Reflections on post-terror attack reactions

Also published in Daily Trust and here also in the same newspaper 

In the wake of every terror attack rightly or wrongly believed to have been carried out by a Muslim or some Muslims, a heated controversy over Islamic stance on violence usually ensues. This, by the way, happens especially when the attack is carried out in any of the major Western European countries, the United States, Canada and a few other countries elsewhere e.g. Australia, or when the attack targets their citizens or interests anywhere in the world.

While a terror attack in any of these countries attracts huge international media attention, which, in turn, triggers global condemnation and generates worldwide show of sympathy for the victims, a similar terror attack, or even a much more devastating terror attack, in Africa or some parts of Asia, for instance, doesn’t attract appropriate, let alone similar amount of international media coverage and show of empathy. Unfortunately, it’s as though the sanctity and value of people’s lives are nowadays determined by their respective countries’ socio-economic development and political influence on the world stage.

Besides, though there are some indoctrinated and brainwashed Muslim individuals who, out of sheer ignorance and misunderstanding of Islamic religion, carryout terror attacks under some ridiculous and absolutely unjustifiable pretexts, it’s quite obvious that the circumstances of many of such attacks aren’t actually as often explained in official narratives, after all. Instead, many, if not most, of such attacks bear the hallmarks of conspiracy. For instance, since the Sept 11, 2011 terror attacks in the United States, which triggered the US-led global war on terror, on the one hand, and the phenomenal escalation of global terrorism, on the other, there have been several documented, painstakingly thorough, independent, factual hence absolutely objective probes that exposed the conspiratorial dimension and dynamics of the attacks, and confirmed the involvement of some apparently influential elements in the US corridors of power and its various intelligence agencies. Likewise, many similar probes confirmed the involvement of some governments’ intelligence agencies in masterminding, facilitating or at least deliberately turning a blind eye to credible threats of impending terror attacks in different parts of the world including their own territories, for that matter. 

  

Anyway, most of the reactions and comments that trail every terror attack said to be conducted by a Muslim or some Muslims especially in one of the aforementioned ‘privileged’ countries or against their citizens elsewhere, are largely either hate-induced prejudiced sentiments byIslamophobics who simply hate Islam and Muslims, or subtle attempts to justify the attack under some silly pretexts by some uninformed and inconsiderate Muslims, or equally subtle criticisms against some Islamic values by some confused so-called liberal Muslims wallowing in self-inflicted inferiority complex. There are also moderate and objective reactions by the mainstream Muslim scholars, Muslim intellectuals, opinion leaders and the general public.

Starting with the Islamophobics, being non-Muslims in the first place, their reactions to a terror attack purportedly carried out by a Muslim(s) isn’t surprising. Besides, their motive and mission are clear enough, after all. It, therefore, remains the responsibility of Muslims to continuously refute their allegations against Islam and Muslims.

However, with regard to the few uniformed Muslims who seek to justify some acts of terror against some people, they simply betray their sheer ignorance of Islamic religion as revealed by their ridiculous semblance of arguments and pretexts.  Their narrow-minded opinions, therefore, shouldn’t be given any consideration, let alone judge Muslims accordingly.

Yet, the post-terror attack reactions of the so-called liberal Muslims are the most annoying, because while the former are largely uneducated, these so-called liberal Muslims are largely educated, albeit grossly deficient in Islamic scholarship. Also, having imbibed secular yardsticks for measuring the logic, acceptability or otherwise of things, they consciously or unconsciously seek to judge Islamic principles and values accordingly. Moreover, even when they want or need to know the Islamic stance on a particular issue, they end up imbibing ideas from some questionable books and articles written by some unqualified people or even quacks   masquerading as Muslim intellectuals. This is because they simply can’t read and/or understand the contents of the original sources of Islamic scholarship i.e. the noble Qur’an, the authentic Sunnah and the scholarly works of recognized Muslim jurists and scholars across the centuries.

This explains why when they criticize religious extremism they go to the extent of downplaying the positivity of some established Islamic commands, and trivializing the negativity of some established Islamic prohibitions. Besides, from their assertions one can easily realize how they take some particularly serious practices of transgression against Allah’s commands e.g. blasphemy, adultery, usury etc, quite lightly, as though they are more interested in impressing the Islamophobics. For instance, when many of them condemned the terror attack on homosexuals in the US state of Colorado recently, they subtly trivialized the evilness of sodomy; in fact, the most confused among them went to the extent of effectively casting doubt on Islamic prohibition of sodomy or its punishment in Islam.  

It’s unfortunate that, moderate and objective post-terror attack reactions, which the mainstream Islamic scholars maintain don’t attract appropriate media coverage, though, frankly speaking, many of the scholars don’t help matters either, for they don’t seem to be doing enough in this regard, anyway, thereby leaving millions of unsuspecting Muslims at the mercy of such so-called liberal Muslim intellectuals who simply mislead their unsuspecting audience in their quest for fame and other worldly benefits.