Allah says in the Quran: “And what is wrong with you that you do not fight in God’s cause, for those oppressed men, women and children, who cry out, ‘Lord rescue us from this town whose people are oppressors…’” [4:75] Jihad is thus the act to eradicate oppression and uphold justice. Jihad may be a physical struggle or a verbal struggle; “The greatest Jihad is to speak the truth in front of a tyrant ruler” [Bukhari] – but it must be a just struggle, for a just cause. And then there is the verse, “And fight them on until there is no more oppression and justice and faith in God prevails.” [2:193] This is usually the bit Islamophobes like to create a big fuss about and claim the above verse, ‘fight…until…faith in God prevails’ means fight them until they agree to convert. Apart from the fact that it is universally agreed by classical scholars that there is no compulsion in Islam, as it directly violates the Quran (Refer to Quran [2:256]), when we look at history and the actions of Caliphs such as Umar Ibn Al-Khattaab, the second Caliph of Islam, we see an entirely different scenario. When Umar (RA) went to Jerusalem, he promised the Christians their religious freedom and implemented justice, and AS A RESULT people recognised that such justice must be ordained by God, as whenever scriptures were sent down, that was the outcome, and THUS faith in God had prevailed – many non-Muslims out of free will converted to Islam. Alternatively, as Islamophobes like to claim, when we “came knocking on the doors of Europe” referring to Spain, was actually as a result of being invited by the Unitarian Christians who were facing persecution and recognised Islam for its justice, and invited us to Europe – which led us to stay there for 800 years and implement the ‘convinencia’ (coexistence), when all faiths lived peacefully side by side. Furthermore, Jihad has rules: do not kill the innocent, women, children and the elderly; do not destroy trees, plants and infrastructure, just to name a few. Therefore, the moment any of these rules are violated, the struggle can no longer be classed as Jihad as it is no longer just – It becomes tyrannical. Therefore, any sane human being, Muslim or non-Muslim agrees with the concept of Jihad. It is essentially the famous words of Patrick Henry from the American Revolution, “Liberty or death.” It therefore follows; the actions of Al-Qaeda and ISIS are not Jihad, but terrorism. Jihad and terrorism are antithetical. In fact, the actions of ISIS and Al-Qaeda are much closer to Western imperial policies than Jihad. After all, Western policies did kill over a million Muslims in Iraq, displaced millions more, destroyed our infrastructure and stole our oil. And this is ONE Muslim country. If I were to name every crime committed by Western governments, from the artificially imposed borders known as the Sykes-Picot Agreement, to the crimes committed by the British Empire, I would be here all day. As I mentioned earlier, Jihad must be a just struggle for a just cause. We must differentiate between the two terms. The cause is the movement and the struggle is the action. The Muslim cause for freedom and self-determination is a just cause; just as the cause to end apartheid in South Africa was a just cause. However, the struggle and actions that certain individuals and groups, from Adebolajo to ISIS have used may not be just actions, the same way that Mandela’s actions (for those that don’t know, he went around blowing things up at one point in his life) were not just actions – but the cause was a just cause. The western elite understands this very well and have therefore demonised the word Jihad in order to delegitimise the Muslim cause for freedom as a whole – peacefully or otherwise. By delegitimising the cause as a whole, it only further fuels the problem, as it denies a people their right for freedom and self-determination, and pushes them towards taking extreme actions. History is a testament to this, from the African community to the Irish community to the suffragettes. Jihad – the act that can end our oppression, has been demonised and a false narrative about the Muslim community has been spread to force us to live within the cages of colonialism. So are we advocating for Muslims to pack their bags and go to Iraq, Syria or Palestine? No. We believe the most effective Jihad Muslims in the West can do is to “speak the truth in front of a tyrant” [Bukhari]. We must expose the Islamophobic narrative that claims Muslim anger and extremist actions are due to the so called phenomenon of ‘Islamism’, and tell the world that it is due to the denial of freedom, just how past communities took to violence upon their denial of freedom. We must further propagate our true narrative and demand the end of occupation, intervention and support to brutal dictators, we must demand our independence from foreign corporate control. The act of terrorism is in direct contradiction to Islam and it doesn’t help our cause for freedom, it only gives Islamophobes the opportunity to further propagate their narrative that we are violent due to a ‘perverted version of Islam’ and thus need to be further monitored, invaded and droned. Therefore, to pursue our just cause by an unjust action of terrorism not only contradicts Islam but strategically hinders our cause. You see, Western elite are only able to invade, occupy and install dictators in the Muslim world under the pretext of “a war on terror”. What I have just said could bring an end to terrorism. If western governments are sincere about ending Muslim terrorism, they need to accept that Muslim terrorism is a product of their terrorism, and thus change their policies. But if they do that, they would lose control of the empire they still desperately cling onto. Instead, I too will be labelled an Islamist – or better yet, a ‘non-violent extremist.’ Thus our right to freedom would be further denied, even if we are demanding it peacefully.
Posted on: Sun, 20 Jul 2014 08:56:56 +0000
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