Why is Islam being targeted?

Question

Again and again, all I see is people linking crimes with the criminal's religion. It's not like members of other religions are all that innocent and peace-monging. Why is Islam being targeted so extensively??

Answer 1

Political Islam can be cited as a reason for 96% of the world's conflicts. It looms larger than life as a reason used by terrorists. Hence the conclusion.

"Muslims are the main perpetrators of terrorism!" These are not my words. They are the words of Abdulrahman al-Rashed, the general manager of a leading Arabic television network – Al-Arabia.

In a rare and candid self-criticism, Al-Rashed admitted, "Muslims worldwide are the main perpetrators of terrorism. [This is] a humiliating and painful truth that must be acknowledged."

This was his response to the tragic carnage caused by some 35 Muslim terrorists. They seized a Russian school and held hundreds of women and children hostage while making demands for Russia to leave Chechnya and release all terrorists held prisoner.

They held the terrified children in a sweltering gymnasium without food or water for three days. They wired the entire building with shrapnel infused explosives at the very beginning of the siege.

The resulting carnage shocked the world. Images of terrified young survivors carried from the scene were aired on Arab TV stations. Pictures of dead and wounded children ran on front pages of Arab newspapers.

Al-Rashed wrote in his daily column for the pan-Arab Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper:


"Holy warriors" from the Middle East long have supported fellow Muslims fighting in Chechnya, and Russian officials said nine or 10 Arabs were among militants killed. Our terrorist sons are an end-product of our corrupted culture.


His article ran under the headline, "The Painful Truth: All the World's Terrorists are Muslims!"

Al-Rashed is to be commended for his forthright acknowledgement of a fact the West seems hard to admit.

Al-Rashed continued:


Most perpetrators of suicide operations in buses, schools and residential buildings around the world for the past 10 years have been Muslims. Muslims will be unable to cleanse their image unless "we admit the scandalous facts," rather than offer condemnations or justifications.


Egypt's top cleric, Grand Sheik Mohammed Sayed Tantawi also spoke out against this latest outrage: "You are taking Islam as a cover and it is a deceptive cover; those who carry out the kidnappings are criminals, not Muslims."

But herein is the essence of the Muslim dilemma. For hopefully the majority of Muslims, this is not the meaning of Islam. But for a growing minority, it is absolutely the true meaning of Islam. This is a conflict that every generation of Islam has faced. Most of the Quran has moral and peaceful teaching. But part of it that calls for violence and conquest by the sword.

The primary method of Muslim evangelism is and has been the sword from the beginning. Muhammad is the one who set and practiced this foundational principle. So did his immediate followers. Islam spread from Mecca and Medina to the Atlantic in the west; from North Africa to the Pyrenees Mountains in the north; and to the borders of China in the east – all within a little over 100 years. This was not accomplished by friendly persuasion. It was accomplished by violence and the sword.

A core teaching of Islam is that the world is divided into only two regions: Dar al Islam and Dar al Harb – the region of peace and the region of war. All outside Islamic rule is considered the area of war and continuing conquest. The many verses in the Quran that call for the killing of Jews, Christians and other unbelievers provide ample religious justification for every generation to spawn Muslim terrorists. History bears sad witness to this.

Even in this current situation, there are Muslims who justify the carnage in Russia. Omar Bakri Mohammed, the spiritual leader of the fundamentalist group Muhajiroun said to the Sunday London Telegraph:


Holding women and children hostage would be a reasonable course of action for a Muslim who has suffered under British rule. If an Iraqi Muslim carried out an attack like that in Britain, it would be justified because Britain has carried out acts of terrorism in Iraq. As long as the Iraqi did not deliberately kill women and children, and they were killed in the crossfire, that would be OK.


Mr. Mohammed is leading a conference this week to "celebrate" the 9-11 attack on America.

America needs to demand that Muslims who are "peaceful" actively speak out and condemn the Muslim fundamentalists who are waging "jihad" with the West. They need to actively help identify and expose those who would attack America.

The only problem is that the closer they get to a literal following of the Quran and Muhammad, the more they become sympathetic to the terrorists.

Answer 2

Islam is being targeted so extensively for several reasons, not the least of which is it's professed hatred of Jews. It amazes me how everyone pretends to not notice that the religion, the culture behind it, and almost every practitioner of it has such an intense deep and unbridled hatred of Jews it makes American racism (white/black) pale to insignificance. That's not to say Jew's in particular or the state of Israel have especially done anything to earn the love and respect of Arabs lately, but be real, the bigotry is almost never discussed in any debate about Islam.

The terrorism thing, and those suicide bombers aren't making the rest of the world exactly comfortable with the religion of Islam either, but I think the fact that there is so much death and violence surrounding Islam make it an obvious target. The Koranic scripture that instructs it's followers to convert infidels by force or martyr (murder) them pretty much forces a response, it's a case of convert or fight. The Republicans really turned on Islam when they found out about zakat, a tax all non-Muslims have to pay in order to reside in a Muslim country. Mention additional taxs to a neo-con and you might as well just lock and load.

Lastly, religion is a great way to divide and conquer a people. The United States of Arabia is the last thing the EU or the US want to see, how could they steal all that oil if Arabs and Jews stopped killing each other. Much the same way Britian played Catholics off against Protestants in Ireland for decades, who ever is manipulating Middle East politics, likes the chaos.

The blogbaba may not be able to tell you right from wrong, but to most it's pretty clear when you see it.

Answer 3

If you look at history you will discover very soon that there are always differences of opinion as to who has what and that in order to rule effectively you need an enemy so that you can sell protection to your people. It doesn’t matter whether you are a baron or an emperor. The principle applies. Somebody always gets targeted. In mutual targeting the Brits and the French (the Limeys and the Frogs), the Germans (the Krauts) After WWII main target for us was the USSR. The threat to the "west and our way of life" propaganda. The commie. It was mutual. They taught the same bout us. The threat to the "east and our way of life" The USSR collapsed and we lost the bad guy. The new bad guy Islam. One of the rules of this game is that the opponent has to be believably dangerous. It would get us nowhere if we targeted Zimbabwe as a danger to our way of life. It fails as a convincing argument. Same goes for the situation with Islam. Targeting Syria or Egypt or Iraq will not convince us of the danger. So you put them all under one cape and target Islam. Now that is Big. It covers almost half the world. Truly scary. It is truly irrelevant whether all Islam is in support of this view. All you need is incidents to provoke public outcry. And you can always count on humanity to have available fanatics that are more than willing to provoke such an incident. We all share in this. It is only a matter of time before we change from Islam to something else. By the way it is an interesting coincidence that the "west" is predominantly Christian at least in name. Islam holds similar view of the west. Not all but the west is not helping much.

Answer 4

With all that is going on in the world today, it is easier to watch the news and believe all the propaganda they pump out, and blame Islam for the ills of society. For many people it's easier and more convenient to stay blind to the facts and the reality. I think every religion goes through this and after 9-11 it was easy to turn the attention to Islam. Hopefully people will smarten up to what is happening and learn what Islam is truly about... peace, love and decent living.

Answer 5

Do you not watch the news, or know your history? You've got it backwards. It is islam that's targeting everything not islam. What other religions are spreading their faith by gunpoint or by a car bomb, killing women and children and then hiding behind their own women and children, and hiding themselves and their weapons in mosques, hospitals, and schools to avoid justice?

And no one can get away with making the excuse that it's only some people who are doing this in the name of islam - that islam is a "religion of peace" or that most muslims are peaceful. Those muslims that are, in fact, peaceful are lukewarm followers of muhammad at best. These terrorists aren't "fanatics" who "high-jacked a peaceful religion", they're purists - dilegently obediant to the commandments of muhammad.

Islam needs to clean up it's act before it can complain about it's image problem! Why don't you be a man and speak out against such crimes instead of whining?

Answer 6

I think that is a complex issue with no simple answer. Part of it is that there is a lot of confusion surrounding Islam. Prior to 9/11, Islam was a mystery to many and their first introduction to it was not a pleasant one. Plus 9/11 caused a huge amount of fearmongering, particularly among politicians who used that fear for political gain. Then you have the fact that there really has not been a huge backlash on the terrorists from Islamic followers. They seem to tolerate these extremists in their culture. That may actually cause their biggest image problem. I think that if Islam stood up and made terrorists outcasts in their own culture, that would go along way in fixing their image problem.

BTW, don't get me wrong. It is not only Islam, the United States has created huge image problems for themselves, too. I think it is something we all need to work on.

Answer 7

Because people are not researching Islam for themselves. Instead they listen to the racist media in USA and let that do their thinking for them. If they took the time to quit watching CNN and Fox News they'd realize that Islam is a good religion.

Answer 8

Read the Koran. It doesn't direct terrorism. The people responsible for terroristic acts are not Islamic, just hate mongers leaning upon a religion. Of course Christian believers believe that Islamic believers are terrorists. That is exactly what the terrorists want. Strife and undrest ... hatred at any cost.

Answer 9

what is this non sense muslims are being targeted u say this rubbish that line you say they hide behind their women and childerns we protect our islam with faith will and courage you people nothing know about us you can t even think even think what we are bearing you people just brag anything your religons are meningless praying before a statue that can t do a blink what is its meaning u people are foolish and reckless you are targeting islam because u know when islam spreads it effect your whole worthless system and who are u people to speak

Answer 10

media. It is all the media. people who do not understand Islam and what the Qur'an REALLY says link it all back to the religion of Islam. There are a few radicals out there, but there have been Christian radicals too (waco, tx). but people do not down them and all Christians for the killings they do "because god told them to do so"

Its just another way to take the eyes and ears off of what the REAL issues may be.

Islam is a religion of Peace not hate and terror. People are afraid of what they do not know and what are not willing to understand. God willing, one day Islam will be upheld as the religion that it really is.

Answer 11

Because there are religious fanatics who go around killing themselves and other people. Iraqis are actually killing other Iraqis to make a political point? How abominable is that?
I think all religions are feeling the pressure. I went to a meeting last year (we were against free transport for faith schools) and the Jews were there shouting about anti-semitism, the Catholics and Church of England were yelling about freedom of religion.
I think we should all learn to get on without being blinded by religion.