Hicham Maged's blog Inquisitive curiosity paves knowledge path

Scary Movie XXI

Assalam Alaikum wa rahmat Allah.
Peace be upon you dear visitor.

After the invention of the nuclear weapon, Albert Einstein said: “The unleashed power of the atom has changed everything, except our mode of thinking.” It is clear for me how the World War II was an ideal example of human stupidity as the war causalities were scary enough to rise an alarm for the status of mankind on planet Earth.

Scary Movie of the 21st Century

For that matter in the middle of the 20^th century at 1945, United Nations (UN) had been established to ensure global peace and cooperation between humans; however despite there were no nuclear wars during the past 60 years (1945 – 2005) nothing from this noble goal mankind could achieve as wars are still waging everywhere in different forms and levels.

The 21^st century started by the Millennium Goals that aimed for more cooperation but we waked up on the bitter truth since the terrorist attacks of 9/11: “Honey, I’m home” said ugly terrorism. Since then, we are facing Bush administration’s War on Terror under leadership of USA and full support UK while the UN took the red card, i.e. OUT.

The administrations in both countries gave themselves the right to act on the behalf of all nations for fighting against terrorism. Although I understand the need to defend their people; however the equation became Islam equals terrorism, hence we see how the scary movie of both Islamophobia (making Muslims the enemy) plus ugly terrorism in the 21^st century is running!

Nowadays misconceptions about Islam are circulating because media usually keep on adhering terrorism with Muslims and do not bother highlighting on the other side of the story and hence you found the notable attitude of stereotyping Islam and Muslims nowadays in parallel with ignoring a basic fact which tells about how Islam had forbid killing innocents.

May be you ask why Islam forbade this? The answer lies behind understanding a fundamental basic fact that tell us how Islam encourages urbanizing Earth, hence terrorism contradicts with all values mankind believes in and share. For that matter, I am calling you to search for what The Almighty Allah (swt) – GOD – had already mentioned in the Holy Quran which clearly mention the other side of the story. You shall discover yourself that Muslim scholars had agreed thousands of years ago about what Islam is calling for yet you hear nothing (or rarely) about this bright and true side in the media.

Additionally in parallel with the facts about Islam that are mentioned up and usually ignored, I have my own perspective: Islam is about building not destroying and it is based on the facts that Islam calls for.

In the light of this elaboration, we can understand that both Islam and Muslims are anti-terrorism according to the Islamic faith and beliefs. This is why mankind must stand up against terrorism in all forms whether it is al-Qaeda terrorism or other extremists who share these extreme views and this applies for both Muslims and Non-Muslims; however, what seems unclear for me in this scary movie of 21^st are the following two points:

1. Anti Terrorism: Nations should cooperate for achieving this goal within the framework of United Nation (UN) not outside because War on Terror is not a one man show which I wonder where it shall lead us after few years!
2. Islamophobia: Standing up against terrorism does not mean by any way stereotyping Islam, Arab and Muslims as we see nowadays. Nothing justifies these misconceptions exactly in the same way that nothing justifies what extremists with their black and closed mentalities do.

You know what? If this was a scary movie, I would have left the cinema because I would definitely get bored yet there is no exit door till now, unfortunately! Hence, as I quoted Albert Einstein at the beginning of this blog entry, I would like to end it with another quotation by Sir Winston Churchill which states “To build may have to be the slow and laborious task of years. To destroy can be the thoughtless act of a single day.”

Salam

« photo credit »