This Horrendous Terrorism
(A reaction to the 7/7 London Bombing)
by
Ruqaiyyah Waris Maqsood.
I do not care how politically or religiously vehement you are, just because you may feel it is right to hate and despise certain people, politicians, movements, actions, whatever – it does not give you the right to blow up, maim, hurt, blind, cripple, damage the lungs of, blow the legs or feet off, cause mental illness in, damage forever the marital hopes of – my mother, the postman, a child going to class, your friend’s brother, a Grandad, a nurse, anyone.
I may hate Shaytan, George Bush, Saddam Hussein etc even more than you do – but it does not give me the right to go out and bomb your mother, a passing secretary or shopkeeper, footballer, anyone. How any persons supposing themselves to be Muslim could think random bombing of others, even in peacetime, is acceptable, is sickening. Many of us feel morally outraged when powerful nations and forces bomb innocents for their own purposes. It does not make it right for any Muslim to practice the same evil.
The Prophet (pbuh) taught it was certainly acceptable to face enemy forces who had declared battle against you, and not turn and run – but a Muslim warrior was taught to be honourable, to fight in defence of the weak, downtrodden and abused, to swiftly lay down arms and treat generously those who stopped aggression and asked for peace, and to be compassionate to the wounded and the captive.
When I saw on the breaking news the details of the London bombing, I was sickened and desperately sad. But just one of the victims, the lovely twenty-year old Muslim young woman Shahara Islam, made me pray that out of all this horror maybe at least her death might not be pointless but might cause one good thing to come. I do not suggest for one moment that it is more evil to kill a fellow-Muslim than a non-Muslim, but at least it brings home clearly the point that bombers do not actually care who they slaughter. I will keep fresh as best I can the name of Shahara Islam, a figurehead for all innocent people callously wiped out by terrorists.
Perhaps we Muslims will now be fired up to do something more positive to combat the awful hatred, bitterness and evil that has eaten into the hearts of the fanatics in our own midst. It is not enough to point out that every faith group has its fanatics and villains – of course they do. It is not enough to point out that the Muslim police, doctors, nurses and those who give help and their own blood are the real representatives of noble Islam, rather than these killers.
I cannot find words adequate to express my horror at the 50-plus murders carried out by these four young men in London, all supposedly Muslim men, which resulted in the deaths and maiming of so many innocent people of many different nationalities and faiths, including their own sister named above. This appalling act horrifies and shames the rest of us Muslims, who have failed to put across to sectarian lunatics that their twisted hatred and bitterness has nothing whatsoever to do with Islam, Allah (God), or the message or example of our Blessed Prophet (pbuh).
Who has taught these young terrorists such hatred and warped Islam? These bombers may perhaps have been duped into thinking of themselves as martyrs to their cause, but a martyr is someone who has been put to death by an oppressor because of their faith. Repeat – a martyr is someone put to death because of their beliefs!!!
A martyr is NOT a suicide, nor a murderer. When people choose to kill themselves for political reasons, they may be hoping to make a statement - but this is suicide, and totally forbidden in Islam. When suicide bombers kills innocent bystanders along with themselves this is nothing less than murder. This is hardly what Islam defines as jihad – a jihad is a struggle for the will of God in which any attack on the weak, the child, the female, the aged, the animal or the plant is totally forbidden.[1]
These young men have not only committed murder, but the rights and safety of millions of Muslim believers are hijacked by these murderers who dare to call themselves Muslims. They have committed a physical attack upon Islam by the damage they have done to its image. Their brand of Islam is not Islam. They do not have an identifying name at the moment – the word Fundamentalist is not accurate, neither is extremist. I would like to call their faith something like Islamiolatry. Once a sectarian can be identified by a name, then people find it much easier to understand that these are at least deviants from the faith, and in fact because of the harm they do, they are actually enemies to the faith.
We must think not only of the waste of the lives of those slain, and shattered lives of the bereaved, but also of the horrified feelings of the families of the dead bombers too. Allah knows what they must be going through! Those foolish and misguided young men decided to call down upon themselves a terrible fate instead of growing old doing their best to serve real Islam in useful, compassionate and worthwhile lives. Who knows what they might have been and done, had they not been tricked by the wiles of Satan himself into turning what should have been noble faith into callous and wicked murder. What a terrible tragedy for their own families, who probably hoped they would grow up to achieve many worthwhile things and live happy lives, and especially for their dependents who must now learn how to cope without them. I was particularly shattered to learn that two of the bombers had abandoned existing children and young wives who were pregnant.[2] If they felt what they did was in the name of Islam, their misinterpretation is almost unbelievable!
The bombers are dead now, wasted and cursed – but those who taught them their ignorant fanaticism still live on. They either genuinely believe (tragically) that they are right in their evil corrupt version of Islam, or alternatively they are not really Muslim at all but criminal cynical monsters who are deliberately and callously twisting the minds of probably virtuous but malleable young believers for their own ends. They have caused endless worry, fear, expense, and legal repercussions, and obviously care nothing either for Allah or for those struggling to live noble Muslim lives here in the UK or anywhere else in the world, or for their other victims – the bombers themselves, who were foolishly duped into thinking they may have ‘pleased God’ by their ‘sacrifice’ of themselves.
Also, today, we have heard of yet another set of bombers, in Iraq, who have blown up no less than 24 Muslim children in their desire to follow their political agenda. How pleased must Satan be, to have such easy opportunity to stir up people to hate Islam and Muslims! The Prophet (pbuh) taught how Allah’s love for His created beings was far greater than that of a mother for a child. If Allah had a human heart, how it would break at the wickedness and stupidity of these fools. They might have some misplaced courage, but who can imagine the terrible suffering that their parents will go through for the rest of their lives? The only consolation one can offer them is to assure them that fanaticism is a powerful tool of Satan, and nothing to do with the One True God Who is the Compassionate and Merciful. If we have it in our hearts, we can hate the evil that has overcome them, while trying to forgive the individuals that were so spoiled by it.
May God bless and soothe all the souls of the newly departed, and grant their new state of being to be a blessed one, in which they perhaps may even somehow be able to help their bereaved loved ones not to grieve for ever, but to live in faith and hope. May the bereaved find courage to treasure their memories of the departed, and continue their own life-spans here on earth with patience, and faith that the Afterlife is Real, and that one day they will all, insha’Allah, meet again. None of us knows when the hour of our death will come, or where, or how – we must live every moment we are granted as best we can, and love those granted to us while we have the opportunity to do so, and not waste a second of our precious lives. Amen.
God bless you, wasalaam, Ruqaiyyah.
[1] For extra details, you could refer to my separate articles on jihad and extremism.
[2] I found out later that when one of these babies was born, it was a little girl and was given the same name as myself, Ruqaiyyah. I will pray for that little girl every day for the rest of my life. If she or her mother ever wish to contact me, then I hope they will do so.