In the aftermath of the recent terror attacks in London many people went to great pains to once again claim that a terror attack committed by a Muslim was not a true representation of Islam. This is amusing, as Muslims themselves cannot even agree on what is a correct representation of Islam.
This dangerous and insulting mantra is hollow and false and no matter how many times it is said it does not become true, despite what Gobles said that repeating a lie enough times makes it become true.
Let us say the truth once and for all; these attacks have everything to do with Islam. It may not be a form of Islam that everyone identifies with but it is a form of Islam that many people do identify with.
The reason why this mantra is dangerous is because it absolves the Muslim communities of the much needed soul searching and absolves them from dealing with the issues of extremism that plague their communities. In Britain alone it has been reported that 50,000 people downloaded Inspire, the English Al-Qaeda magazine. Handing the very people who can solve the problem an excuse not to face their problems leaves everyone else to clean up their mess.
This mantra is an insult to our intelligence. Why is it that every intellectually honest person who looks at the whole picture can see almost every country dealing with an Islamic terrorist issue at some level or another? If there was an attack once every 20 years we might agree with these people that this is an aberration and nothing to do with Islam. However, every single day across the world innocent people are killed or maimed and losing loved ones in the name of this religion. This is no longer an aberration that can be swept away. When the same child in school continuously gets into fights with different children, it is undeniably obvious where the problem lies. The same applies here. The fact that most terrorists are Muslim should tell us that there is an internal problem within Islam that needs to be dealt with, and the Muslims are the only ones who can and must deal with this.
Ironically, the majority of the victims are Muslims. This fact is used by some Muslims as an argument that it has nothing to do with Islam. However, the response to this is that these are people who do not allow dissenters within their ranks and it has been declared many times that apostates are the first enemy before infidels.
The reason why this is to do with Islam is because the founders of radical Islam did not start with bin-Laden but much earlier with Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab, the founder of Wahabi Islam. The official religion of Saudi Arabia is Wahabi Islam, an oppressive form of Islam that replaced the traditional version in the Middle East in the 18th century. In the 1960’s, Saudi Arabia allowed and even funded the distribution of the teachings of the Muslim Brotherhood thinkers; Hassan al-Bana and Sayyid Qutb. The majority of Sunni preachers, the biggest denomination of Islam, are trained in Saudi Arabia. The waters from which Al-Qaeda, and its spawn ISIS, draw from are the same ones that are preached in Saudi Arabia. This is why it has everything to do with Islam. These people are inspired to commit attacks because of the same people whose works are the basis of the state religion in Saudi Arabia, the widest spread version of Islam in the world. In fact, it was said by a former senior cleric in Saudi Arabia that ISIS is a natural progression from Salafism.
If we are not willing to honestly acknowledge the source of the problem, we certainly will not be able to solve the problem.
It is time that those who squawk that this problem has nothing to do with Islam finally be quiet.