Qur'an
And Terror [Responding To The Qur'an Burning Day] :
America Must Stop Cruelties
09 September 2010By Reza Ageung S.
Responding to the Qur'an
burning day planned by a Christian sect in America on
the upcoming 11th September, the Islamic Ummah must
react of course. Especially that the idea of that
burning contains a message where the essence is that
the Qur'an is the source of terrorism and that jihad
is the same as terrorism.
This writing tries to explain that this idea is a
symptom of defeat on the Western intellectuals. In
frustration, the West is blaming the Qur'an as the
source of terrorism. Whereas, the tyrannical behavior
of America on humanity, particularly the Islamic Ummah
is the one which sparked the birth of terrorist
actions all over the world. Due to that, America must
stop her cruelties if she wants to break the chains of
terrorism.
QUR’AN AND TERROR
What is being planned by Pastor Terry Jones on the
upcoming 9th anniversary of the WTC collapse on 11th
September, is a naivety with a logic that is too
simplistic. According to him, the terrorists were
inspired by the Qur’an, therefore the holy book of the
Islamic Ummah must be burned. Is it as simple as that
in order to break off the chains of terrorism?
It is clear that what he meant by “inspiration of
terrorism” are the verses that talk about jihad. Here
is the real message from the idea of burning the
Qur’an: an ideological attack by equating jihad with
terrorism, a classic stigmatization, actually.
It is this attack on the ideology that needs answers
more than the burning of the Qur’an itself. Because,
if the public accepts this understanding, that jihad
is terrorism, then it can be exaggeratedly said that
the burning of the Qur’an becomes plausible in the
eyes of the public.
Only that, from a different angle, it is clear that
the counter-opinions on the stigmatization will become
empty because it is aimed at such frustrated faction
in the likes of Terry Jones and company. Normally, the
West or its agents in ideology, do not say outright in
a naked way that jihad is terrorism. In a subtle way,
there exists in the propaganda intended to extinguish
the will of jihad from the minds of the Islamic Ummah,
an intangible notion that Islam is a religion which is
moderate, peace-loving and etc. Next, jihad will be
narrowed down to only mean “to exert a great effort”,
“to battle against the carnal desires” and so on.
In its existence like this, the West is still inside
the realm of intellectual war with Islam. However,
this idea of burning the Qur’an has contributed a
great leap backward from that war: the West is
defeated intellectually and finally in frustration,
they right away blame the Qur’an. Shifting from the
position of wanting to soften Islam and divorce the
“radical Islam” from the “mainstream Islam” just as
how the West normally propagandize, this idea of a
senior pastor in Florida precisely wants to declare
that Islam, as a religion, is indeed a religion of
violence (an extremist right wing Christian who
supports this idea said that he is supporting the
measure taken by the pastor in order to “put an end to
the idea that Islam is a peace-loving religion...
Islam is precisely a violent culture with the aim to
dominate the world”).
Therefore, this idea reflects a fear on the one hand
and impudence on the other side. It is clear that the
September 11 incident — regardless of who the real
perpetrators are — is only an excuse for them to
expose a real and greater fear of Islam. The rapid
growth of Islamic adherents in the West, in fact even
the teachings of Islam itself as a civilization, are
the factors of fear (terror) in the Western society
which is shadowed by moral decline.
Certainly, the Islamic Ummah does not need to be
excessive in defending themselves from this stigma of
terrorism, because our interpretation of terrorism
does not connect with their interpretation of
terrorism. Jihad, domination of Islam on the world,
are surely teachings which are inherent in our
religion (see QS As-Shaff : 9).
In fact, causing fear (terror) on the enemies of Allah
is a well-known command of the Qur’an (see QS Al-Anfal
: 60).
Subsequently, acts of violence against the enemies who
robbed the independence or acted tyrannically are
recorded in the pages of Islamic history as heroism.
In other words, crudely speaking, the terror (towards
the enemies) is the nature of Islam itself!
On that ground, it is the Western society who must do
the introspection. If in these recent years, there
have been more and more threats and the shadows of
violence are haunting the Western society, it's
because there are some human beings who feel oppressed
by the policies of the Western governments, especially
America, and feel legitimate to defend themselves or
even retaliate. If there is a nation which is invaded
just like that, its people killed, its independence
robbed, is it not fair if she fights back and avenge
the treatments? If an Ummah is ridiculed, invaded,
humiliated in films, oppressed and deceived
repeatedly, and when there are sons of its people
whose souls are burned, is it not fair for them to
defend themselves? —irrespective of whether the action
taken is valid in the view of fiqh.
In other words, what happened today on the world stage
is a humanitarian fairness. Terrorism is the counter
reaction from the global colonization carried out by
America and Company. When this is associated with
religion, soon we will find that the Qur’an actually
does provide a general framework for a hard and
assertive attitude against the enemies of Islam, but
reviewing the facts of the colonialism of this Ummah
on the aspects of politic, culture, economic and even
military, then it is America who is actually most
responsible for the the emergence of terrorist acts
around the world.
It is this kind of logic that should be developed so
that everyone has a fair view about terrorism. In
caricature, although an exaggeration, this had been
illustrated in a political cartoon made in Iran: the
terrorists are likened to toys which could explode and
can only walk if the winches are rotated, and the hand
that rotates them is apparently the arm wrapped in
American flag-patterned clothes.
Of course, it is too rough, even conspiratorial if we
accuse those terrorists as American toys. But
essentially, we can draw a conclusion that the chain
exists on America itself. Out of the blue, they
persistently claim to be the victims of terrorism,
Americans must realize that as long as their tyranny
against humanity does not cease, then it is also that
long that the chain of terrorism could not be broken.
Reza Ageung S. is a Student of Sekolah Tinggi Ilmu
Syariah / Science of Shari’a High School (STIS),
Hidayatullah, Balikpapan, Indonesia. website :
www.reza85ageung.wordpress.com
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