To begin with, we must admit that for more than three decades the word terrorism has been linked with the Muslims. Indeed, some western media have come to use the word terrorism as a synonym for the word Islam. And hostility toward Muslims has become in the West a profitable trade through which one can wage political battles and win parliamentary elections, as was the case in some countries of the European Common Market.
The question that must be posed in this context is not whether terrorism with Islamic roots exists or not? For that is a fact that cannot be denied. Rather: How did terrorism come to a heavenly religion whose essential characteristic is tolerance and love of life and spreading goodness among humans, and how has this terrorism dominated the true image of the religion and disfigured its reputation?
Before beginning to trace the roots of global Islamist terrorism and scrutinize its sources, we must realize that exploiting religion for personal and political aims is not an exclusively Islamic peculiarity. All the heavenly religions have, since their descent, encountered and still encounter today strayers among their followers who interpret the religion to their own measure, in a way that serves their personal and factional interest.
And in the Islamic religious system – for various reasons, the most important being the lack of a supreme religious institution recognized by all parties and sects – the doors remain wide open for anyone who wants to undertake independent interpretation, to interpret the word of God and issue rulings in his name as he pleases, and to toy with the concept of religion and its proofs without restraint.
The factors that accelerated the spread of the Islamic movements and the terror Islamist movements since the end of the seventies of the last century until now are varied and numerous; they have been treated in different scientific studies. What drives me to write these lines – while we stand at the threshold of a new war whose promoters falsely take humanity and human rights as the basis of their demand to bombard an Arab country with the deadly, destructive missiles – and we all know that the reactionary Salafi forces especially in Syria and in the Islamic world as a whole will be the sole winner of this sinful war,
Strange in the matter is that western democratic states respond to the demand of reactionary, authoritarian regional forces that lack the minimal standards of human rights and humanity. These reactionary regional forces, blowing the horn of war and destruction, bought with money the filthiest part of the Arab media, supported by numerous voices of the pseudo-intellectuals to throw sand in the eyes of the whole nation.
In the coming lines I would like once again to cast light on the factors that helped the spread of Islamist terror in the past period, to clarify that the aim of the reactionary regional forces is to anchor their Wahhabi way of life in the Islamic world, which meets with supporting the interests of the new colonial powers that attack our homelands in the name of the false human rights and democracy.
Among the most important factors of the massive spread of the terror movements of political Islam throughout the Islamic world is the exploitation by these mercenaries of the sincere natural disposition of the majority of simple Muslims and their love of their devout religion. For the Muslims still fear those who usurp religion, wear the djellaba and memorize some Quranic verses and the selected prophetic traditions, in order to dazzle the listeners with them.
And enormous numbers among the Muslims believe, out of ignorance and scant education, mistakenly that their financial, logistical and moral support of these Islamist movements is of the essence of faith and service to Islam.
The second fundamental factor for the spread of the Islamist terror forces is the never-drying spring of official and unofficial Wahhabi money that is distributed generously to these forces. They, and with their money, and in the past on direct instruction from the United States, supported these movements in Afghanistan and Algeria and later in the Balkans and Chechnya, and Wahhabi businessmen and Wahhabi governments, under the eyes of the western intelligence services, still support al-Qaida everywhere. And they are the ones who support the al-Qaida offshoots in Syria, such as the al-Nusra movement and others.
And the most important factor is the support of some western governments, foremost among them the United States of America, for the forces of political Islam which later spawned the forces of Islamist terror. These forces were supported to stem the current of Arab progressivism which resisted the despotism of the Arab regimes supported by the western powers that sold the resources of the Arab homeland at the cheapest prices and trampled the citizen's rights underfoot for decades.
It is time for the nation of Muslims to awaken from its slumber and rise against the reactionary forces leading it in the name of religion, and to rise against the sorcerers who falsified their devout religion. It is time to realize that America does not fight Islam but fights the national Arabs – Muslims, Christians and unbelievers – who grew weary of the colonialism that robs their riches with the help of the Arab agents. We must realize that America does only what serves its interest, and that the time has come for the interest of the homeland and the nation to be the only compass governing our future steps.
It is time to immerse ourselves in the words of the great Arab poet, “Hafiz Ibrahim”:
How many a scholar stretched the threads of the sciences / for estrangement and discord and separation
And a jurisconsult of a people who never ceased expounding his jurisprudence / for some scheme or permitted divorce
He walks, and upon him a turban is raised like a tower – but above a hill of hypocrisy
