The London bombings have shocked the world and once again raised the question 'Why?'. But people who hurry to blame fundamentalists and poverty are missing the point: Islam itself.
Tahir Aslam Gora is pushing for a
new kind of Islam
Today there is a
lot of talk about the root causes of Islamic terrorism
and how to deal with them. So what are these root causes
then? UK-US foreign policy? The West’s lust for oil?
Illiteracy and poverty in the Muslim world? The
hijacking of Islam by a few extremists? These, amongst
others, are the reasons most left-wing intellectuals and
self-declared liberal Muslim thinkers, from British
journalist
Robert Fisk to Pakistani author
Tariq Ali, are providing for the attacks on London
and Islamic terrorism in general.
Muslims vs. Muslims
But let’s be frank. While we can’t deny the double
standards of US foreign policy or America’s quest for
hegemony, when have Muslim states not shown the same
double standards regarding international affairs?
Haven’t Muslim nations tried to dominate their own
neighbours, even when those neighbours are part of their
Muslim brotherhood? Pakistan’s quest for hegemony in
Afghanistan, Syria’s hold on Lebanon, Iraq’s attacks on
Iran and Kuwait; these are just a few prominent
examples. And our famous progressive Muslim scholars
barely mention the barbarianism of Muslim Iraq, Iran and
Turkey towards Muslim Kurds.
So let’s look at the real root cause of Islamic
terrorism: Islam today. World leaders, in order to
maintain religious harmony, claim that Islam is a
religion of peace. But in fact there are several
fundamental flaws in the teachings of Islam: gender
inequality, intolerance of non-Muslims and limited
personal freedoms (including freedom of expression and
the creative arts). It is true that Islamic terrorism is
staged by only a small percentage of extremist Muslims;
however, it is also true that this terrorism is not
strongly condemned by the majority of other Muslims.
The need for change
Progressive Muslim scholars claim that Islam has been
‘hijacked’ and that ordinary Muslims don’t support
terrorism. If this statement is true, then why is Osama
Bin Laden a hero in most Islamic countries? Walk on the
streets of Pakistan, Sudan, Bangladesh, Indonesia,
Somalia and many other Muslim countries and you will see
the respect and love shown for Bin Laden and other
leaders like him. This respect is not a result of
illiteracy and poverty but of the way in which Islam is
taught. This is why thousands of Muslim doctors,
professors and other highly qualified professionals do
not condemn Islamic terrorism.
The world’s media and leaders need to focus on truly
liberal Muslims who have the courage to demand real
change to remedy the basic flaws of Islam. Those
self-declared progressive Muslims who try to justify
Islam as a religion of peace and tolerance are just
making the situation more confused. There are many real
liberal Muslim scholars who have been proposing changes
to Islam for years, but their voices are constantly and
deliberately being ignored by the media. If these voices
start getting heard, perhaps they will change the
traditional Muslim mind for the better.
Tahir Aslam Gora - Toronto - 21.7.2005
