The Religion of Peace

The Religion of Peace could only be that the believers could not use the many modern opportunities available to them, so much so that they remained completely unaware of them. These blunders were essentially of two kinds. One blunder was that which resulted from the political interpretation of Islam. This interpretation gave the wrong idea to Muslims that they could fully practice Islam only when they enforced all the laws of Islam. A result of this political mentality was that the Muslim public began fighting against their rulers in the hope that, after removing them, they could enforce the laws of the shariah. No good whatsoever emerged from this political innovation (bid‘ah). Rather, because of it, across the Muslim world the very same coercion and oppression that was put an end to after a long historical process was re-established as a result of the actions of Muslims themselves. The fact is that Islam desires from people the complete following of Islam, not the complete enforcement of Islam. The second blunder was that which started off in the contemporary period in the name of jihad. Muslims had some complaints of essentially a political and economic nature against others. These complaints could have been resolved through peaceful means. But emotionally-driven Muslim leaders at once picked up weapons in the name of jihad and started violent conflicts with other communities. As a result of this so-called jihad, Muslims not only wasted the opportunities that the modern world had made available, but they also had to suffer such devastation and destruction as they had never before faced in the whole of their long history. Because of the wrong leadership provided by Muslim leaders, Muslims lost the benefits of the 20th century. It now remains to be seen if they will make amends for these terrible blunders of theirs, or if they will lose the benefits of the 21st century as well, in just the same way as they lost those of the previous one.