Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

altmuslim

Home
Muslim
How Can Muslims Proactively Combat or Guard Against Extremists?

How Can Muslims Proactively Combat or Guard Against Extremists?

Last updated on: December 5, 2015 at 7:25 pm by Guest Contributor

How Can Muslims Proactively Combat or Guard Against Extremists? 2015-12-05T19:25:05-04:00 Guest Contributor

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

By Farouk Peru

I went to bed last night praying. The news of the San Bernardino murders were just breaking out and obviously, I prayed it would not be Muslims who were responsible. Today, God answered my prayers by allowing it to be just so. The suspect is not only a Muslim but bears my very name – Syed Rizwan Farook.

Sigh … some years ago, there was another one — a would-be under bomber whose name was Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, and now we have this guy. Letting the Farouks of the world down!

All levity aside, I wish the families of the victims my deepest condolences. I am a victim myself or at least, a would-be one. All Muslims are. No, actually, all people of colour are. I do not wish to racialize this discourse but unfortunately, the process of victimization is based on looks. Since the Paris massacre, there have been reports of people of color being attacked even though they’re not Muslim.

Being Muslim is an internal profession of faith. The Islamophobe cannot see that, so they rely on outward signals, the first being skin colour. It is a form of racial violence, make no mistake about that.

But can we Muslims absolve ourselves from blame? This is not an easy subject upon which to expound. While I am absolutely clear that in no way are Muslims collectively responsible for extremist acts by those who purport to share their faith, I do believe simply disclaiming our association from it is simply disingenuous. After all, we are or likely are to be the victims of Islamophobic attacks.

The attackers are not likely to care if we agree with the extremists or not. Heck, they don’t even care if we’re Muslims or not. Their hatred is something that needs to find expression. Justifiability simply does not come to it.

So yes, we are not responsible. But we can be proactive about it. It is in our interest to do so. Whomever we point the finger at, the fact of the matter is that Muslims were involved in the perpetration of these acts. These Muslims were influenced to do so by certain nefarious individuals and mind sets.

That is something that will happen. People live in the cyber age, and they are within easy reach of extremist recruiters, like ISIS. What we can do is to protect Muslims against their influence by intellectually equipping ourselves.

The way to do that is first and foremost with honesty. In computer science, the strategy of ignoring a problem is called the “ostrich algorithm,” because the ostrich buries its head in the sand at the sign of impending danger. The majority of Muslims, in my experience, use this strategy. We have some choice excuses as “the government is at fault for getting involved in Middle Eastern politics,” but all this does is prove that Muslims cannot accept responsibility for our own actions.

We are reactors rather than wilful actors. My ethics is not determined by what a third party does but rather the dictates of the Quran — and it is strongly against terrorism.

So we need to be honest. There are parts of the Islamic tradition (interpretations of the Quran and hadith) that can be used to promote violence. We need to have open dialogues with the Ulama and ask them about these. Perhaps the Ulama have logical explanations that show these interpretations are not violent after all. If they do not, it is simply not enough anymore to let them off the hook. They need to be told that Muslims wish a return to the original spirit of Islam and move away from Islamofascism.

Another pattern I noticed with these suspects is that, for some time before they actually commit the act, they stay away from their local mosques. Syed Rizwan Farook fits this profile of having stayed away from his local mosque for two years. I believe this pattern is very likely due to the takfiri (hereticizing) nature of the extremists: They see all other Muslims as infidels and with their warped ideology – to be dissociated from, at the very least.

So, what we need to do is to keep the community together. If anyone isolates himself, reach out to him. It is likely to be something innocuous, but let’s not take any chances.

The last point I’d like to raise here is the level of discourse regarding the Quran. In this age of Islamophobia, the ones against Islam are not just from sections of humanity but also from dissenting Muslims themselves (Atheist Muslims, Ex-Muslims, Agnostic Muslims) who literally (pardon the pun) cut and paste the Quran to portray the Quran as a book of violence. Muslims must go deep into our own scripture in order to understand the complex discussions regarding the book.

When an extremist recruiter tells a Muslim youth, the Quran says to “kill the kuffar,” that youth should be able to ask that recruiter why he’s completely ignoring the textuality of the Quran, one of its key features. We need to raise the bar, folks. Simply memorizing and singing melodiously is not enough.

In these difficult times, we should see that support for the Muslim community is fading. We cannot blame the wider community because these attacks keep happening. Rather we need to rise the challenge and help ourselves.

Farouk A. Peru is a human being in the world. He uses the faith – tradition of Islam to formulate his religious identity and as a means to truth.

Previous Post

December 3, 2015

San Bernardino: When Circles Converge in Violence

Next Post

December 8, 2015 Supporting Ourselves and Each Other – A Spiritual Response to These Times

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category 2012 Elections 30 Dayd 30 Writers (2017) 30 Days 30 Writers 30 Days 30 Writers (2015) 30 Days 30 Writers (2016) 30 Days 30 Writers (2018) 30 Days 30 Writers 2017 Ali Asadullah Ali Eteraz Alper Bilgili Arthur Richards Asides Asma Uddin Black History Month Briefings Charles Turner Commentary Cyrus McGoldrick Eman H Aly Fatimah Popal Hajj Hajj and Dhul Hijjah Hesham Hassaballa Hisham Hellyer Ibrahim Abusharif Inas Younis Irfan Yusuf Jalal Baig Junaid Afeef Laila Alawa Laila Alwala Mas'ood Cajee Muqtedar Khan Nakia Jackson Newsmakers Parvez Ahmed Podcasts Rabia Chaudry Rafia Zakaria Ramadan Reviews Safiyyah Ally Saud Inam Shahed Amanullah Svend White The Opinionated Oncologist Visions Wajahat Ali Zahed Amanullah Zahir Janmohamed Zainab Khan

Select a Month November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 April 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006 September 2006 August 2006 July 2006 June 2006 May 2006 April 2006 March 2006 February 2006 January 2006 December 2005 November 2005 October 2005 September 2005 August 2005 July 2005 June 2005 May 2005 April 2005 March 2005 February 2005 January 2005 December 2004 November 2004 October 2004 September 2004 August 2004 July 2004 June 2004 May 2004 April 2004 March 2004 February 2004 January 2004 December 2003 November 2003 October 2003 September 2003 August 2003 July 2003 June 2003 May 2003 April 2003 March 2003 February 2003 January 2003 December 2002 November 2002 October 2002 September 2002 August 2002 July 2002 June 2002 May 2002 April 2002 March 2002

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

To whom does Paul say he has become all things so that by all possible means he might save some?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Everyone The Gentiles The weak The Jews