Islamic terrorism is Islamic

Friday, October 15, 2004

By Ali Sina

Can we drop the 'Islamic terror' tag and call it only terrorism? Lord Carey, the former Archbishop of Canterbury thinks so.

“Drop 'Islamic terror' tag” said Carey in BBC Radio 4 on 29 September 2004. “The term Islamic should be dropped when referring to terrorists in a bid to deprive a terrorist of his religious legitimacy and to foster better relations between the West and Islam,” Lord Carey stated. “It would also send a clear message” added Carey, “to the average Muslim that they were not being blamed for terrorist attacks.” "He wants religious justification for his evil deeds, and we shouldn't give it to him," Lord Carey said.

Carey also talked about building bridges by helping “the average Muslim to understand that we are not blaming Islam for this. We're blaming that tiny, tiny minority of people who are using Islam as a weapon to get their own back against the West and to undermine all we're trying to do." He also reiterated his call for Muslims to denounce terrorism more often."Terrorists are very evil people and I want to hear Muslims say that more and more," he said.

However, terrorism is not a common crime. It is a crime motivated by an ideology. Islamic terrorism is a crime of faith. The Muslim terrorists are Islamic to the core. To them this is a religious war. They read the Qur’an, get excited and kill people while shouting, “Allah is great.”The Muslim terrorist is a devout Muslim who has hearkened to the call of his Prophet and has risen to do Jihad. Jihad is obligatory on all able-bodied Muslims. It is a pillar of Islam and its importance is second only to prayers.

The Muslim terrorist does not seek legitimacy from his victims. He gets his legitimacy from his holy book the Qur’an. Talks like Carey’s only show how little westerners know about Islam. The problem is that they continue to judge Islam according to their own perspective and value systems, which is very much different from those of Islam.

It is this lack of understanding, this ignorance of Islam that allows Islam to proliferate in the West and provide a fertile ground for the expansion of Islamic terrorism right under the nose of the westerners.

The next mistake of Lord Carey is in his desire to “build bridges” between Islam and the West. This concept is so naïve that I can only compare it with the foolish hope of a sheep in fostering friendship with the wolf.

What does the “average Muslim” mean? Is Carey talking about the Muslims who are not too Islamic and do not practice Islam? We have either Muslims or non-Muslims. If one is a Muslim one believes in everything Muhammad said including Jihad. The “average Muslim” can’t denounce Jihad because that would be going against the teachings of Muhammad. Why are there no marches in Islamic countries denouncing terrorism? Muslims are after all very excitable people and all it takes to bring them out into the streets shouting hysterically at the “enemies of Islam” is a fatwa. The reason there are no such demonstrations and fatwas is because they would be un-Islamic. No Mullah could issue a decree that would go against the explicit teachings of the Qur’an.


In only one Islamic country people poured into the streets shouting, “Death to the terrorists,” that was in Iran after 9/11. The reason is that the majority of Iranians, after a quarter of century of "close encounter" with Islam, are no longer “true believer” Muslims.

The truth is that Islamic terrorism is as much Islamic as are Hajj, fasting or prayer. In fact Jihad is even more important than Hajj. Unfortunately, you won’t have Muslims denouncing terrorism unless you take Islam away from them.

The final lesson in this story is that the westerners know nothing about Islam. Lord Carey is still reluctant to blame Islam and blames only a "tiny, tiny minority" for Islamic terrorism. This ignorance (said descriptively not pejoratively) is what will bring them to their doom. The only way they can confront the threat of terrorism is to confront the ideology behind it and destroy the belief system that regards terror as a means of achieving God's pleasure. We can't praise a religion that prescribes terror and then expect its followers not to practice it. Islam must be abolished. The later we come to accept this fact, the more lives will be lost.


Do not sugarcoat your speeches. Do not tell Muslims that their religion is peaceful but is hijacked by terrorists. This is a blatant lie. Tell them in their face that their religion is evil and they must leave it or leave your lands.

Islam is an avowed enemy of democracy of freedom of human rights of your constitution of our country and of you. You will not have peace until you fight it and eliminate it.