The most misused religion

In any given year in the past 5 years, if one looks at all the deaths resulting from terrorist acts and categorize them by religion of the terrorist, one religion has more than 90% share and that religion is Islam. Now does that make Islam bad ? The answer is an emphatic No. It does not make Islam a bad religion, it simply makes Islam the most misused religion.

One of the main reasons why this misuse of Islam has gotten so out of hand is the denial of its existence. You can solve a problem only when you acknowledge that the problem exists. Ignoring or denying that a problem exists, does not make the problem go away – it only worsens the problem. That is exactly what happened in the case of misuse of Islam.

In our country, most of our political parties have chosen to handle this issue of Islamic terrorism with kid gloves because they view Muslims as vote banks that can make or break an election. Neither the political parties nor the moderate Islamic clerics condemn forcefully the terrorist acts committed in the name of Islam. Political parties do not condemn for fear of losing their voting block; Islamic clerics do not condemn fearing bodily harm. Everyone should understand that condemning Islamic terrorism is not equal to condemning the religion of Islam. Condemning Islamic terrorism means condemning the misuse of Islam by terrorists for their own agenda.

What purpose does condemning Islamic terrorism serve? It serves the purpose of acknowledging that the problem of Islamic terrorism exists. That is the first step towards solving that problem. This Jihadi ideology has to be countered with an ideology of hope mainly by moderate Muslim clerics. The government and political parties should support those moderate Muslim clerics who stand up to the Islamic terrorists by preaching an ideology of hope and peace.

There is a brilliant and thought provoking article by a Delhi based Islamic scholar Maulana Wahiduddin Khan in The Times of India newspaper. Click here to read it.