How Muslims should discuss with non Muslims about the bombings.

aslaam alkyum,

here is anice article i found on How Muslims should discuss with non Muslims about the bombings.

The spotlight has again intensified on Islam and Muslims. Phone-in shows, media debates and office talk all revolve around the London bombings of 7 July 2005. For some Muslims, there may be a desire to wish see the subject changed but in truth this incident and the subsequent premature blame on Muslims has led to an unavoidable situation where we Muslims have to defend not only our own name, but the beliefs and teachings of Islam. And defend them we must.

However, this is not enough. People's judgement can become weakened by biased media reporting and speculation, as well as the statements of government. We need to throw back a sense of perspective and context to non Muslims that lead them to understand world affairs is more than just pop concerts and sports competitions.

Defending Islam, whilst giving the whole picture

Our greatest defence against the continued media slander is dawah to Islam. We should explain our belief in Allah, the Quran and the Messenger (salAllahu alaihi wasallam) and how it is built upon a rational basis. Thereafter we should explain that we follow the rules of Islam that come from the Quran and Sunnah, and that these rules are comprehensive for our personal, community and international affairs.

The rules of Islam prohibit killing and the taking of innocent life. They prohibit us from targeting innocent civilians, or from any sort of killing except in very specific circumstances.

It is wise not to hide the truth, so we should point out that the rules of Islam also oblige Muslims to defend their own land, to fight to resist occupation in the land of occupation, and to fight until oppression is removed from a land and Allah's word is the highest. That is the reality of the fighting in places like Palestine, Iraq, Afghanistan, Kashmir and Chechnya. That is something of which we as Muslims are not ashamed, nor should we seek to apologise for it. Furthermore, Islam has certain punishments that order the taking of life, when evidence is proven in front of a court beyond doubt. The burden of proof in an Islamic court is higher than in western courts.

Islam does not allow an army or people to fight in order to rob a nation of its resources, or to feed corporate bellies like capitalist states do. Islam does not even allow the Muslim to fight for armies that undertake any type of war that are based on these material gains.

A sense of perspective

The current estimates are that about 50 people lost their lives in the bombings. People are understandably upset and shocked. Muslims sadly know this feeling all too well. Did we not see the attacks on Kabul and Kandahar? Did we not see the carpet bombing of Falluja? Did we not feel the destruction of Jenin? We feel the pain of death and destruction more than most do.

Our exposure to this has been so great that we have become desensitised to more deaths in the Muslim world. Ask your non-Muslim colleague, or neighbour you discuss with, if they have heard about the 200 innocent civilian Muslims who were killed in Afghanistan in the past weeks as part of the war on terror. If they did hear, did they feel four times as sad and shocked for four times the loss of life?

To really show how insensitive we are to death on a mass scale, then ask if they feel 4000 times the grief when they realise that their government's capitalist trade and aid policies contribute to the deaths of 20,000 Africans per day from poverty [which incidentally the G8 summit did little to lessen].

We must not allow this incident to let anybody forget the following things and more:


* The war on terror that has killed tens of thousands of innocent Muslims


* The division and colonisation of the Muslim world from the time of Sykes-Picot, through the creation of Israel and until the recent war on Iraq


* The outsourcing of torture to dictatorships by western governments in the name of security


* The western backing of tyrant regimes, like that of Mubarak, Musharraf or Karimov that oppress our people and led to thousands of deaths


* The pillaging of our resources, the crippling debt interest payments and the global corporate capitalist machine that has contributed to the poverty and deaths of millions


* The illegal and unjust detentions without trial and mass arrests we have seen in the UK over the past 2 years.



Had Muslim people inflicted this much evil and damage on the western world over the past 80 years it is inconceivable that the west's response would have been so restrained. That is not justifying an act Islam forbids, but it is retaining a sense of perspective in relation to these recent deaths.

It is imperative that we put our case forward for these matters, wisely and caringly, both in personal dialogue, but also in letters to newspapers or phone in programmes on the TV or radio.

Any thing less than a comprehensive explanation of Islam, or a comprehensive description of the west's relationship with the Muslim world would be a betrayal of our duty towards people here. Dawah is not about making people like you as a person for an end in itself, for motives of self interest. It is about speaking the truth about Islam, kufr and the state of the world, with Hikmah [wisdom] and the best proofs. In doing that, and praying to Allah for success, Allah can move the hearts of people towards the truth.

wa alkyum aslaam