Are Muslim extremists blowing up innocent people in the name of their God, Allah, or for their government?

Question

And is there a difference in their minds?

Answer 1

You make some valid observations.

To me the most vital thing Islam needs is some centralized authority speaking out against the acts of the radicals. Unfortunately, Islam is very non-hierarchical, so there is no central group of perceived leaders of the Islamic faith that speak with one voice and condemn the actions of the heretical.

Where is the public outcry from Islam's theologians over the acts of these radicals? It is missing in the media and the silence among the leadership and over one billion peaceable Muslims is deafening to the observers on the sidelines.

If Christian radicals were performing the acts that we see Islamic fundamentalists doing, there would be a world outcry among the leaders of Christian organizations condemning these persons as heretics. It would be in all the newspapers, television, etc.

Muslims are quick to point to the violence recorded in the Christian bible and claim that Christianity’s early history was violent, too. But unlike the Bible where some very awful HISTORY is recorded, the violence described in the Qur’an is part of Islamic THEOLOGY. This is a very significant distinction between the two belief systems.

The famous Muslim scholar and “father of modern history” Ibn Khaldun states the dichotomy between jihad and defensive warfare thus:

In the Muslim community, the holy war [i.e. jihad] is a religious duty, because of the universalism of the Muslim mission and the obligation to convert everybody to Islam either by persuasion or by force... The other religious groups did not have a universal mission, and the holy war was not a religious duty for them, save only for purposes of defense... They are merely required to establish their religion among their own people. That is why the Israeilites after Moses and Joshua remained unconcerned with royal authority [e.g. a “caliphate”]. Their only concern was to establish their religion [not spread it to the nations]… But Islam is under obligation to gain power over other nations (The Muqudimmah, vol. 1 pg. 473).

I believe Islam is going through what the Christian faith went through during the Reformation. During the Reformation religious leaders were forced to carefully define their doctrines, that is, what do Christians really believe? This established a baseline of orthodoxy that then could be used as a litmus test for the practices of self-professed Christians.

Islamic leaders must do the same thing. They must reclaim the Islam that has been hijacked by radicals who have plunged Islamic countries into the Dark Ages. New leaders must codify their acceptable theologies, especially the violence now part of the Sharia, Muhammad’s Sunna (4:24, 4:92, 8:69, 24:33, 33:21, 33:50), and the “sword-verses” of the Qur’an (e.g., 9:5, 9:29). Then Muslim leaders should defend these theologies against heretics loudly and publicly.

I have found non-Christian religions, such as Islam, to be philosophically indefensible, being internally incoherent or undermining human reason and experience. To better understand Islam, I suggest you review the following sites:

http://www.carm.org/islam.htm
http://www.americanthinker.com/2006/04/islam_apologists_tell_a_partia.html

Answer 2

Of course there is a HUGE difference. They think they are doing that for the name of God. As for governments, most governments fight terrorism harshly

Answer 3

Watch the Jihadist videos, they all seem to be saying Allah-u- Akbar.
See for yourselves:
http://www.liveleak.com/
Make sure you take the graphic filter off.
Now I am not saying that they represent the true Muslims, just that they say that they do. It is a pitiful thing, actually.

Answer 4

They are misguided people who are playing in the hands of some evil politics....actualy is islam such people are called the hell dewller and they would live their forever......but they don't know this actualy !
99% of the muslims hate such exibition and they even condemn it......CAIR (Council on American-Islamic Relations) started a petition where 700,000 muslims ahve condemned this kind of activity ! even here we all muslim condemn it......the point it that media neve show such peaceful activites by muslim and would highlight the violence ! thats something unfair !

Answer 5

for their invisible deity