Root Cause of Terrorism

Recently, a large-scale conference was organized at the White House, Washington to reflect on the present state of affairs following the perpetration of terror activities by Muslim organisations in Germany, Paris and Denmark. For the conference President Obama invited representatives from sixty countries and it continued for three days: February 17-19, 2015.

In his speech, President Obama said that the violence which was being perpetrated in the name of Islam has nothing to do with the original teachings of Islam. He said that a parallel ideology has been developed in the name of Islam and that is the root cause of these terrorist activities. He mentioned that the Taliban and Al-Qaida did not develop this ideology; they were inspired by it and engaged in terror activities under its influence.

President Obama’s analysis is very valid except that he did not highlight what that parallel ideology is. It is absolutely correct to say that Islam is a peaceful religion and all teachings of Islam – directly or indirectly – are related to peace. Islam is all about reflecting on and pondering over the message of the Quran and does not seek the killing of people. The question then is: what is that parallel ideology which has been developed in the name of Islam?

I have researched on this topic extensively and my analysis is that this parallel ideology is the political interpretation of Islam that was advanced in twentieth century. There were two champions of this interpretation – Sayyid Qutb (1906-1966) in the Arab world and Syed Abul Ala Maududi (1903-1979) in the Indian subcontinent. They developed the political interpretation of Islam and the conditions existing in the twentieth century were favourable for this ideology to be propagated. The ideas of these two authors were translated into several languages and influenced the minds of Muslims world over.

The Political Interpretation of Islam

Until thousand years after its inception, Islam continued to be a subject of following. It was always said that a believer must follow Islam in one’s life so that one might be rewarded by God in the Hereafter. However, the political interpretation of the twentieth century turned Islam into a subject of imposition. This is the parallel ideology which is the root cause of terrorism.

When Islam is a seen as a subject of following, the focus is on oneself – one must discover God and increase one’s conviction in Him, adopt a God-oriented life and engage in peaceful dawah efforts, that is, conveying the message of God to all humankind. However, when Islam is turned into a subject of imposition, the focus shifts on changing the system that exists outside of oneself. This is because imposition of one’s ideas cannot take place without ousting an authority that may already be in charge of external affairs. Those who gave the concept of Islam as a subject of imposition are the ones who are responsible for the perpetration of the parallel political ideology of Islam.

Those influenced by this political ideology began by trying to persuade people to impose the teachings of Islam in society. When this did not meet success, they participated in elections. Failing in this, they started fighting. This group which was influenced by the political interpretation did not perpetrate terrorism from the very first day. Initially, they used to undertake their propagation in a peaceful manner but when it did not work out, they took to arms and began striving to oust those who were on political seats, so that once they acquire political authority, they would be in a position to impose Islam. This point will be further cleared by an example.

At one place the Quran says:

Deal justly; that is nearer to being God-fearing. (5:8)

This verse of the Quran clearly directs believers to uphold justice or follow justice. However, the proponents of the parallel political ideology interpreted this verse of the Quran as saying: ‘Impose justice’. In other words, a subject of following was made a subject of imposition. An example of this ideology is found in Sayyid Qutb’s Al-Adala al-Ijtimaiyya fil-Islam, which means social justice in Islam.

This wrongful interpretation of imposing justice changed the entire meaning of what Islam required of believers. It turned the religion of peace into a religion of violence, with the adherents of this parallel philosophy engaging in violence to unseat those in power, so that they could then impose their own ideology.

Need for Counter Ideology

The White House Conference was on the theme of ‘Countering Violent Extremism’. This is a very appropriate topic, but the conference did not clarify the real issue. That is, the reason for extremism is the political interpretation of Islam, which turned religion into a system of imposition although it was originally a subject of following.

This means only ideology and literature can prove effective in countering this violent extremism. Use of bombs and killings of leaders would not curb this form of extremism. There is an example from American history of the approach adopted by the United States to address the issue of the rise of communism.

The Communist ideology held sway in 1917 and eventually became the basis of the formation of the USSR. Communists declared that they would strive to bring an end to capitalism. Tensions and rivalry mounted between the US and the USSR, which led to the Cold War. America emerged successful because of the strategy it adopted and consequently the USSR was disintegrated. It is noteworthy that the US did not engage in any form of bombardment or military activism against the USSR. They countered the communist ideology through literature. They utilized great minds for this purpose. For instance, the Yugoslavian Milovan Dilas, a politician of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia (1911-1995) became disillusioned with the Communist system. He then wrote a book with the title, The New Class: An Analysis of the Communist System (1957). In it he argued that communism did not create the egalitarian society that it had envisaged. Instead, he showed, that it ended up creating a ‘new class’ which enjoyed privileges and oppressed the masses. The US popularized this book by publishing and propagating it across the world in various languages. A review of this book was published in the Readers’ Digest which was titled, ‘Milovan Djilas and the Book that is Shaking the Communist World.’ (Eugene Lyons, Reader’s Digest, October 1957)

The US should thus understand from its past experience that the same approach is required in the issue of countering extremism: a book is required which would shake the terrorist world. There is no other way of countering this issue. This problem can be solved neither through guns nor by bombs. It would need powerful literature and American history itself testifies that it was through literature that the Communist empire crumbled. The very ideology that formed the basis of the Communist system was demolished by various minds that worked toward this cause.

Now that terrorism is threatening the entire civilized world, the same approach has to be adopted again. Such literature and books are required as would demolish the terrorist ideology. Only then would the minds of these perpetrators change. UNESCO’s dictum that violence begins from the mind is very valid in this regard. The present-day violence caused in the name of Islam has also begun from the mind and would have to be eliminated in the mind too. The cause of violence is an ideology that justifies violence. And now an ideology will have to be developed which clarifies that violence is the worst and it is only peace that opens the door to all kinds of opportunities and that through the peaceful method one can attain all of one’s goals.

Modern Age and Islam

With God’s support, a new age has come into existence in present times, which in its entirety, is pro-Islam. The Prophet Muhammad had said:

God will send help for this religion through secular people. (Bukhari)

The western world is what is alluded to in the above saying of the Prophet. Whichever aspect of the present age we talk about – modern science, democracy, or religious freedom – all support the idea of peacefully presenting Islam to the world without obstruction. It is the first time in history that freedom of expression has been regarded as an absolute right of every human being. The UN’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights, accepted by all countries, entitles the enjoyment of these rights to all human beings. No excuse permits their abolition. The only condition is that no violence be undertaken. If one is peaceful, one can choose to utilize any opportunity for propagating and doing one’s work. This work also includes conveying the message of God to others.

There is an illustrative example of the present-day culture. It is said that when America became independent, an American began to jubilantly walk on the streets. In his joy, he hit the nose of a passerby. The man asked why he had hit his nose. The American replied saying that he was celebrating the newly attained freedom of his country! At this, the passerby said: “Your freedom ends where my nose begins.” Thus, till the time one is not harmful and remains peaceful, one has total freedom to adopt and propagate any religion. This kind of freedom was never before enjoyed by anyone in history. Throughout history there has only been religious persecution, which was faced by all the prophets. Modern civilization, for the first time, ushered in religious freedom to the world with the only condition that one should not be physically harmful for anyone.

Those who gave the political interpretation of Islam however jeopardized it all. After a long process, God had brought about the age of the printing press, communications and multimedia, and now was the time to avail all these blessings. The age we live in is an age of opportunity explosion. Earlier opportunities were available to only a select few. Now, all opportunities are open for all. The Prophet once said that there would be an age,

When the barefoot and the naked are the heads of people. (Bukhari)

It means a time would come wherein ordinary people would be to attain success. This saying means that opportunities in the world would increase so much that common people would be able to reach great heights of success. It was never possible in our childhood for a common man to dream of this.

The modern civilization has led to an opportunity explosion. It is the era when the adherents of Islam can actualize this prediction of the Prophet Muhammad:

No house on earth – big or small – will remain but God’s word will have entered into it.

(Musnad Ahmad)

For this prediction to actualize, several things were required – the printing press, media, technology – which never existed back then. God in advance told His Prophet that an age would come and in this age it would be required of the believers to convey the message of the Creator to all people. In earlier times, such resources did not exist as would help in the performance of this task. But, when humans came to possess all resources and technology, those who gave the political interpretation of Islam, jeopardized all opportunities by making Islam a system of imposition.

Message of the Quran

It is time we demolish the terrorist ideology through a counter ideology. God has revealed a book through the Prophet Muhammad. The text of this Book is completely preserved. God ushered in an era which brought the printing press, so that the Quran gets preserved. This is because God desires that every human being must know why he was created. According to the Quran, all people born throughout history would be gathered on the Day of Judgement. God does not want people to question Him: ‘You created us, but we were unaware of the creation plan of our existence.’ It was for this reason that Islam was sent. Islam is not meant for any particular community. It was to let a person know his eternal future and what he should do in the present life so that he can find success in the life Hereafter.

According to the Quran, humans have been created as eternal beings. What is this eternity? According to a news-report Stephen Hawking recently said that humans cannot stay on the planet earth for long and should develop civilization on another planet. (Stephen Hawking: space travel will save mankind and we should colonise other planets, The Independent, February 21, 2015) This is a romantic idea, but it conveys an important message. Humans do not have the power to travel to a planet and make it green and habitable like the earth. However, this idea conveys the message that every human being wants to have an eternal life. Now when the earth’s life support system is deteriorating, then every person’s desire for eternity speaks out: ‘I need another habitat.’ This is a natural desire of everyone. God has indeed created another habitat for people. According to the Quran, this world has a pair – one is the present world where we live temporarily and the other is the world where we shall live for eternity. This is the central message of the Quran.

In the earlier times, a framework to understand this idea was not available. But, modern science for the first time provided such a framework to make this message understandable for us. For example, according to a verse in the Quran:

Do not those who deny the truth see that the heavens and the earth were joined together and that We then split them asunder? (21:30)

Only after the theory of the Big Bang was propounded in the twentieth century, it became clear what this verse actually meant. Philosophers used to earlier consider this world eternal – it had existed from eternity and would continue till eternity. There was no place for God in this concept. However, the Big Bang theory established that this world has a beginning: it came into existence about 13 billion years ago. So, if there is a beginning, there must also be a beginner. This scientific discovery helped uncover the truth about the existence of a Beginner.

Modern civilization, therefore, is a supporting civilization because it provided the data and the medium, using which we can with ease spread the message of God to people. All means and opportunities are available to us, the only condition being that we must not be violent. We can then avail of the media and spread the peaceful message of Islam to the world.

May God enable us to understand this need of every human being and help us present the message of God to the world!