The Religion of Peace

The Religion of Peace teachings, rather than that their behaviour being considered representative of Islam. If a Muslim or group of Muslims engages in violence, it is the individual action of that person or group. For such a person or group of persons it would be said, in the language of the Quran, that even though they claim to follow Islam, they have not accepted it from their hearts (49:14). Some people complain that by equating Islam with terrorism, large sections of the media want to give Islam a bad name. But here I will say that this is not the fault of the media, because Muslims themselves are spreading violence in various parts of the world in the name of Islam, which they themselves hail as ‘jihad’. In such a situation, the role of the media is nothing other than to report the Muslims’ actions in line with the claims of Muslims themselves. Had Muslims described their wars as being fought in support of their communal or national causes instead, the media would have attributed these wars to the communal or national causes of Muslims. But when Muslims wage these wars in the name of Islam, then, quitenaturally, the media will describe them as acts of ‘Islamic violence’. In actual fact, all the teachings of Islam are based on the principles of peace. 99 per cent of the verses of the Quran are, directly or indirectly, related to peace itself. There are also a few verses that are related to war, but the point to note here is that in Islam the status of peace is that of a general principle, and that of war an exception. From the Militant to the Non-Militant Age In the first half of the seventh century, when Islam emerged, almost the whole world was groaning under political coercion, ruled by a system of Absolute Imperialism. This coercive system had robbed people of almost every conceivable goodness. At that