ASK MAULANA

All those who issue statements which, directly or indirectly, justify these acts will be taken to task in the Hereafter by God. Their crime becomes all the more serious when they distance their own children from violent activities, placing them in the safe havens of higher education, while justifying through the media the militant activities of the youths who will ultimately destroy themselves along with their innocent victims. Many different kinds of problems — political, economic, and national — now vitiate society. No social group can be entirely free of them. This being so, there is only one course to follow and that is peaceful effort for the attainment of one’s lawful goals. In no situation, and for no one, can violent struggle ever be lawful. As well as being the essence of Islamic teachings, this is what reason demands. How to put an end to the destructive gun and bomb culture? We can say with absolute certainty that if we opt to counter violence with violence, we shall never succeed. The clear proof of this is that, over the last 50 years, there has been an ongoing effort to counter terrorism with terrorism: had this been the right method, militancy would by now have been eliminated. The failure of this approach of counter-terrorism is a factual proof that it is not a solution to this problem. Obviously, a method which has shown no results whatsoever, even after a fifty-year struggle cannot be expected to succeed in future. The truth is that recourse to violence has become commonplace because of the overwhelming influence of a negative ideology. Therefore, nothing but a strong, positive ideology can solve this problem. This positive ideology advocates educational activism taking the place of violent activism. With continuous ideological effort, people should be convinced that no goal can be achieved through violence. Destruction may be achieved through violence, but not construction. It should be impressed upon the people, in the light of both history and ideology, that violence is only an ill-considered reaction. It is not the result of well-thought-out planning. No group or nation in human history has ever achieved any worthwhile success through violence; and it is certainly not possible, even today. o