Quote (Viona @ Jan 9 2015 09:21pm)
There are reactions on the radio, TV, social media etc, about pretty prominent Muslim people condemning this terrorism attack. The phrase that keeps returning is "Islam is a religion of peace" and "these attackers are no true Muslims". I'm glad that these messages are being sent out because it shows that, indeed, most Muslims don't agree with any of this violence.
I'm actually wondering whether this will do any good though. I can imagine that these extremist people will eventually even turn themselves against other Muslims themselves...
Just some random thoughts... I'm curious to see what jsp thinks.
In Islam, it's only justifiable to kill when you are under attack. When your opponents put their weapons down, you should do the same. Picking up a gun and opening fire at people was and is never taught, and the actions by those terrorist scum cannot be justified by any verse or chapter in the Qur'an. A true Muslim is one who lives his or her life by the Book, as well as the recorded actions and sayings of the Prophet. Some people, however, read the Book, choose carefully cherry-picked quotes, read them out of context and with no regard to what the Prophet was known to do during his life on earth, and use their own interpretations as a justification for violent acts.
I can't say I wasn't offended by any drawings of our Prophet, but killing people in response to the offense is plain crazy. What Islam has taught me is that when people mock the Prophet, tell them what you can about him. If they still choose to mock him, then your job is done. It's better for you to take offense to the mockery than to lash out.
It's disappointing, however, to see that our community at large is just plainly condemning these attacks. I don't feel that it's our responsibility to go about every mosque or religious meeting to evaluate their intentions in their gatherings since it would be nearly impossible to establish an Islam Police in every country. Honestly, I'm not sure what we should do, or what the international community expects us to do about the recent attack, and the following suicide bombings that are sure to come in the future.
Quote (WidowMaKer_MK @ Jan 9 2015 09:35pm)
...my belief is that most Muslims would choose to side with the terrorists versus doing something to stop them if push came to shove .
Quote (j0ltk0la @ Jan 9 2015 09:42pm)
A minority of muslims commit the acts and only a minority of the muslims are against them, the majority are silently cheering them on.
There is no silent cheering for these crazy shooters. Those of us who are against the attacks are against it because we'd rather live our lives without being stricken with fear, and I personally want the same for my neighbors. Honestly, how is an unknown Muslim living in Nowhereville, Alabama, or even Where-the-Hell-is-That, Taiwan, going to benefit from the attacks in France? Were you or your parents or grandparents silently cheering on the Christians during the Muslim-Christian conflict in Papua, Indonesia, during the late 90s?