack, and most Afghans were pleased to be rid of them and
look with dread upon their re-emergence.
Russian intervention in Chechnya
has been brutal but this has as more to do with averting the further
disintegration of their empire than the republic’s religious affiliation. The
Russians have a brutal track record in Christian republics, not just Muslim
ones.
The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is
essentially a clash between two peoples with a huge disparity in power (in the
style of David and Goliath) over a small land. The fact that one side is
favoured more than the other has more to do with the complex and oft-tragic
history of the Jews in Europe and the West than it does with the fact that the
Palestinians are Muslim – besides they have one of the largest Christian
minorities in the Middle East.
And, as for Kashmir, that is the
jostling between Pakistan and India – i.e. no crusaders in sight – for a land
that wants neither as its overlord.
Myth 3: ‘Islam is a religion of violence and
Muslims do not value life’
Islam, like many other religions
and ideologies, can be used to advocate peace or violence, push for social
reform or maintain the status quo. In contexts where a philosophy has a
position of broad acceptance and dominance in a society, different interest
groups need to couch their arguments in the framework of the dominant ideology.
As much as we can generalise about
a billion-plus humans, Islam in its totality is no more or less violent than
other faiths and Muslims value life just as much as non-Muslims. Like in other
religions, suicide is forbidden and Islamic traditions make allowances for
people's temporal lives, not just the afterlife. As religions go, Islam, with
the exception of the Sufi mystics, is a fairly materialistic, here-and-now kind
of faith, especially if you compare it with the mysticism of Buddhism.
Indeed, Islam was spread partly by the sword, just like
Christianity or any other missionary faith. But it won far more converts by the
word. Much of its spread, for instance, in southern Asia and Africa was through
trade and, particularly in India, Islam's egalitarianism offered the people of
the subcontinent a way out of the rigid caste system.
Slip, slide, suicide
Much as some would suggest
otherwise Muslims don't even own a patent on suicide bombings. Long before
Palestinians extremists began blowing themselves up as a terror tactic, Hindus
and Sikhs were doing it. And we mustn't forget the Japanese 'kamakazi' pilots
of World War II. Indeed, hopeless suicide missions are fairly common in times
of conflict. Think of all those resistance fighters who went to their certain
death against the Nazis or the hundreds of thousands of Europe's finest young
men who would die in the trenches of Flanders fields defending a few hundred
metres of sodden earth soaked with fresh blood of their comrades.
And suicide attacks usually have
little to do with the afterlife. Whatever rewards a suicide bomber may believe
he or she will receive when they die, it is for entirely secular goals that
they go to their death. Their tactics are misguided, they kill innocent civilians
and the people who send them out there are often cynical manipulators. But
these human bombs are sacrificing themselves for an earthly political goal. If
the cause did not exist, then they would not be blowing themselves up. When
people have a strong reason to live, they rarely choose death.
