Category: False Soldiers of Islam

False Soldiers of Islam

Any news browser you log on or any newspaper you turn, all you see is Muslims around the world are being killed in such a large number and so often that we do not even bother stop and think. We have long stopped counting the bodies as if it an insignificant norm. They are just animals at slaughterhouse. Only time human deaths make big splashing news and arouse big outcry is the non-Muslims death. As if, certain human lives are more precious than others.

When 21-century history in general and Muslims history in particular is being written in blood, there is vast conspiracy going around the world against Muslims and Islam. People who are hiding behind the charade of democracy and freedom are constantly propagating to demonize Islam and Muslims. Whether the Wilders from Netherland are threatened by insignificant Muslims minority in Netherlands;Dutch anti-Islam politician creates stir in UK or it is every other internet posting which is full of hatred and intolerance towards Muslims. Wilder wants the complete assimilation of Muslims in Duch Christian’s society. He declares that Muslims are not welcome in Netherlands if they do not leave their way of life, which is Islamic way of life. He knows very well by his hate speeches and motive he is not winning Muslim hearts. He knows very well that he is encouraging the extremist forces on all sides and to be truthful that is what his goal is. If Wilders of our times are sincere and have some courage then they should take the right action, put a total ban on immigration and stop buying oil from them, but don’t attack their harmless ritual of five times a day prayers. Islam is the only religion, which is still trying to preserve its true self, its moral values unlike other religions. This is a tragedy of our Modern times where Western powers want every human being in every corner of the world cloned in their mirror image. Their motto is; western values should be adhered by all.

One would think world powers came to realization after hundreds of years of bloody wars and exploitative era of colonialism, where they annihilated many of great cultures and civilizations of the world. One would think we have come to conclusion that diversity is the key for the vibrancy of life and Universe. We need to work towards preservation of diversities and multi culturalism. Alas! That is proved not to be true. Western powers are still in a constant war to assimilate the whole world in their image. If any body objects, they are against freedom and democracy.

Having said that we cannot afford to overlook the flaws of Muslims societies. Whether it is poverty, lack of education, lack of representation in the governance, lack political sovereignty in some parts of the world, and of course every ones favorite Muslim women’s emancipation. These are the key issue, which needed to be resolved through reformation not wars. These reforms have to come from within the Muslim society.
The resolution for all these conflicts lies in education, which can be promoted through pen not drone.

By Kamran Pasha
Filmmaker and author of Mother of the Believers- USA

The evil of suicide bombings must be defeated by Muslims, as it violates every tenet of Islam. In the past week, at least 150 people were killed in Iraq in a wave of suicide bombings which have torn apart any illusion of security in that tragic country.

As a Muslim, as a human begin, I am filled with horror at images of men, women and children torn to shreds by the madness of people who turn themselves into incendiary devices. And I am filled with outrage and fury at the diabolic forces that seek to present this monstrous, murderous, terrorist activity as somehow sanctioned by my faith.

Let me put this in as simple terms as possible. Suicide bombings, indeed all forms of terrorism, are rejected by mainstream Islam, and always have been.

The Holy Qur’an says it in very clear, without any ambiguity:

“Do not kill yourselves, for truly God is merciful. And if any do that in rancor and injustice, soon shall We cast them in the Fire. ” (Surah 4:29-30)

The Qur’an makes it clear that there are rules to human conflict and limits that must be followed:

“And fight in the way of God against those who fight you. But do not transgress the limits. Truly God does not love transgressors.” (Surah 2:190)

As I discuss in my new novel Mother of the Believers, traditional Islamic law established very clear rules of war based on the practice of Prophet Muhammad and his early followers: Do not kill civilians. Do not kill women and children. Do not harm priests of of other religions. Do not destroy the environment.

Abu Bakr, the first leader of Islam after Prophet Muhammad, gave these commandments when Muslims were fighting the forces of the Byzantine Empire, which had sought to destroy the new religion and killed the Prophet’s ambassador:

“Stop, O people, that I may give you ten rules to keep by heart: Do not commit treachery, nor depart from the right path. You must not mutilate, neither kill a child or aged man or woman. Do not destroy a palm tree, nor burn it with fire and do not cut any fruitful tree. You must not slay any of the flock or herds or the camels, save for your subsistence. You are likely to pass by people who have devoted their lives to monastic services; leave them to that to which they have devoted their lives. You are likely, likewise, to find people who will present to you meals of many kinds. You may eat; but do no forget to mention the name of God.”

Muslims always took great pride in the fact that they acted honorably, even in war. They looked with contempt upon the warriors of Europe, who slaughtered civilians mercilessly during the Crusades. When Saladin defeated the Christian kingdom of Jerusalem and took the holy city, he spared its Christian populace and pointedly said: “We will not do to you what you did to us.”

His comment was in reference to the First Crusade, where Christian “holy warriors” massacred tens of thousands of civilians upon taking Jerusalem in 1099. Muslims were slaughtered en masse, the Jews of Jerusalem were locked into its main synagogue and set on fire. And Arab Christians were murdered by their co-religionists for the sin of having dark skin and looking like the enemy. The Gesta Francorum, a Crusader chronicle of their activities, proudly notes that the “the slaughter was so great that our men waded in blood up to their ankles.”

In the town of Ma’arra in Syria, the Crusaders committed the ultimate atrocity — cannibalism. As Crusader chronicler Radulph of Caen wrote: “In Ma’arra, our troops boiled pagan adults in cooking-pots; they impaled children on spits and devoured them grilled.”

To this day, the Crusaders are referred to in the Muslim world as “the cannibals of Ma’arra.”

The Muslims looked at this kind of atrocity committed in the name of God as unworthy of any great religion, and held themselves above such monstrous behavior.

So how is it possible that its modern equivalent, the mass murder of civilians through suicide bombings, should now be done in the name of Islam?

In Dying to Win, Robert Pape, a scholar at the University of Chicago, analyzes the history and motivation of suicide bombers. Many people who read the book will be surprised to learn that suicide bombing was a tactic that was first used regularly by Hindu terrorists known as the Tamil Tigers. One of the most prominent victims of this tactic, Rajiv Gandhi, the Prime Minister of India, was killed on May 21, 1999 by a female suicide bomber from the Tamil Tigers. According to Pape, Gandhi’s murder marks the first use of the “suicide vest” which has become the tool of suicide bombers throughout the world today.

A full chronology of the history of suicide bombing among Tamil extremists can be found at:

http://www.spur.asn.au/chronology_of_suicide_bomb_attacks_by_Tamil_Tigers_in_sri_Lanka.htm

(A warning that the link contains graphic photos of the carnage caused by suicide bombers.)

One of the greatest tragedies of modern Islam is that Muslim extremists began to adopt this horrific tactic of suicide bombing over the past two decades. Palestinian militants, arguing that they had no other effective way to combat Israeli oppression, began to adopt these tactics, and the image of the “Muslim suicide bomber” began to take hold in the media .

I remember at the time most Muslims I spoke with expressed disgust at these horrific acts, but some added the caveat — “What else can these poor people do? They have no tanks or jets to take on Israeli tanks and jets. This is their only way to fight.”

My response then and now is that Islam is a religion that has established rules of war for a reason. Human conflict is perhaps inevitable, but unless there is a sense of morality among warriors, even among the warriors of the oppressed, human beings will descend into monstrosity. The nobility of a cause is forever tainted when dipped in the blood of innocents. The argument that Israeli military activities kill countless Palestinian civilians, so Muslims are free to target their civilians in response, is not an argument that is supported by the noble spirit of Islam. As Saladin pointed out, the Muslims would not inflict on the Christians the atrocities that the Crusaders had inflicted on their victims, simple because we as Muslims were better than that.

And I warned those who would excuse the suicide bombers as long as they targeted “the enemy,” that in Islam all human beings are brothers and sisters and have rights before God and man. I predicted that once some Muslims turned their back on Islam’s strict rules of war and went beneath themselves in order “to win,” the wrath of Allah would be unleashed upon us. If we allowed suicide bombings against non-Muslims, then soon would God punish our sins by unleashing the same horror on Muslims.

Tragically, my prediction came true. Suicide bombers in Iraq and Afghanistan now kill thousands of Muslims a year, innocent people going to pray or shop in the marketplace. Their only crime being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

This kind of monstrous behavior is not Islam. It never has been Islam. And it will never be Islam, no matter what kind of self-serving justifications the terrorists use.

For those who wish to learn more about mainstream Muslim positions about war, terrorism and suicide bombing, I refer you here:

http://islam.about.com/cs/currentevents/a/suicide_bomb.htm

http://www.harunyahya.com/terrorism3.php

It is time for Muslims and people of all faiths to stand together in love and justice and end this horrific scourge of terrorism and suicide bombing on humanity.

I look forward to the day that the world will no longer associate such monstrosity with my beloved faith. And that one day, mankind will believe that Islam represents what its name stands for: “Peace.”

Author : Kamran Pasha
Kamran Pasha is a writer and producer for NBC’s highly anticipated new television series Kings, which is a modern day retelling of the Biblical tale of King David. Previously he served as a writer on NBC’s remake of Bionic Woman, and on Showtime Network’s Golden Globe nominated series Sleeper Cell, about a Muslim FBI agent who infiltrates a terrorist group.
http://www.kamranpasha.com/index.php

Taliban False soldiers Of Islam
Is it Time For Islam To Modernize?

By Afshan Khan

After seeing repeatedly the gory scene of young girl being beaten by Taliban, the self proclaimed Islamic soldiers, amidst the huge crowd of spectators on CNN and other channels, I felt the shivers running down my spine, I felt I was sent on a movie set of a Pre-Islamic, Barbaric society. And I had to shut off my TV set quickly as my little girl entered the room. My mind was occupied with myriad of thoughts about Islam and these distorted pictures of Islam. Among all these thoughts one question was sharply pounding my head was that, “Is it Time For Islam To Modernize?, Is Shari’a law is out dated?”

Then I started to think of all the basic principles of Islam, which are in tune with all the other religions which came before and after Islam, like love, kindness, and compassion for poor and needy etc… But I realized that Islam has given us much more than that. Islam has given specific rights, which has not been given before in any religion. In fact Islam is pioneer in acknowledging and granting supreme respect and very crucial rights to empower women, thus enabling women to usher into a era of emancipation.

Certain rights has been decreed in Quran very clearly, such as rights of parents in old age, poor, needy, and orphans are clearly written in Quran as it have been stated in other divine books before Quran, like Torah and Gospel, but most importantly Woman’s rights were clearly stated and safeguarded for the first time in any religion’s history . Fourteen hundred years ago when the rest of the world was in total darkness and women had no status in human society, they were treated as man’s possession/material property, even in some societies they were equivalent to animals, Islam brought the message of woman’s emancipation. Before Islam women had no rights of any kind. Islam decreed for the woman the right to own and inherit property and most importantly right to choose a husband and right to Divorce. Among the various rights which have been granted to women in Islam, I believe two rights stand very tall and they are the core and crux of modern woman’s emancipation, and these are “right of inheritance” and “right to divorce”.

The concept of Marriage as contract between man and woman is the breakthrough in Islam which sets Islam apart and ahead of all other religions in granting woman her rights. According to Islam marriage is a contract between man and woman based upon certain terms, if those terms are broken, both man and woman have equal right to dissolve the union, an incredibly modern law 7 centuries ago!.
Before Islam in all other societies, religious or non religious, marriage has been considered as divine match making which shall never be broken. It was sacrilegious and impossible to dissolve the marriage. Empowered with these Islamic rights woman has strengthened her position in Islamic society. Woman plays central role in a Muslim family, whether as a Mother, a daughter, or a Wife. In other words woman runs the household and have equal say in every affair and men in the family hold women in highest regard and women enjoys not only the powerful position empowered with equal rights but also enjoys many privileges and commands supreme respect as mothers.

In light of such modern Islamic laws, which not only gives and safeguards equal rights to women, but also grants unprecedented privileges and respect. I don’t think that we have any need to modernize Sharia law, but I see the dire need to modernize Muslim outlook and I see an urgent need to modernize the methods of implementing the sharia law. We do not have to choose between modern laws and Islamic laws because I don’t see a contradiction between these two except the question of morality of laws, which can’t be separated from legality in Islam law, as Islam upholds morality as the primary character requirement of all Muslims. The Islamic society should be able to implement the Sharia laws, but I believe its time for us to start modernizing our methods of punishments and corrections of crimes. Certainly women going out of house without male escort during daylight should never be a crime during this day and age. As this requirement was contextual and it was there to protect women from harms way. Those conditions no longer exists, so that requirement of having a male escort becomes null and void.

In cases such as of adultery, which is strictly prohibited in Islam for both man and woman equally. Since Islamic law is not amoral, adultery is a punishable crime/sin, but the question is how? Is it by whopping? or pelting on the busy crossroads? Answer is certainly NOT. Punishments in Public crossroads were carried out because the Public crossroads were the center of all activities centuries ago in Islamic as well as non Islamic society, that was sole source and center for reaching greatest number of people. Hence the public punishments were prevalent to deter others from committing same crime like in any other society.

In this day and age, communication is not a problem, hence we need to revise our ways of crime punishments. we don’t need any changes in Sharia, we need new approach, which I believe is very much in sync with modern ways of Islam.

We Muslims need to take our religion back from this false soldiers of Islam and condemn their barbaric acts. Lets raise our voices together and vehemently condemn these heinous crimes against our women in the name of our religion. All Praise to Allah.