ALL people have mixed feelings of anger, grief and frustration when they happen to hear any terror act takes place in any part of the world, especially in the West. As the first reaction for this, most often it will be linked with Islam by using terms like Islamic extremism, Islamic militancy and Islamic terrorism as if these descriptions about terrorism are connected only to the followers of Islam. In fact, we can see extremists, fundamentalists and terrorists among followers of all religions. Hence, it is unfair to link any terror act, committed by any one of the followers of a religion, to that religion. Truly speaking, there have been several outrageous acts and vicious crimes committed by members of different local extremist groups. Whenever such an act takes place, at the very outset, the Western media used to link it with Islam. Later, it was revealed to them that it was nothing to do with Islam and Muslims, and that the perpetrators of the crime belonged to the Western community itself. This was the case with the huge bomb blast that struck the US City of Oklahoma in 1995. The bombing, which was the most destructive act of terrorism on American soil until the Sept.11 attacks six years later, claimed the lives of 168 people. In the beginning, the finger of suspicion pointed to Muslims but investigations proved that Muslims had nothing to do with it. The perpetrators of bombing were some Americans who belonged to an American extremist outfit. Similar was the case with the massacre of 69 people in Norway by a right-wing extremist gunman in 2011. It is interesting to note that in both cases, nobody pointed to the religion of the perpetrators of these heinous crimes. Instead, what all said was that the criminals belonged to some extremist and racist groups. A normal human being will feel anger, grief and frustration when he sees a Muslim or a group of Muslims commit a terror act, whatever may be its reasons and justifications. In fact, Islam never permits killing an innocent man and that is allowed only in the battlefield. The Holy Qur'an says: “Because of that, We decreed upon the Children of Israel that whoever kills a soul unless for a soul or for mischief (done) in the land — it is as if he had slain mankind entirely. And whoever saves one — it is as if he had saved mankind entirely” (Al-Maidah). “Whoever is guided is only guided for (the benefit of) his soul. And whoever errs only errs against it. And no bearer of burdens will bear the burden of another (Al-Isra). This is a clear and open declaration of Qur'an preventing aggression on innocent people or terrifying them or harming them. There are several teachings in the Tradition of the Prophet (peace be upon him) in this regard. Islam also clearly specifies the laws to wage wars and warned against killing those who are not involved in battle. It forbids even killing those who are extending logistic services to the fighters or those who engage in treating the warriors. Among the terrorist acts that angered even Muslims is the one of the latest of which included the Boston Marathon bombing that took place last month killing three people and injuring hundreds of others. Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev — the Chechen brothers — were the suspects in the attack. Tamerlan was killed later in a shootout with police and Dzhokhar was arrested. One television channel reported then that Dzhokhar wrote a note describing his brother Tamerlan as a martyr. It is strange that these two brothers were living in the United States for nearly one decade and they were under surveillance of the US police. The last terrorist act that was slammed by all people, including Muslims, was the one that took place in the southeastern London suburb of Woolwich. A British soldier was hacked to death on a busy London street last Wednesday. Two new converts, who are of Nigerian origin, are suspected of involvement in the killing of the soldier and they were reportedly shouting Islamic slogans as if they were doing a heroic act while committing the heinous crime. Their pronouncement of Islamic slogans has done a great damage to Islam and Muslims, especially the British Muslims, who lambasted the attack in the strongest words. The British Muslims were the first victims of such an appalling criminal act that triggered outrage worldwide, particularly in Britain. The British Prime Minister David Cameron cut short a visit to Paris to fly back for a meeting of the government's emergency response committee, COBRA, which had already met in the hours following the attack. Even though he blasted the cowardly terrorist attack in the strongest terms, he did not link it with Islam. I don't know from where and how did these people learn about the religion of Islam because these acts were fully in contravention with the principles of Islam as was evident from several verses of the Holy Qur'an. As I mentioned above, Qur'an and Hadith (Tradition of the Prophet) forbid aggression on innocent people. Such terror acts contradict even with the laws of Islam during wartime, and it is needless to say even during peace. There is no doubt that these young men are being lured to deviant ideologies and they are trying to spread these false ideologies, and thus doing harm to Islam and Muslims, particularly to Muslims who live in Western societies and leading a dignified life through observing and complying with the laws of the land. These Muslims are respecting the pluralist society that hosted them and gave them an opportunity to lead a decent life and enjoy many a service that they cannot even dream of in the country where from they have migrated. These deviants, who have been brainwashed up to the extent that they do not have any logic, reason and objectivity, commit acts that not only spoils their lives but also provide ample justification to the enemies of Islam to offend this sublime religion of Islam. I expect and wish that investigations would prove that those who committed terror acts are mentally deranged people or drug addicts or abnormal people so that their criminal acts are no more put in Islam's account and thus avoid inflicting harm to Muslims. It is also inevitable to subject to a comprehensive review of these extremist religious calls being made by some preachers and responsible figures of Islam as these calls are nothing to do with Islam. Such calls had been made even during the beginning of Islam, and then the Prophet (PBUH) warned against such people. Let us pray that Allah Almighty may protect us, as well as the religion of Islam and the Muslims from these evildoers.
