Help with a question from non-Muslim friends

[Amanda]

Salaam everyone,

Since reverting, I have had a few friends ask me a question that I have trouble answering, so I thought I would put it out to this community to get ideas. I hope that you guys can help me with it, because I really want to show the beauty of Islam to my friends, and this is the main sticking point.

Basically, I have been asked, if Islam is such a peaceful and loving religion, why are there so many cases of people using Islam as a justification for terrorism. There are many terrorists who are not Muslim, but there doesn't seem to be any other religion that is used so widely as a support to terrorism. I know that most of us will agree that the people who do these horrible things and kill innocent people in the name of Islam are not practicing true Islam, but why do they use such a beautiful religion to justify such awful actions?

I hope this question isn't too controversial or anything... but I really want people's input about this. I truly love Islam, and think it is the most beautiful and perfect religion, and I want to share it with others, but I just don't know how to address concerns like this one.

 

[جوري]

I'd like to see stat (numbers) for these 'terrorist acts' committed by alleged 'Muslim terrorists' compared to 'non-Muslim' terrorists for instance the IRA..
there is a vested interest in the western media in keeping focus on Islam solely to further there all around agenda and still in spite of their tremendous efforts which span every medium al7mdlillah Islam is gaining great momentum be that as it may if all you hear about are Muslims on the news every night and in a negative fashion you are naturally to think it is committed just by one group. It is psychological and used often, I have seen a documentary on that on how to create memory in people so that they eventually believe things that might not have ever been or ever took place!..

 

[marwen]

Muslim countries are the most suffering countries from colonization, wars, persecution, discrimination, injustice by the western countries (US in Iraq, Afghanistan, ...Israel in the middle-east, ...) This persecution let terrorism appear against the western countries.

 

[islamirama]

Tell your friends, how many Muslim lands do they see being invaded and occupied right now? How many western friendly puppets and dictators do they see running Muslim lands? and then compare that to how many european, american or western nations do they see being invaded or occupied? How many do they see with puppets in place? The terrorism they see and believe is nothing more than the words their own gov't spoon feeds them. All fighting and resistance in Iraq, afghan, yemen, pakistan, palestine, etc are legtimate fight for freedom under Islamic law and UN international law. heck the puppet gov'ts of iraq and Afghan is not even recognized by international law. By their own law, a government formed while a nation is under occupation is not recognized as a legitimate government. So tell your friends many of the "terrorist" activities they see on the news are actual legal rights of the people to defend their lands against invaders, even if western media calls it what they want.

here's something to share with them for some inspiration...

“What's a 'moderate Muslim'? - Someone that doesn't mind the invasion and occupation of Muslim countries and the slaughter of countless people there? We will see the end of 'extremist' Muslims when we see the end of 'extremist' leaders in the West. It's not rocket science although it is in a lot of people's interests to pretend that it is.” -Marie Xeno

“A ‘moderate Islam’ is Islam that shall remain rooted in the fundamentals of Islamic authenticity and the eternal values of Islam’s universal worldview, not the short term demands of US oil companies, conglomerates and think tanks. Central to this is the struggle for universal justice and equality, which is at the heart of the Islamic message”. - Dr. Farish Noor

 

[Amanda]

I know that the news reports have definite biases and don't always show the truth of matters... I also know that there are many injustices being committed against people of all religions around the world, by people of all religions. But just repeating these arguments doesn't make it right to hurt other people, and to be honest, isn't a good way to help people see the truth of Islam. What I'm trying to figure out is why some people use religion (and yes, Islam is not the only religion used to justify terrorism, but it does happen, and some people that do these things are quick to publicly use Islam as a justification) to justify killing and hurting innocent people.
Maybe I'm confused, but do people here actually believe that terrorism in the name of any religion, but especially Islam, is justified? I didn't think that was the case, if it is, maybe I'm in the wrong community here...

 

[جوري]

depends on what your definition of terrorism is. and depends on whether the evidence points without a shadow of a doubt to said group committing those acts.

I don't approve and neither does Islam condone killing of civilians.. there are war ethics in Islam that I guarantee you aren't a part of any other religion, but Muslims shouldn't profess guilt to crimes they didn't commit nor apologize for them.. as for efforts made to overthrow evil govt. and have foreign forces retreat which the west unabashedly classifies as 'terrorism' then all I can say is one country's terrorist is another country's freedom fighter. The govt. of said places like Lebanon or Palestine can do nothing to ward off foreign threats and as such all the effort must be shouldered solely by individuals!