Religion of peace
How many times the Muslim scholars had to reiterate that Islam is a religion of peace after each and every terror attack that drew international attention. Nowadays it seems to be a monotonous and defensive monologue from one group of people to the rest of the world.
But I along with millions of Muslims in the world know how our Holy Quran talks about peace and humanity; how the life of our beloved Prophet (Pbuh) was a living example of peace and tolerance. Have we forgotten the clear utterance of the holy book that killing of one innocent human being is equal to killing of the whole humanity? Haven't we remembered the famous saying of the Prophet(Pbuh) (to his fellow soldiers before a military expedition) to exclude children, women, old people and any innocent person or even crop-fields during the battle? I really don't know how differently they (the terrorists) read the holy book. But it pains me and millions of other Muslims around the world to see our religion as well as other major religions being hijacked by radicals in this era of scientific progress when we are supposed to be more aware and informed.
Like many other millions of Muslims, I also know how western media is biased against the aggressions of Israel on Palestinians and Indian armed forces' role in Kashmir; I also know how “Islamophobia” is on the rise and how grounds of Iraq and Afghanistan are soaked with the blood of millions of innocent Muslims; but my question is, what are we gaining by these acts of terror? Are they really doing it for the sake of religion or only for the sake of revenge? I know somebody might tell me that utter desperation and frustration push these young men into a world where rationality in the normal state of mind is obscure and death is more coveted than life, but still a wrong cannot be an answer to another wrong; revenge will bring about perpetual hatred; killing will lead to more killing ( mostly of innocent human beings).
I think time has come for us -Muslims to talk about our religion more loudly and start our own soul searching. We need to draw the real picture of Islam not the one portrayed by the biased media and enemies of Islam. In this regard each and every Muslim is an ambassador of Islam. We have to wake ourselves up and work for our own sake because almost all of our governments, political leaders and in some cases religious leaders are either corrupt or ineffective. May God help us all.
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