Religion of Islam misunderstood

On one hand, it is a religion that preaches tolerance and whose civilization has given rise to important advances in mathematics and the arts.

On the other hand, it is a religion for which people have flown airplanes into buildings and committed suicide bombings in restaurants and even a university.

Which is the real Islam?

Daniel Pipes of the Middle East Forum, a think-tank that promotes American interests in the Middle East, said that the reaction of American Muslims to the Islamic terrorists has been to say, “Terrorism has nothing to do with Islam.”

In fact, he said, American Muslims “have not done a whole lot [about the terrorists]. They are distancing themselves. They are trying to disassociate themselves. They are telling us it’s a peaceful religion.”

The managing director of The Institute of Islamic Information and Education in Chicago, Dr. M. Amir Ali, said at a talk at The University of Memphis that “Muslims were falsely accused of the attacks on 9/11.”

He said that at least 80 percent of Muslims do not believe that the 9/11 terrorists were Muslims—calling this belief a “Bush theory.”

Ali went on to note that Islam says very little about political life, noting that Muslims elect their own leaders.

“Islam is democracy,” he said.

Muslims are allowed to engage in commerce, he said.

“Islam is capitalism,” he added.

In other words, American Muslims are, except for their religion, much like other Americans.

“What’s so bad about us believing differently?” asked Danish Siddiani, a senior at The U of M and president of the Muslim Students Association.

Likening Muslim Americans’ plight today to the wrongs suffered during the Holocaust and the pre-Civil Rights Movement era, he said, “What is happening to us is just like what happened to Jews and African-Americans.”

The problem with the Muslim extremists, Siddiani said, is that they do not see America’s freedoms-such as freedom of religion.

“They see America’s pushiness,” he said.

He said that America’s forcing its own political and economic systems onto Muslim countries has fueled Islamic fanaticism.

“There is ignorance on both sides,” he said.

However, Pipes said that America should address what “causes the violence-which is ideology.” Pipes referred to “militant Islam,” which does condone the use of violence in certain instances-the jihad, or holy war. Perhaps one should not ask: Which is the real Islam? But instead: What is the problem-militant Islam or American foreign policy?

The teachings of certain madrasas, or Islamic schools, in Pakistan have been widely reported to teach a virulent hatred for the West and America in particular. Suicide bombings in Israel are widely reported to be carried out by Muslim extremists claiming that their deaths in the name of jihad will send them straight to heaven. But, U of M sophomore Mothanna Haimed said, “The actions of 5 or 6 or 6,000 people do not reflect on a religion with over a billion followers.”

However, Pipes said that while few people actually engage in the violent acts themselves, “the support the militants enjoy [from the Muslim community] is quite substantial.”

“As a Muslim, I don’t believe a Muslim should do anything like that [commit acts of terror],” Haimed said. “They [the victims of 9/11] were still human. They were still created by God.”

In order to stop further acts of terror, Haimed said, people have to be “enlightened more about their religion.”

This, he said, is where the Muslim Students Association pitches in by trying to educate people about Islam through a series of talk sessions and pamphlets on various Islamic concepts-such as jihad.

Pipes said that America is not to blame for anti-American sentiment in the Middle East. He said that there is a host of problems in the Middle East but only part of the problems are related to America.

“We [Americans] must engage and defeat the motivation” behind al-Qaida, said Pipes. That motivation, he said, is militant Islam.