Kathianne
03-23-2016, 07:45 AM
Great op-ed in USA Today, by yes, a Muslim:
http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2016/03/22/radicalization-isil-islam-sacred-texts-literal-interpretation-column/81808560/
<section id="module-position-O5vHxjLBo-s" class="storytopbar-bucket story-headline-module story-story-headline-module" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22.4px;">The Quran's deadly role in inspiring Belgian slaughter: Column
</section><section id="module-position-O5vHxjLfahM" class="storytopbar-bucket priority-asset-module story-priority-asset-module" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22.4px;"></section>Nabeel Qureshi2:44 p.m. EDT March 22, 2016
Western recruits for jihad are inspired by the literal interpretation of Muslim sacred texts. This is what we must fight.
Americans awoke this morning to another terrorist attack (http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2016/03/22/explosions-rock-brussels-airport/82107254/) — this time in the <culink class="culinks" culang="en" href="http://curiyo.com/en/topic/Brussels Airport" title="" style="border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: dashed; cursor: help; z-index: 9000; display: inline !important; float: none !important; padding: 0px !important; margin: 0px !important; border-bottom-color: rgb(100, 98, 94) !important;">Brussels airport</culink> and subway. These attacks hit close to home. Many of us have flown through the Brussels airport, just as we have vacationed in Paris and visited San Bernardino. Once again images of the injured flood social media channels, reminding Americans of the ever-present reality that it could have been us. How is this happening? Why are people becoming radicalized, and so close to home? I am concerned how little we in the West understand why peaceful Muslims who live among us are drawn into radical Islam.
As a Muslim growing up in the United States, I was taught by my imams and the community around me that <culink class="culinks" culang="en" href="http://curiyo.com/en/topic/Peace in Islamic philosophy" title="" style="border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: dashed; cursor: help; z-index: 9000; display: inline !important; float: none !important; padding: 0px !important; margin: 0px !important; border-bottom-color: rgb(100, 98, 94) !important;">Islam is a religion of peace</culink>. My family modeled love for others and love for country, and not just by their words. My father served in the <culink class="culinks" culang="en" href="http://curiyo.com/en/topic/United States Navy" title="" style="border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: dashed; cursor: help; z-index: 9000; display: inline !important; float: none !important; padding: 0px !important; margin: 0px !important; border-bottom-color: rgb(100, 98, 94) !important;">U.S. Navy</culink> throughout my childhood, starting as a seaman and retiring as a lieutenant commander. I believed wholeheartedly a slogan often repeated at my mosque after 9/11: “The terrorists who hijacked the planes also hijacked Islam.”
Yet as I began to investigate the Quran and the traditions of Muhammad’s life for myself in college, I found to my genuine surprise that the pages of <culink class="culinks" culang="en" href="http://curiyo.com/en/topic/History of Islam" title="" style="border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: dashed; cursor: help; z-index: 9000; display: inline !important; float: none !important; padding: 0px !important; margin: 0px !important; border-bottom-color: rgb(100, 98, 94) !important;">Islamic history</culink> are filled with violence. How could I reconcile this with what I had always been taught about Islam?
In February 2015, the U.S. State Department Acting Spokesperson <culink class="culinks" culang="en" href="http://curiyo.com/en/topic/Marie Harf" title="" style="border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: dashed; cursor: help; z-index: 9000; display: inline !important; float: none !important; padding: 0px !important; margin: 0px !important; border-bottom-color: rgb(100, 98, 94) !important;">Marie Harf</culink>suggested that a “lack of opportunity for jobs (http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2015/02/17/state_dept_spokesperson_we_can_not_kill_our_way_ou t_of_this_war_must_address_root_causes_like_jobles sness.html)” might be a significant factor in radicalization and terrorism. Alternatively, Suraj Lakhani, a scholar of radicalization in Wales, suggested that the process is driven by religious concerns and a drive to bolster one’s personal identity. He implies (http://orca.cf.ac.uk/59779/1/sj.pdf) that young Muslims ought not be allowed to hear ISIL messages or interact with their recruiters.
Naturally, I agree that interacting with ISIL recruiters is a bad idea, but I believe what the recruiters themselves say sheds the most insight on the radicalization process. ISIL’s primary recruiting technique is not social or financial but theological. With frequent references to the highest sources of authority in Islam, the Quran and hadith (the collection of the sayings of the prophet Muhammad), ISIL enjoins upon Muslims their duty to fight against the enemies of Islam and to emigrate to the Islamic State once it has been established.
...
http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2016/03/22/radicalization-isil-islam-sacred-texts-literal-interpretation-column/81808560/
<section id="module-position-O5vHxjLBo-s" class="storytopbar-bucket story-headline-module story-story-headline-module" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22.4px;">The Quran's deadly role in inspiring Belgian slaughter: Column
</section><section id="module-position-O5vHxjLfahM" class="storytopbar-bucket priority-asset-module story-priority-asset-module" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22.4px;"></section>Nabeel Qureshi2:44 p.m. EDT March 22, 2016
Western recruits for jihad are inspired by the literal interpretation of Muslim sacred texts. This is what we must fight.
Americans awoke this morning to another terrorist attack (http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2016/03/22/explosions-rock-brussels-airport/82107254/) — this time in the <culink class="culinks" culang="en" href="http://curiyo.com/en/topic/Brussels Airport" title="" style="border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: dashed; cursor: help; z-index: 9000; display: inline !important; float: none !important; padding: 0px !important; margin: 0px !important; border-bottom-color: rgb(100, 98, 94) !important;">Brussels airport</culink> and subway. These attacks hit close to home. Many of us have flown through the Brussels airport, just as we have vacationed in Paris and visited San Bernardino. Once again images of the injured flood social media channels, reminding Americans of the ever-present reality that it could have been us. How is this happening? Why are people becoming radicalized, and so close to home? I am concerned how little we in the West understand why peaceful Muslims who live among us are drawn into radical Islam.
As a Muslim growing up in the United States, I was taught by my imams and the community around me that <culink class="culinks" culang="en" href="http://curiyo.com/en/topic/Peace in Islamic philosophy" title="" style="border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: dashed; cursor: help; z-index: 9000; display: inline !important; float: none !important; padding: 0px !important; margin: 0px !important; border-bottom-color: rgb(100, 98, 94) !important;">Islam is a religion of peace</culink>. My family modeled love for others and love for country, and not just by their words. My father served in the <culink class="culinks" culang="en" href="http://curiyo.com/en/topic/United States Navy" title="" style="border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: dashed; cursor: help; z-index: 9000; display: inline !important; float: none !important; padding: 0px !important; margin: 0px !important; border-bottom-color: rgb(100, 98, 94) !important;">U.S. Navy</culink> throughout my childhood, starting as a seaman and retiring as a lieutenant commander. I believed wholeheartedly a slogan often repeated at my mosque after 9/11: “The terrorists who hijacked the planes also hijacked Islam.”
Yet as I began to investigate the Quran and the traditions of Muhammad’s life for myself in college, I found to my genuine surprise that the pages of <culink class="culinks" culang="en" href="http://curiyo.com/en/topic/History of Islam" title="" style="border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: dashed; cursor: help; z-index: 9000; display: inline !important; float: none !important; padding: 0px !important; margin: 0px !important; border-bottom-color: rgb(100, 98, 94) !important;">Islamic history</culink> are filled with violence. How could I reconcile this with what I had always been taught about Islam?
In February 2015, the U.S. State Department Acting Spokesperson <culink class="culinks" culang="en" href="http://curiyo.com/en/topic/Marie Harf" title="" style="border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: dashed; cursor: help; z-index: 9000; display: inline !important; float: none !important; padding: 0px !important; margin: 0px !important; border-bottom-color: rgb(100, 98, 94) !important;">Marie Harf</culink>suggested that a “lack of opportunity for jobs (http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2015/02/17/state_dept_spokesperson_we_can_not_kill_our_way_ou t_of_this_war_must_address_root_causes_like_jobles sness.html)” might be a significant factor in radicalization and terrorism. Alternatively, Suraj Lakhani, a scholar of radicalization in Wales, suggested that the process is driven by religious concerns and a drive to bolster one’s personal identity. He implies (http://orca.cf.ac.uk/59779/1/sj.pdf) that young Muslims ought not be allowed to hear ISIL messages or interact with their recruiters.
Naturally, I agree that interacting with ISIL recruiters is a bad idea, but I believe what the recruiters themselves say sheds the most insight on the radicalization process. ISIL’s primary recruiting technique is not social or financial but theological. With frequent references to the highest sources of authority in Islam, the Quran and hadith (the collection of the sayings of the prophet Muhammad), ISIL enjoins upon Muslims their duty to fight against the enemies of Islam and to emigrate to the Islamic State once it has been established.
...