Mumbai and the terrorists

As most of the world knows, Mumbai has been under a mindless terror attack for the past 4 days. All terrorist attacks are inhuman and cruel, most don't make any sense and the overall loss to all is far greater the attack itself. But this is not what this blog is all about - for an analysis on the Mumbai attack - watch CNN.

My blog is about the terrorists themselves. These young men and women who chose to do this very cowardly act and destroy thousands of lives in the bargain. Let it be very clear - ALL TERRORISTS ARE COWARDS- THEY HAVE NO RELIGION , NO FAITH AND NO GOD. To link any of these terror attacks to a particular religion is wrong, biased and unfair.

When the siege started in Mumbai, I thought that if we moderates do not do something about the extremists who have high jacked our religion then we have lost our collective conscience. I don't agree with that anymore. We have nothing in common with these guys. Yes they claim to follow "Islam" but their "Islam" and mine have nothing in common. Mine believes in peace, charity and justice. Theirs is war, bloodshed and murder. We do not follow the same set of beliefs and as far as I am concerned just because they want to take AK47s and say they are Muslim does not make them any part of it. I have as much in common with their ideology as I have with a Haitian voodoo priest.

Muslims around the world should not have to apologise every time some Islamic nut decided to commit a heinous act. It is unfair to the 1 billion people who follow the religion and the law of the land if they had to apologise for actions of few who in no way represent their thoughts. So linking this and other terror attacks to "Islam - a religion of terror", or to the "Muslim community"is a practice that hurts more than it helps. It marginalizes people and does not lead towards a more peaceful and cooperative world.

Muslims are like any other people. We work hard to bring home food and pay the rent, we wonder how to pay for university for our kids, we watch bad sitcoms on TV, shop at Walmart and eat at Tim Hortons. We also have other very similar traits with the rest of the population, some of us fight with our spouses, some cheat on them, some don't pay taxes, some sleep at work and some don't recycle. In effect we are no different from any other segment of population in the western world. Most of us are only "Muslim" because we were born into a Muslim family. A large portion of us cannot (or do not) read the Quran and an equally large portion of us have never been to a mosque. In this respect, we are probably more lax about our religion than our Christian counterparts. It does not mean we do not follow the religion - we do, but like the evolution of cultures, our way of religion has evolved as well.

However, among those who follow Islam, a very small population(probably less than 0.0o1%) follow an ideology that has nothing to do with foundlings of Islam - it is purely a political extension of someones own desires. These are the fundamentalists and their crazy "jihad".

While there is no doubt that the Muslim community needs to do more to put out the ever growing extremism in the religion - it should be noted that Muslims can do about as much as Catholics could do when the IRA was bombing London in the 70s, 80s and 90s. There is still a big gap between what is reasonable to achieve and what needs to be done.

For starters, most fundamentalist thought is brought about in isolated comm unites that live within other non-Islamic general populations - like the large Muslim community in the Brampton suburb of Toronto. It is not uncommon to see girls here wearing "hijabs" or men with beards (both visible signs of religion in Islam) - what is common is the communal lack of integration. They attend private Islamic schools, live, socialize and work mainly among themselves and for all general purposes are separated from mainstream society. It is within these communities that a very small line defines orthodoxy and fundamentalism. When you have not been given the right to individual thought and expression from cradle, you take the word of the "smartest" in the community - sadly in these cases, it is the Mullah.

I know there is a huge out cry for Muslims to cure the disease within the religion, bring back these rogue elements and end the fundamentalism that exists - but this is totally unreasonable. What can an average Muslim chap who works in an office do that would remove Uber-nut bin Laden from his path - not much! What can an average Muslim do to prevent others from joining his path - maybe a very little something- and this is help with integration. Integration dispels some of the prejudices and hatred. Integration brings about an understanding that is core to future peace.
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