There is a pernicious, disingenuous meme floating around. It goes: “ISIS have killed Muslims in Istanbul, Dhaka, Baghdad and now the holy city of Madina. So leave us alone, ISIS has nothing to do with Islam!”
A) What exactly is the point here? ISIS are still from among us Muslims. They still adopt a version of Islam that happens to be found in our scripture (eg: stone women, kill apostates, chop off limbs) to justify their actions.
B) Think how insulting we sound. ‘They can’t be Muslims because they’re killing other Muslims’. As if killing non-Muslims would somehow make us accept they have something to do with Islam??
C) Religious extremism throughout the ages has targeted its ‘own’ before others. That’s the nature of trying to control people. And that’s why extremists were always so concerned with ‘heresy’ and ‘blasphemy’. The ‘traitor’ from within is always more dangerous, and thus always more strictly punished. The Prophet’s own grandchildren were killed by Muslim extremists known as the khawarij who were reported to be better at reciting the Quran & more steadfast in prayer than anyone else.
D) The fact is, claiming that ISIS has *nothing* to do with Islam is as unhelpful and ignorant as saying ISIS *is* Islam per se. It’s blindingly obvious they have *something* to do with Islam and everyone’s laughing at us for trying to deny this.
Instead of whinging and making our first reaction about Muslim victimhood, again, why not try being part of the solution by working to challenge extremism?
Or are cartoons the only thing that makes us come out in the streets with rage?
