Peace is not prevalent in the world as people the world over are acting intolerantly and indulging in acts of violence, saying, “Give us justice and peace will ensue.” But when people, ostensibly seeking justice, stoop to violence, peace can never prevail. Peace is always desirable for its own sake, and every other desirable state comes after peace, not along with it. When peace is the desired state, the maxim to be followed is: Ignore the problems, and avail the opportunities.

Once people become tolerant and obtain peace for its own sake, it opens up opportunities to strive for their ideals. Eventually, this leads to justice and other constructive ends.

This ideology of peace can counter the ideology of violence and is based on the original sources of Islam. The Prophet of Islam provides a great historical example in his negotiation of the Hudaybiyyah peace treaty by unilaterally accepting all the opponents’ conditions. While not receiving justice or rights, he gained a 10-year no-war pact. This gave him and his Companions an opportunity to work uninterruptedly on a constructive program. Using this peaceful non-political program, they were able to consolidate themselves so thoroughly that without waging war they acquired Makkah peacefully.

This example shows that Islam is a truly peaceful religion and the Islamic method is a completely peaceful method.

What can be done in the present alarming situation? What is the practical solution to the present state of affairs? There are two parts to the solution. Half the solution depends on the work of government agencies, with the remaining left to non-governmental organizations.

In every country, there are strict laws to curb violence and terrorism, but are of no avail unless enforced by governmental agencies. All those elements involved in heinous acts of terrorism must be punished in a fitting manner.

The second half of the task pertains to the re-engineering of the minds. This task has to be undertaken by non-government agencies. An entirely peaceful task, the re-engineering of people’s minds can be achieved only through education and positive training (that is called in Islam akhlaq or good character) which naturally includes a counter-ideology to violence. Once this is done, the ultimate peaceful result will be achieved through the combined efforts of both governments and reformers.

The common man in every community has a major role in this process. First is not to believe in rumours. One should not believe anything however genuine it sounds, until thoroughly enquired. This will remove misunderstandings prevalent on both sides. Historically, it is misunderstandings that have always led to violence and war.

The ideology of peace in Islam banishes the notion that there can be anything acceptable about terrorism. Islam is a religion unequivocally committed to peace and the Islamic method is equally so. By following the ideology of peace, each individual’s mind can be re-engineered, away from the culture of violence and closer to the culture of peace.

Source: Spirit of Islam December 2015

The ideology behind present-day terrorism is that Islam being a political system, it is the duty of all Muslims to establish Islamic rule in the world. This thinking was not prevalent during the time of Prophet Muhammad. It is a later innovation developed in the last few centuries by a handful of people. Having become widespread in the Muslim world today, it has led to the current violence. It has influenced many Muslims, especially the vulnerable youth. They have become obsessed with establishing the political rule of Islam, thinking it to be their ticket to Paradise. Failing to achieve this objective by peaceful methods, they resort to suicide bombing. The idea being that if we cannot eliminate the non-Islamic rule, then let us at least de-stabilize it and pave the way for Islamic rule.

Having studied Islam through its original sources—the Quran and Hadith— it can be said with certainty that this political interpretation of Islam is an innovation and the real Islam is based upon peace, compassion and tolerance.

Source: Spirit of Islam December 2015

The Quran tells us: “whoever killed a human being – except as a punishment for murder or for spreading corruption in the land – shall be regarded as having killed all mankind.” (5:32)

Killing someone is a very heinous act. It is legitimate only if someone becomes a definite danger to social peace. To kill someone without genuine justification is tantamount to the slaughter of the whole of humanity because such an action is a gross violation of respect for life, which, in turn, leads to the taking of human life becoming a seemingly easy affair.

From the Quranic verse quoted earlier, one can gauge the great importance that Islam gives to peace and security. Islam demands that if a single person is killed, the entire society must react as if it is not a single individual, but, rather, the whole of humanity, that has been slain.

Source: Spirit of Islam December 2015

There is no doubt that the terror attacks in different parts of the world are highly condemnable. People the world over are trying to find a solution to this menace. The authorities are trying to crush the terror menace through legal action; while the reformers are trying to curb it by engaging in condemnation. However, both of these methods are, apparently, proving to be ineffective. Then what is the solution?

According to my assessment, the present problem of terrorism is based on an ideology—the political interpretation of Islam—and an ideology cannot be countered through legal action or by mere condemnation. We have to develop a counter-ideology to overcome it.  

According to UNESCO, ‘Violence begins from the mind’, it has to, therefore, be uprooted from the mind itself. This I feel succinctly captures the very root cause of terrorism. Therefore, in order to eliminate this root cause we need to initiate our efforts by beginning from the right starting point–the re-engineering of the minds of individuals by taking them away from the culture of violence and bringing them closer to the culture of peace.

To explain the importance of the above, I would state two parallel examples from history. One of the American campaign against Communist Russia and the other of the American campaign against Saddam-led Iraq. While the US was successful in curbing the menace of Communist Russia, the same America failed to cope with the menace of Saddam-led Iraq. This is because America met the Russian challenge at an ideological level while it opted for military action against Saddam’s Iraq.

I believe that terrorism will persist in one form or another until the ideology of violence is countered with another ideology based on peace. The ideology behind present-day terrorism is that Islam being a political system, it is the duty of all Muslims to establish Islamic rule in the world. This thinking was not prevalent during the time of the Prophet Muhammad. It is a later innovation that was developed in the last few centuries by a handful of people. Having become widespread in the Muslim world today, it is leading to present-day violence. It has influenced many Muslims, especially the easily influenced youth, and they have become obsessed with trying to establish the political rule of Islam, thinking it to be their ticket to paradise. Failing to achieve this objective by the peaceful method, they have started resorting to suicide bombing. The idea being that if we cannot eliminate the non-Islamic rule, then let us at least de-stabilize it and pave the way for Islamic rule.

I have studied Islam through its original sources—the Quran and Hadith—and I can say that this political interpretation of Islam is an innovation and that real Islam is based upon peace, compassion, and tolerance.

Peace is not prevalent in the world as people the world over are acting intolerantly and indulging in acts of violence, saying, “Give us justice and peace will ensue.” But when people, ostensibly seeking justice, stoop to violence, peace can never prevail. Peace is always desirable for its own sake, and every other desirable state comes after peace, not along with it. So, the maxim I follow is: “Ignore the problems and avail of the opportunities.” 

Once people become tolerant and obtain peace for its own sake, it opens up opportunities, which enable people to strive for their ideals, eventually attaining justice and other constructive ends.

This is the ideology of peace which can counter the ideology of violence and it is based on the original sources of Islam. The Prophet of Islam provides a very clear example of this in his method of negotiating the Hudaybiyyah Peace treaty. In this treaty he unilaterally accepted all the conditions of his opponents, without receiving justice or his rights, to enter into a 10-year no-war pact. This gave him and his companions an opportunity to work uninterruptedly on a constructive programme. Using this peaceful non-political programme, they were able to consolidate themselves so thoroughly that without waging war, they acquired Makkah peacefully.

From this example of the Prophet Muhammad, we can understand that Islam is a completely peaceful religion and the Islamic method is a completely peaceful method.

Source: The Root Cause of Terrorism and its Solution