It isn’t very easy to live as Muslim these days. With Mas Selamat, alleged head of the Singapore branch of Jemaah Islamiyah (some notorious group who claims to be fighting for Islam but as a matter of fact, against it when it carries out acts of violence, which is not allowed in Islam) gone missing after escaping from detention on 27th February 2008, I started to feel a little discomfort –uneasy would perhaps be a better word.This may sound like some old news but let us grasp the fact that one man represents thousands of symbols. By joining the circle of Jemaah Islamiyah, anyone has actually created a mindset of Jihad and sadly, the term of Jihad is often to be misinterpreted by most people who thought it as some kind of a holy war that promotes bloodsheds among the infidels of Islam –and as a Muslim, I say it is untrue. Jihad has a deeper meaning.
I thought life was getting easier to cope as days passed by as I went about sleeping at home, immobile from out of town most of the time and continuing my daily routine of going to the internet everyday to read some articles and so on.
But it wasn’t so unlucky until recently.
The action
of the politician Geert Wilders is terribly disturbing, not to mention creating
an uproar among the people in the world especially the Muslims. The film entitled Fitna, made by the abovementioned politician (see his picture on the left), is fraught of the verses of the Holy Qur’an states that Islam is a religion that practices violence and bloodshed.I wasn’t quite happy about it along with the rest of the world who sees Islam as a religion of peace and love.
It is not about my own perception here –it is about the fact, for you could find people who understand Islam would reveal that it is actually a religion of peace.
Islam does not promote violence; it enjoins peace and love among people despite of differe
nces. While Geert used verses of the Qur’an that encourage Muslims to spread discord and endless bloodshed in the society as a mean of propaganda, he has yet to study the Qur’an itself; for there are verses which encourage Muslims to create concord and NOT the contrary.Killing is an act of sin in Islam which is even said in the Qur’an that goes;
‘…if someone kills another person –unless it is in retaliation for someone else or for causing corruption in the earth – it is as if he had murdered all mankind. And if anyone gives life to another person, it is as if he had given to all mankind…’ (Qur’an, 5:32)
And thus, God says that if anyone kills someone unjustly, it is as if he had murdered all mankind. To murder at least one person is totally opposed to the teaching of the Holy Qur’an.
It is truly upsetting that Geert Wilders had only shown a portion of the Qur’an but not all. If he does, he would then grasp an understanding that Islam does not practice violence at all. While there are scenes in Fitna that displays the gory committed by some irresponsible Muslims who so-called fight for Islam, such people are hypocrites. They are the terrorists who seek to create confusion and bloodshed by opening the door of pandemonium to set loose fear and hatred among people so that they could point their guns at each other and pull the triggers to summon death.
They, the terrorists, are the people who against Islam are similitude to a gang of nine men who planned to murder the Prophet by swearing in the name of God:
There was a gang of nine men in the city causing corruption in the land and not putting things right. They said, “Let us make an oath to one another by God that we will fall on him and his family in the night and then say to his protector; ‘We did not witness the destruction of his family and we are telling the truth.’” They hatched a plot and We hatched a plot while they were not aware. (Qur’an, 27: 48-50)
By killing the innocents, the terrorists are actually AGAINST the words of God and the Prophet who brought forth the religion of peace.
Quoted in Harun Yahya’s Islam Denounces Terrorism;
As this incident [the verse of Qur’an, 27: 48-50] described in the Qur’an reveals, the fact that people do things “in the name of God” or even swear in His name, in other words that they use the kind of language designed to show themselves as very religious, does not mean that what they do is in conformity with religion. On the contrary, what they do can be quite against the will of God and the morality of religion. The truth of the matter lies in their actions. If their actions are “causing corruption and not putting things right”, as the verse reveals, then you can be sure that these people cannot be truly religious, and that their aim is not to serve religion.
Therefore, do not be deceived by the people who claim to be fighting for Islam through violence especially the bands of Al-Qaeda, Jemaah Islamiyah and other associations of terrorism. Verily, they are corrupters of the world.
Yet, it is such a sorrow when the world starts to have a change of mindset towards Islam when one man commits an act of violence with the guise of someone carrying out Jihad. One man represents thousands of symbols –whenever the person beside you commits an action, he or she symbolises for his or her ancestors and descendants; the deeds s/he has committed renders others to look up at who s/he is.
One man commits a sin is more than enough to render others think negatively for he who he is –he will disgrace the name of his ancestors, his offspring, his family, his friends, the body of a group he is in such as schools, his race, his religion, his nation, the country he lives in and others.
It is not a religion or a symbol itself that makes it sardonic; it is the one who practices it. Because of one’s action, people will judge according to who he is –like what happened to Islam when a bunch of terrorists painted a bad name for it due to their actions.
Thus, the religion Islam has never been encouraging Muslims to perform violence –it is the people itself. How could Islam be such a religion that causes bloodsheds when there is a verse in the Qur’an that informs the Muslims to be good towards wrongdoers?
“A good action and a bad action are not the same. Repel the bad with something better and, if there is enmity between you and someone else, he will be like a bosom friend.” (Qur’an, 41:34)“The repayment of a bad action is one equivalent to it. But if someone pardons and puts things right, his reward is with God. Certainly He does not love wrongdoers.” (Qur’an, 42:40)
In another verse, God described believers as; “those who give in times of both ease and hardship, those who control their rage and pardon other people –God loves the good-doers” (Qur’an, 3:134)
Therefore, what the film Fitna shows is a misleading propaganda that inflames hatred among people. If anyone wishes to learn more Islam, he or she should not accept what s/he hears or listens –s/he should study the Qur’an. Historians studied Islam and they said it is the religion of peace. The documentary entitled Islam Empire of Faith explains it all the history of Islam.
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