Islam vs. Jihad
The 14th of July 1789 marked an important step towards democracy and civil rights during the French Revolution. The French have celebrated it until today with fireworks and festivity throughout the French territory. However, from this moment on, this day will not be remembered with such joy by most people anymore. Yesterday's terrorist attack in Nice has so far taken 84 lives of people who were only celebrating a historical victory against abuse of power and social and civil progress.
Abdallah Azzam was a Palestinian jihadist who once defined jihad as a defensive military battle in order to achieve freedom of the muslim people. He is considered the father of jihad and was one of the founders of the terrorist group Al Qaeda. For him, jihad should be an individual obligation for every muslim (fard `ayn).
When Azzam says that Jihad is a defensive battle, I believe he is talking against the West and the non- muslims. Even though I have to agree that the Occident is no victim when it comes to the Middle East, there is no justification for a payback in such a violent way. All of the trouble, deaths, brutalities, torture that were caused due to conflicts of interest and ambitions by the West are indeed terrible and should be taken more into consideration when we talk about international politics- or interventions. The war on terror, the fall of Sadam Hussein, the intervention of 2009, Sykes Picot, Hussein-McMahon treaty were all big mistakes following stupid colonialist thoughts and for those I am sincerely sorry.
However, what bothers me the most on Azzam's sayings and thoughts about Jihadism, is when people like him make it look as if jihad or attacks are the Muslims´ fault . Islam is a religion like catholicism or any other and it is sometimes misinterpreted by groups that try to justify terrorist acts in its name. This is a disrespect towards muslims all over the world and should not even be considered a part of the real Islam.
A few days ago during a seminar, we were shown a website that aims at inviting people to Jihad, most specifically, the Islamic State and I was scared. The way that extremely brutal violence is shown as something normal is scary and despicable. There, you can watch executions on live stream, read about stories of people that died "for religion" and also see pictures and read information about people from the West that were killed brutally by the terrorist group. As you scroll down a little bit, you see a big stripe written " EXECUTED" as if it was some kind of a prize winning victory. This is not religion nor Islam, it is sickness.
The problem about all of this are the causes that it originates on the West. The more terrorist attacks occur, the more attention politicians such as Donald Trump, Marine Le Pen and groups such as Pegida get, and the more oppression against muslims in the West happen. This is a vicious circle and is what they want. Sad as it is, people are starting to agree and march into a deep dark world of religious intolerance against others that have nothing to do with such horrible acts. Policies such as banning muslims from the United States or Germany are so discriminatory and so generalising that we should start to wonder about what kind of "free world" we actually live in.
Our task now is only to condemn attacks such as the one that happened in Nice and raise our voices against the real attackers, not an entire community. They are victims just like us, are as scared as we are, and they are praying for the souls of those 84 lives that were brutally taken just like we should be doing right now.