“And that’s very sad because many Muslims died, actually, on Friday”. Well that is far from true. No wonder governments and security experts across the board consider it to be bigger challenge than terrorism! “Treat each other as such, because what happened last night should bring us closer together, not make us lash out against our neighbours for a perceived religion affiliation”.
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“They’re terrorists”, he said.
“[ISIS] actually manipulate and distort the fundamental teachings of Islam in order to justify the criminality”.
“Islam says that taking the life of an innocent person is as if you killed all mankind”.
“The way that people look at Muslim community will shift again, and not for the better …”
That we continuously find ourselves in the circuitous predicament of feeling compelled to condemn yet another incident of Muslim violence, and then complaining with the same frequency that no one’s listening, is testimony enough that just as violent extremists have hijacked the image of Islam, our politics has hijacked our morality. If there is a concept of Jihad in Quran there is also a concept of Dharm Yudh in Mahabharata.
But I’m sure Kerry will fly James Taylor right back. There can be no other interpretation of Islam.
The claim of responsibility, in addition to police forces finding a Syrian passport at the scene of one of the attacks, is now fueling the “us vs. them” mentality that the terrorist group is so keen to foster.
In the war against the Islamic State, Muslims like those in Kurdistan are our natural allies. Even the French foreign minister refused to call this group ISIS and stated “This is a terrorist group and not a state”. “I’m a voter, a consumer, a mother, someone who loves classical music. The Arabs call it “Daesh” and I will be calling them the “Daesh cutthroats”.
This great evil has left us an opportunity to rise above our history as a species, to stop thinking of people as monolithic demographics, to show love to the lovers of peace while also opposing the evil, regardless of their religion or ethnicity. “This has been going on for more than 20 years”, she said. One of the Paris attackers has been identified as Ismael Mostefai, a 29-year-old Frenchman who had been flagged for links to radicalism. Europe must stand united right now.
There are 1.6 Billion Muslims in the world, and among them, only a few thousand fanatics who are terrorist factions – extremists – who are completely separate. “The time has come for the world to unite to confront this monster”.
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Even with a declaration professing “progressive Islam” and “Islam Nusantara” by our largest Muslim organization, as the world’s “largest Muslim democracy” our credibility is lowered by each report of discrimination and intimidation that takes place in Indonesia against those who differ from the majority.
