Exposing Islam

I am a Muslim. I don’t wear skull caps nor do I wear a kurta and in fact I don’t even have a beard. I don’t eat biryani all week and nor do I carry a Russian assault rifle over my shoulder. If the Muslim you had in mind did match the above description, I’m sorry to disappoint, that’s me and I’m a Muslim. In fact a very proud one I would say. I was born in the Holy city of Makkah, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The following views are my own and I don’t need any Khan, Ahmed or Ali to tell me what Islam is and how I have to practice it, thank you.

All for two towers destroyed and three thousand lives lost because of Osama Bin Laden (whom people are not even sure even existed), you destroyed the living of thousands of people in several nations and also ransacked them under the false banner ‘War on Terror’. Where was the ‘Weapons of Mass Destruction’ that Mr. Powell Collins was talking about before invading Iraq? And why has a picture of Osama never come out if he was killed and why was he dumped into the ocean so hastily? There was no war on terror. The real terrorist was the so called reformer.

Twelve years ago, an attack on U.S soil by an Islamic terrorist organization Al-Qaeda set of a series of events which was labelled as the ‘War on Terror’ by the West. There are still conspiracy theories surrounding the 9/11 attacks, such as the unfaithful events were planned and executed backstage by the U.S government themselves. Other conspiracy theories surrounding the Al-Qaeda supreme leader Osama Bin Laden range from he never existed to he was an ex-CIA operative gone rough. But I am not going into all the conspiracies and theories based on facts that I don’t understand and not ready enough to accept.

Two months ago a movie was banned as it was though that it apparently ‘hurt the sentiments’ of certain section of the community called Muslims. The movie was released after some negotiations between the director and leaders of the Muslim community. Why are Muslims being ‘targeted’ in movies whether it is Bollywood or Hollywood?

Post 9/11 attacks when all hell broke loose. The two World Trade Center towers collapsed and came down to earth on what is claimed to be the most devastating attack by terrorists in human history and the U.S sent out troops in a ‘quest’ to wipe out ‘Terror’. But rather it was more of a ‘conquest’ than a ‘quest’. Yes, America you are a very rich and powerful country, but that doesn’t mean that you have every right to come into someone’s home and rob them of their resources. Was Osama Bin Laden really hiding in the Tora Bora region or was the carpet bombings in the region just and eyewash to enter, invade and steal One Trillion worth of untapped mineral resources in Afghanistan? The U.S supplied the Talibans with weapons and funding to fight the Russians (Remember the Rambo movie where the U.S support the Talibans?) and now the Talibans become their terrorists. Okay check marked on Afghanistan. Next on the list is Oil. What better place to start than none other than your old friend Saddam Hussein’s country, Iraq. Bush Senior and Saddam Hussein were great pals. The U.S supplied weapons to Iraq and fueled the war against Iran in the late 80s and then suddenly you became the ‘reformer’ and invade Iraq claiming that Saddam possessed weapons of mass destruction (which of course was never found!) the best excuse you could come up after your mess was installing a ‘New World Order’ through democracy in the country. Screw your puppet democracy! You wanted the god damn oil. That’s check on your list against Iraq. Now it was time to get other dudes in the Gulf. Let’s go next with Egypt, Syria and Libya. Okay...all checked! What next? Iran? Turkey?

 

I agree that because of some losers bombing and killing innocent people, Muslims around the world are seen as whatever word you are thinking of in your head right now. Muslims are globally seen a threat and trouble, and a Muslim saying ‘Allahu akbar’ (Allah is great) in public literally translates to ‘Let’s go to war!!’.

Islam is a very beautiful way to connect with the creator. The Holy Quraan remains in its original form, unaltered since the time it was revealed to prophet Muhammed (PBUH). It has always been misinterpreted for centuries mainly due to the fact that there are certain negative elements among Muslims who for their political and personal gains misinterpret the true meaning of the Quraan and use lines from it out of context to promote their evil ideas as the commandment of Allah. They misguide them using false information and sow the seeds of hate towards other people. This is the basic method with which suicide bombers are brainwashed into believing that they are ensured a place in Jannah (Paradise) in the afterlife.

A lot of people including Muslims don’t know that suicide is haraam (prohibited in Islam)? If a person commits suicide then he is bound to go to hell and stay there for time eternal (Oops!! I guess they forgot to mention this in the suicide bombers’ guide). Muslims treat their body with utmost care. That is the main reason why Islam has prohibited intoxication, tattoo and body piercing. So a Muslim suicide bomber not only blows him up. He clearly also blows his belief in Islam and its principles. He is not a Muslim and never was one.

Jihad has become more of a tool to promote and provoke ideas that are not concerned for the welfare of the community and not relevant to the principles of Islam at large. Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) clearly laid down restrictions that women, children and civilian would not be harmed during warfare. What bothers me is that these worthless asses use the name of my religion to promote their so called cause. There is no cause. Only war. And greed.

Jihad loosely translates into ‘struggle’. It does not mean ‘holy war’ as it is widely known. It is a struggle one has to go through to follow the principles of Islam. It may be classified into lesser Jihad and greater Jihad. Lesser Jihad means to restrict oneself from doing wrong and greater Jihad being able to give up one’s life for the sake of Allah. It is here that wrong ideas are promoted and executed as terrorist acts. I am not saying that movies depicting Muslims as terrorists are to be banned. I am saying that they are showing the present condition of how the world sees Islam because some among us didn’t find anything else better to do than make bombs and blow innocent souls to smithereens.

A problem I face when I talk with non-Muslim buddies is that whenever there is news of some bomb blast in some place of the world, they always ask me, ’Do you know anything about it?’. A joke but not so funny if you ask it to me. Frankly I have no idea, I shrug the question of my shoulders and either stay silent till they come up with another topic or I simply walk away to avoid unwanted argument. The question is as if since I am a Muslim, my community has underground connections with all the bad asses of the world terror network.

Another problem I face with people around me is that they have this feeling that Islam is medieval and not suitable for present world culture and modern times. My humble reply is that I don’t have to change the way how my religion is practiced and step out of the path laid by the principles of Islam just because the world around me has changed. My religion has remained unaltered and will remain so irrespective of world culture and changing times.

I have a Hindu sister and two months back she was talking over the phone and asking about how the movie ‘Vishwaroopam’ was and I gave her my feedback saying that the movie was a good entertainer, however had certain facts wrong and also there was a possibility of backfiring on Muslims in India. What I mean here is that by projecting Wisam Ahmed Kashmiri as a good Muslim and showing all other Muslims in the movie as baddies, there was a possibility that people would get the wrong impression that there are a ‘few’ good Muslims and the rest were ‘bad’ and they all make bombs in their basement! She argued that most terrorists were Muslims and my religion promoted violence. A heated argument followed and she snapped back at me telling that she was some ‘Sangh’ volunteer and she could hurt me if she talked more about what my people were doing. This came out as a big surprise to me and I was more shocked that she said she could hurt me. I never talked to her again ever since.

I was actually being threatened by someone I had known very well over a period of six years! It badly hurt me that she could talk to me like that on the religious grounds. But her talk drew me to some points. Was she emphasizing that she belonged to a majority religion in the country when she said that she belonged to a ‘Sangh’ and she could hurt me at will? Was it because I lived in a country where my religion us a minority and the rest major religions could just beat and kick the hell out of me and probably get me killed and it would go unnoticed and unreported? Maybe she had thought that Islam was a minority group and maybe thought I belonged to an ‘inferior’ religion while she was an upper caste. If I can trust facts on Wikipedia then it is Islam which is the second largest religion and also the fastest growing religion in the world. So does that make me superior in terms of religion over Hinduism? It made me realize how not just her but others see other Muslims like me.

I don’t understand how people can segregate others based on religion. I could have given back these answers in the face that day but I didn’t. Instead I started writing this article that night to post it on my blog first and make her and others like her read it. Yesterday was her birthday and I would like to present this article to her as a gift of how my religion teaches brotherhood. Yes I am a Muslim, now a little more proud than ever before.