Mainstream Muslims, particularly religious researchers, are inclined to justify every terrorist attack by extremist groups in Europe and America.
They harshly blame Western countries, their politics and plots against the Arab and Muslim world — such as the situation in Palestine, Iraq and Afghanistan — for encouraging terrorism.
They forget what they are always proclaiming — that these terrorist groups do not represent Islam, and that the hands behind these groups are Arab and Western intelligence agencies.
Such justification, which is popular in our media, is used to try and reduce the horror caused by the terrorist crimes, by portraying them as a form of jihad.
Actually, no one really knows what the Islamists are defending. Are they defending freedom of belief, the rights of minorities, freedom of the press, and/or freedom of worship? And what are the rights they want granted to Muslims in the West? Are they the same rights that Muslims grant to non-Muslims living in Islamic countries?
Is it right to consider a crime an honourable act when it is committed in reaction to an aggression from the other side — without knowing the details of the conflict or the situation of the victims?
This way of thinking harms the Arab countries themselves. Some justify the intervention in Syria because of their sectarian inclination, seeing it as revenge for Bahrain. As a result, Shia and Sunni mosques have become targets of attack.
Suicide attacks and bombings have become means of expression in some cities and neighbourhoods in Iraq and Lebanon, used in response to what the other side in the conflict does. Such actions have become a way to retaliate against oppressive groups.
Why not consider this vicious cycle as something wrong?
Is it reasonable to have such chaotic violence everywhere as a justified reaction to acts of violence perpetrated by another country or a group?
There are legal, political and financial measures that can be taken — especially in the developed countries — in response to violence, instead of answering violence with violence.
This way of responding is the most effective in drawing public support and persuading enemies and opponents.
In this context, there is a group that reminds Westerners of terrorist acts carried out by Christians in America and Europe, although there is a big difference between these acts and the terrorist attacks we witness nowadays.
Of course, no one has the right to force the followers of any religion to apologise. However, there is a big challenge here represented by how easily Muslims living in the West resort to violence. They even direct violence at each other in the Arab and Muslim world, as is seen today in many countries.
Terrorist attacks by non-Muslims are few in number compared to attacks by Muslim Arab youth, whether in Arab countries or in the West. Even in the wealthy Gulf countries where there is no harsh political persecution, the youth provide financial and psychological support to Al Qaeda and Islamic State plots.
There is also a big difference between the Islamist political parties and allied groups in Pakistan and groups in India. And there are poor and oppressed people in South and Central America who carry a deep hatred for the US in their hearts, yet they do not carry out violent acts in New York or Los Angeles.
There are also Jews who are greatly supportive of the US, Israel and Europe who could be the right hand for Mossad and supporters of Zionism, but they do not take revenge against Arab Muslims in Israel or form local or national armed groups carrying black flags with the Star of David and some Hebrew words and mottos, seeking to discipline any person or country that offends Jews or attacks synagogues.
We really need to remove any justification of terrorism under any pretext from our cultural and religious discourse and our media. The terrorist groups that kill innocent people in Europe and America are the same that kill people in Muslim and Arab countries. Such killers should not be allowed to claim that they are bringing justice to Muslims, no matter how just their cause appears to be at a time when the foreign world is oppressing us.
Arab Muslims will become stronger internationally if they take the initiative and dry up all sources of political support and religious sympathy for terrorists. This will happen when they turn against acts of violence, regardless of the justifications terrorists give.
The author is a researcher and writer
