AfricanBluebird wrote:Yasser. This isn't about Islam or the Holy Quran though is it? We can debate all day the context of the text but most people don't care. The scriptures are being used to justify terrorist activities... Of that there is no doubt.
What this is about is extremists and the ability of those extremists to radicalise people online. We know the work that Muslim communities and Mosques do to promote peace and eradicate hate speech. But that doesn't stop people being radicalised online and linking with other radicals.
We have not got a strategy to stop that. Of course excluding people from the country won't help when extremists have a link directly into peoples living room.
What we must not do though is to credit Islam these terrorists activities... That plays into the hands of the extremists who want a holy war and the right wing hate groups that use situations like this to promote division and its right wing agenda.
AfricanBluebird a late reply but I'm hard pressed for time....
I mostly agree with your sentiments above and I rarely post on here (40 posts in 5 years) but sometimes when you see some of the nonsense and hate speech posted( e.g. above) by people who know nothing about Islam, with some trying their level best to exploit a horrific tragedy to push their extremist views and stir up hatred then, occasionally, you need to respond - NOT for the sake of the idiot pushing his agenda but for the innocent readers who might believe half the constant drip, drip, drip of rubbish and half-truths they see.
I also know that they usually don't even bother to read the counter argument (as evidenced by the stupidity of their responses and follow up questions) and I realise that it becomes a matter of scoring points in front their followers/friends and "winning" rather than educating themselves about Islam and then re-adjusting their viewpoints.
As I say I constantly, if I want to learn about Protestantism I would speak to ordinary practicing Protestants, I would ask/read Protestant scholars/blogs I would ask THEM about THEIR religion I would not go to , for example, a hard line member of the IRA !! Likewise don't ask about Islam from BF/EDL/NF etc
Within Islam - we have a very, very long history of scholarly literature and debate and differences but there is an orthodoxy which most conform to/with. There are many old valuable books from centuries ago here in the UK (sorry, but they were stolen along with other artefacts during the colonial days) in various universities/museums. Exeter University has a very good reputation for it's Islamic Studies department and they give a much more informed, non-politicised and more correct view of Islam than you get on TV/media.
I repeat the Holy Quran was revealed piece-meal (spread bit by bit) over 23 years mostly in response to specific incidents. It has many thousands of verses in it, it is easy to take a single verse out of context and mistranslate it into english and confuse people.
There is an also a lot of ignorance amongst Muslims, yes Muslims, about Islam. Daesh etc do exactly what the EDL et al do here in that they mis-interpret, they mis-represent - they play on the minds of the ignorant, the ill-informed, the angry, the misfit, the troubled. They act almost exactly as a gang, a surrogate family.
I've added a link again for the view on Jizyah and how it was applied over a thousand years ago - the link forgets to mention that Muslims have to pay Zakat (a poor tax) every year, but it's a good read and is based on Islamic sources - it's not a 30 second Big Mac answer but it can't be - read all 2 pages including the very bottom and see how far Islam is from the Islam presented by Daesh or by NF/EDL/BF et al.
https://discover-the-truth.com/2016/06/ ... ut-jizyah/ Finally AfrianBluebird as regards radicalisation of Muslim youth, it's a difficult one to answer and needs study and time. It needs many things I would imagine, amongst them partly it needs a more sensible, more informed and balanced media, less sensationalist - but that is never going to happen.
We have to be aware that for many people from ethnic minority backgrounds (not just Muslims) brought up HERE in the UK there is an identity issue, a sense of belonging, a sense of worth - for example from school when I was younger you would think that the world history was only a few hundred years old and is ALL European!! This gives some a sense of worthlessness, an inferiority complex, not belonging, frustration..... obviously each child's personal history/personality will reduce or add to this and also the parents are very important in instilling a sense of self worth. Muslim parents, as we're talking about Muslims, have to make their kids aware of the magnificent history of Islam - the contribution to Mathematics, Astronomy, Medicine, Science etc. The kids have to be told they can achieve anything as they see the world differently from adults. There are a lot of people out there demonising Islam/Muslims, they will see/feel this and your kids may not be able to brush it off like a mature confident adult would. This allied with good role models in their lives, makes them much less vulnerable to grooming (radicalising is essentially the same process).
Also again since we're talking about Muslims, teach them their religion or at least give them a decent grounding then they will not fall for the daesh/extremist lines. As Muslim parents you cannot NOT teach your kids about Islam all their lives and then expect them to learn of it in a way or from a source you're happy with or over which you have no control.