Thursday, April 12, 2007

Misleading terror!


Blood, terror, mutilated bodies, young people blowing themselves up in public places!! It’s always difficult to believe that these things are happening in our country! In our country and in neighbouring ones. March 11 and April 10 in Morocco, April 11 in Algeria, and worries about possible similar attacks in Tunisia and Mauritania!! Those who commit this kind of crimes, whoever they are, and whatever their motives are, have set a new target now: what they call “the Islamic Maghreb”!! But which Islam are they talking about?? This utter horror can be done in the name of anything, except real Islam!

If they imagine they are waging a “holy” war, the Islam I know prohibits even the destruction of plants during war time!! Let alone innocent people!

The Islam I know prohibits killing women and children during war time!! So on what basis are they making random carnages?!

The Islam I know doesn’t give the right to anyone of us to question the faith of any other Muslim! So how dare they accuse normal citizens whom they don’t even know of being apostates and give themselves the right to judge them??!!!

The Islam I know prohibits suicide!!

The Islam I know orders us not to spread fear among people, even while joking!! So who gave them the right to spread terror in the whole world??!

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

I totally agree with you Kaoutar, but this is terrorism...It can never be explained as it has nothing to do with religion, faith, values or principles...It's mostly about fear, pain and tears, no matter what the so-called "motives" are..

Anonymous said...

Merci pour ce post Kaoutar, si seulement je pouvais en faire de grandes affiches et les plaquarder à la vue de tous, surtout des peuples non musulmans qui suivent tout ça avec peur et étonnement! Comment leur expliquer que l'islam ce n'est pas ça? Comment leur faire comprendre que ces pratiques sont poussées par la folie et non par l'application de preceptes religieux? En plus des conséquences qu'ont connait, ces gens nous font du mal...un autre mal qui ne se matérialise ni par le sang ni par les dégats matériels qu'ils occasionnent...les médias occidentaux en font leurs principaux titres...ces gens sèment le trouble dans les esprits et donne une image catastrophique de notre religion de paix et de respect...mais allez leur expliquer...

Anonymous said...

You are definitely right Kaoutar in voicing your indignation about these outrageous events, that for sure call into question a bunch of things. Well , it is obviously clear now that Moroccans live in different Morocco(s). Muslims have diffrent conceptions of Islam and unfortunately some help foster a very negative perception about Islam by perpetraiting such atrocious acts. But I guess that we should not only question the ligitimacy of their acts but also try earnestly to understand the reasons that made them adhere to such a violent "discourse" that promotes a perverted vison of islam. "la vérité est ailleurs" I think. Those suicide bombers are not the only ones to blame. These atrocious and incomprehensible acts of free terror call the very tenets of how we (all moroccans) view Islam and the country we dream of.

Anonymous said...

I join my voice to yours in denouncing these acts and try to find a way to help make these dark times shadowing our lives, our countries and even what we hold sacred i.e our religion. As it was stated pure terorist acts cannot be subjected to reason nor can the motives of the ones executing them be explained. This is to say plain and simple that terorist acts cannot be justified. Does this mean there's nothing to do to fight it? Of course not. We all can take part in fighting it. In my opinion terorism such as the one spreading in our country can be fought on two levels. The first one belongs to government policy in implementing a social and economic plan to fight poverty for in spite of all that can be said the people carrying the explosives and detonating themeselves come from very very poor neighborhoods. It may be not the only reason but poverty is among what make these young people sensitive and open the extremist theories and desperate behaviors. The second level belongs to us all and its the ideological one. We ha ve to fight in every way we can the ideology that al qaida and al jazira and the likes are spreading in the moslim world. It is our duty to take every opportunity we may have to speak or express ourselves to counterattack this ideology of darkness.

Kaoutar said...

Selma >>> yes but is it definitely not an inevitable evil!!!

Lotfi >>> Ces événements ont même influé nos idées à nous musulmans, let alone les non musulmans ! Et c’est là le grand danger je pense.

Mr S. >>> Those young people who blow themselves up are not the only ones to blame because they are part of larger systems + they usually come from very disadvantaged backgrounds. But as understanding and empathizing as we might be, there's nothing that could legitimize what they do...

Fouad >>> I agree on the fact that fighting terrorism should take place on both socio-economic and ideological levels. I also agree that Al Qaida (if such an entity does exist) does spread an ideology of terror, but would we go as far as stating that Al Jazeera holds an equal share of responsibility in spreading such ideologies??

Anonymous said...

Oui Kaoutar, mais je veux dire par là qu'il devrait être tout de même plus évident pour des musulmans, qui ont baigné dans l'Islam, de faire la part des choses. Les autres n'ont pas le bagage necessaire pour le faire,souvent la seule chose qu'ils ont ce sont les images de ces actes largement relayées par les médias, et souvent mal analysées et expliquées. En plus des conséquences "internes" qu'ont connait et qui bien sur sont dangereuses, c'est également ce qui est exaspérant...

Kaoutar said...

Lotfi >>> Je suis d'accord. En plus des images diffusées par les médias, j'ajouterais les milliers de publications traitant de la culture arabo-musulmane d'un point de vue qui n'est pas vraiment "le notre". This is what a friend of mine once described as a totally unbalanced war we're facing with Amazon (the books and CDs online purchase company).

Anonymous said...

Kawtar, Lotfi >>> Ces événements ont même influé nos idées à nous musulmans, let alone les non musulmans ! Et c’est là le grand danger je pense.
Yes, that's the most dangerous part of it. let us not think of the impact on the easily influenced minds of adults, but mainly on those of the growing children, the teanagers in our society who are still in a stage of developping their concepts! what beliefs would they have, what conclusions would they draw from such acts, what image of moroccan muslims are we giving them via our own media.....I was watching the news with my little nephews around, and the question I got from them is : why are these persons killing themeselves and others with them??? so simple question, yet so difficult to answer, if We, ourselves, can't understand why? how can we explain to others why? and how can we present the situation to the mind of a small child in a way not to harm his/her peaceful and innocent world, not yet grown up to undersand what's happening, not yet fully mature to argue and discuss with.
I think we are in a big miss, our national identity is being damaged, our religious integrity is being attacked, and our basic values and principles are being distorted Allah Yahfad Wa Khlass...
Now, it is no more a question of the image the western world has of us, but about "WE"
What can we do, we citizens, to avoid the worst?

So, yes I also agree that fighting against terrorism should take place on socio-economic and ideological levels, with a focus on this latter ! I can only recall the verset from our holly coran about: لا يغير الله ما بقوم حتى يغيروا ما بأنفسهم, صدق الله العظيم,
so until we make change happen by reviewing our behaviours, opinions and until we reach the stage we establish a balance between our deeds and our beliefs, until we succeed to be true and best representatives of Islam at all levels, we can then help to give the positive image we all aspire to

So far, I can fully understand that western people have misconceptions about islam and muslims due to the differences in language, culture, relgion, but also due to the massive communication war initiated on the other side against us, and the lack of objective media and purposeful communication efforts from our side.....still I can never be as understandable when our national brothers and sisters are involved;((