ISIS is an Islamic problem.
The problem of ISIS and Muslim Extremists is growing far out of proportion. Not a week goes by when there isn’t a terrorist attack somewhere in the world. On March 28th, the Park of Lahore in Pakistan was attacked by a suicide bomber, leaving 70 people dead and over a hundred injured; an Islamic State student bomber killed at least 41 people at a soccer stadium in Baghdad the day before; and everyone remembers the attacks on Brussels, Belgium on the 22nd of March, killing 28 and injuring over 300. These are just three attacks over the past week and a half, with deaths totaling in 139 people.
What I’ve come to learn is that a lot of Muslims refuse to acknowledge that these extremist groups are Muslim. There is a separation that the vast majority of Muslims, those who are far enough from the scenes of the crimes, are making.
But this can’t be the case.
We, as the community in large, must acknowledge that these extremists are coming from somewhere.
Yes, I realize how loaded this acknowledgment is. Terrorists arise from quite a few horrible social conditions, and that does include Western intervention. But pointing fingers away from ourselves isn’t going to solve anything. We, the community, need to see that these extremists exist because the extreme of this religion does, in fact, exist. For example, we can’t ignore that the Quran calls for the execution of apostates (4:89).
One way to stop Islamic extremism is to attack it at the grass-roots level.
I’m not talking about propaganda against the religion. No, that would be ridiculous. I mean a rejection of these fundamental extremes and intolerance. We must learn to adapt, and many of us have. First and second generation Muslims are already molding Islam so that it fits the cultural melding they have undergone. But this change has to be advocated at a larger level. We must see the problem and address it. By starting small, we can reach the larger populations of Islamic majority countries. We can show them that a reformation is possible, and sometimes necessary. Outdated laws in a contemporary society lash out in terrible ways, as Republicans have seen with their inability to let go of old traditions.
This is a religion of peace and brotherhood; there is a sense of camaraderie and benefaction. It speaks out against the murder or innocents, denial of rights, torture, and forced conversion. There are many positive aspects of Islam, illustrated here in this open letter to Baghdadi.
That being said, our laws aren’t perfect, and we, as a community, need to understand that they need to change. No longer can we just accept the fact that some countries mutilate people, or that marrying a 15 year old against her will is okay, or that apostates and homosexuals can be executed. These are the worst of the worst, I concede, but they exist because we allow them to exist. I know that the Quran should never be edited, and that its words are law. But I am telling all of you that it needs to be changed. Otherwise, we will fall too far behind to recover.
