ASK MAULANA

If the Muslim community embraces peace, cultivates tolerance and avoids being over-sensitive on trivial issues then the so-called ‘Islamophobic’ perception shall also disappear. What is wrong with Islam in the 21st century? In my opinion there is only one problem facing present-day Muslims– that is, their self-styled concept of jihad. All other issues of intolerance and extremism have branched out from their misconceptions about jihad. The most essential point for Muslims today is to know the importance of peace and to know that jihad is not needed in today’s age. The command for jihad, in terms of qital (war), is suspended. If in present times, we can achieve everything we want by peaceful methods, then why engage in qital or fighting? This is the basic problem that needs to be addressed. Trying to establish Islamic Shariah by force or through coercion is also an offshoot of this wrong concept of jihad. Muslims must throw away their arms in the oceans and work peacefully for constructive goals. Whenever Muslim countries are in crisis, why does Islamic fundamentalism flourish there immediately? Crisis in Muslim countries leads to flourishing of Islamic fundamentalism. This is because since the time the Palestinian issue gained prominence, Ikhwanul Muslimun (Muslim Brotherhood) has gained stronghold in Arab countries. The Muslim Brotherhood were initially against the West but later they also turned against their own Arab rulers and tried to dethrone them because they thought that these rulers were agents of the West. In order to destabilize the Arab rule, Muslim Brotherhood began confronting and clashing with the rulers. As a result, the Arab rulers became very sensitive towards Islamic movements, as they considered them to be a form of extremism or fundamentalism whose aim was to revolt and de-stabilize the existing rule. Is the concept of ‘religion’ to be blamed for the chaos in the world, or is it humans who are responsible? The source of chaos in the world is not religion. Its source is the misuse of freedom by human beings. God bestowed freedom upon mankind in order to put us to the test in this world. It is the misuse of this Godgiven freedom which creates all kinds of problems in society. Evil is not a part of creation. It is a result of misuse of freedom by man. o