By Guppu’s Editor-in-chief Farhan Janjua who is also Regional Editor for Middle East at Future Challenges. Farhan wrote this opinion piece for FutureChallenges.org as was originally published here.

Photo: Re Inking Life

On the 10th anniversary of 9/11, I feel moved to write about what we felt back then and how these terrorist attacks have affected our all lives. Yes, 9/11! A major icon of our times that has changed the lives of countless thousands of people across the world.

I remember I was returning to my parents’ house in my home-town of Lahore in Pakistan when I first heard the awful news on TV. I was only 12 years old at the time and hadn’t a clue what on earth was going on. There was such a mixed response in the beginning. Alongside a widespread feeling of fear and anxiety, there was also much jubilation as many people, my own grandfather included, celebrated the attack and praised Osama Bin Laden as a hero.

You might find this shocking and hard to take, but yes this was the initial reaction of most of the people around me who actually believed this was some sort of victory of Muslims over the infidels! It was only later that we came to realize that this was a terror attack targeting the lives of thousands of innocent people. This perception changed our views, and ever since then we’ve condemned the incident.

As I say, the initial spontaneous response was a kind of jubilant celebration, but once the dust started to settle we got a clearer view. You have to remember that we didn’t have many private TV channels back then, just a couple of state-owned stations. The media response, however, was broadly similar to what we had been feeling on the ground. While many condemned and raged against the terror attacks and vowed to reclaim the religion in whose name the attacks had been committed, others persisted in maintaining that this was not our war but rather part of some bigger picture. Yet thus far nothing has emerged from this “bigger picture” than a load of conspiracy theories.

Just condemning the attacks was not enough. There then began the global war against terror initiated by the USA along with several of its allies. Pakistan is also an American ally, a fact which many people In Pakistan find deeply offensive to this very day.

Thus began the war in Afghanistan on the terror training networks. As the missiles rained down, a potent and poisonous brew was concocted out of threatening words like Taliban, extremists, Jihad, Muslims, sharia, hijab, burqa, and many others. The initial misconception of the events of 9/11 in this part of the world was exactly mirrored in the USA and developed countries as many people started blaming Muslims for what they believed was an attack on freedom and liberty and saw Islam as directly responsible for promoting violence, terrorism and extremism. Unsurprisingly, this onslaught outraged Muslims across the world because Muslims have been around for centuries and the vast majority of them are peace-loving people. A recent study that shows Muslims to be among the most patriotic people in America is only one piece of a large body of evidence in support of this claim.

Put bluntly, if Islam really did preach terrorism, the more than 1.6 billion Muslims living in the world would have created a hell of a lot more trouble!

Ever since there has been an on-going struggle to propagate the real teachings of Islam and refute the fake interpretations of those who attempt to hijack the religion for their own purposes. It has met with a reasonable degree of success, but challenges still remain, and Muslim communities in the West are still the frequent victims of discrimination and racism.

As I say, the war on terror has practically reshaped the world and the Middle East in particular. Ten years on, we commemorate the innocent lives lost in those tragic incidents. And we are right to do so. But we often forget the unsung victims of 9/11 and the war on terror. We forget the countless thousands of innocent lives lost in the war in Pakistan, Afghanistan and the killing fields of Iraq. Alone the death toll in the Pakistan army fighting this war is over 2000. On this day, we should remember and honor the lives of all the victims who lost their lives in this war.

Ten years on, the situation is quite different. I’d say it has changed the lives of many people. Changed their perceptions, and much more. After 10 years, many Americans seem to have shed as many misconceptions of Muslim communities as they have adopted. Many, however, still remember and can hardly forget what happened a decade ago. Meanwhile, the current trend among Muslim communities shows that they have become much more active in denouncing acts of terrorism and violence.

I don’t have any personal story about 9/11 to share, but I would like to say one important thing and that is that we Muslims should apologize for 9/11. Not because we’re guilty of the twin tower bombings, but because we never put enough effort into spreading the true and peaceful message of Islam. If we had, this could have gone quite some way to preempting the initial outrage directed at Muslims.

The lectureshop addressed many issues related to marital and single lives of Muslims. They included the issues which are often regarded as taboo in a society like Pakistan.

The event also clarified many misconceptions about treating women in Islam and openly rejected beating women citing the sunnah of Prophet Muhammad PBUH that he never raised his hand on any of his wives. Many other similar examples were also discussed including the possibility of having an argument between spouses.

Special thank to DiscoMaulvi for live tweeting the event.

A leading Islamic scholar has received a standing ovation from thousands of UK Muslims as he denounced terrorism and called for peace.

Wembley Arena in north-west London was a sea of colourful robes as an estimated 12,000 Muslims gathered to give their backing to a global declaration of peace.

Dr Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri, founder of the Minhaj-ul-Quran International (MQI) movement, was repeatedly applauded during a speech in which he said the “terrible” 9/11 attacks in the US had distorted perceptions of Islam over the past decade [..]

Read the full news entry here…

Photo: Radio Liberty

Guppu.Com | News Alert | Int’l Desk
Source/Credit: Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
By News Agencies | September 22, 2011

A French woman who wears the Islamic face veil, despite a nationwide ban, says she wants to run for president in next year’s elections in France [..]

Read full news report here . . .

Before you go on to misunderstand me and think I am pointing out to the RAW/Mossad/CIA elements, let me tell it very clearly, I very much acknowledge that the black sheep are from amongst ourselves and the notion that always the foreign hand is involved is absolutely not correct.

My text so far would seem that I am saying exactly the same thing but in different perspective, that different perspective is that I, as a practising Muslim do NOT own Taliban or extremists or terrorists who does this in the name of Islam. Why I am saying this, because the heinous crimes they do is enough to put them outside the pale of Islam and thus should not be considered Muslims.

Let’s analyse here who exactly is a Muslim; literally, a Muslim is a person who acquires peace by submitting their will to the one true Almighty God. Please don’t put the kalima argument here because we know just professing a kalima shahadah is not enough to be called as a Muslim/submitter and you actually have to submit to the will of God.

Concerning the history which author rightly put, but I disagree with that reference again. That is because comparing individual murders with the barbaric act of terrorism, that too in the name of Islam is not right. And their have been rebels from amongst the believers in almost every age who were kicked outside the pale of Islam and were labelled as Khawarijis. That’s the point, if you ask any believer, they will tell you that anyone who does such acts are Khawarij and outside the pale of Islam who attempted to hijack Islam and thus are not one of us. Same is my response because like you mentioned in your article, the number of barbaric crimes against humanity which included attacking school bus and a number of other terror attacks, we know their acts are against the teachings of Islam and Qur’an. How? Let me break it down for you:

1) They rebel against the state which is prohibited even if the state is Islamic for name sake only and even if the rulers are cruel or unjust(Ref: Aqeedah Tahawiyya)

2) Killing an innocent human being is prohibited.

3) Even in state of war, you can’t attack women, children, trees, and aged people.

4) They use the word Jihad for their worst inhuman crimes (which is not Jihad actually and sewer misuse of Islamic terminology)

5) They attempt to hijack the religion which has billions of peaceful adherents

6) They are not just maligning peaceful teachings of Islam, but are causing troubles to the peaceful Muslims across the world

and the list goes on…honestly it’s a long list and can’t put all of the reasons in this blog post here. Now all of the above reasons are enough to consider them Khawarij and outside of the pale of Islam. If you still want to think and call them “Muslims”, that’s your problem but you’ll be generalizing which no Muslim will accept as of course no Muslim would want Talibans to take over and represent the huge number of Muslims. I 100% agree to what you said about calling a spade a spade but calling would not just be enough. We HAVE to denounce and disown them. Only then will solve the problems. Remember, owning them and accepting them as Muslims would further escalate the Islamophobia.

If you happen to talk to just another person around you about this issue, most will tell you how blasphemous this community is! They would even tell you the things that you might have never heard. And when you ask their source of information, they will tell you that they heard this from some so called “Aashiq-e-Rasool” maulana saab.

I’d like to quote here my encounter with a casual, disco and bully kind of guy who started shouting that Ahmadies are worst then Hindus and they deserve to be persecuted. He maintained that the Ahmadiyya community receives aid in terms of large amount of money from the enemies like Jews and other Anti-Islamic forces. So apparently that guy was pissed and jealous on the alleged monetary aid to the community and not on the blasphemy.

I am not sure if that is true or not, but upon asking can you prove that and the guy started accusing me of being anti-Islamic and many such terms. He even said that he doubts that even I am Ahmadi. So there was no point of having further discussion with him.

You’ll find such people every now and then who will keep justifying the insane things and few even say that it is the duty of state to persecute all the Ahmadies or those who disbelieve the “end of Prophethood”. But the point is that killing people will give you the solution? Does the State or religion allows you to kill someone for his religious beliefs?

We know that in the lifetime of Prophet Muhammad PBUH, he even prayed for the opponents and those who were keen to kill or fight with him.

Another argument I’d like to give against the persecution of any religious community! Let’s say that we all believe that the Ahmadies are kaafir(disbelievers) and are out of the pale of Islam! Now if you want to know what Allah tells you how to treat the so called “Kaafirs” then go and read the Glorious Qur’an’s chapter Surah Al Kaafiroon! The explanation of it read:

O Prophet Muhammad SAW, tell them (the disbelievers) that you do not worship/follow what they worship! neither do they worship what you worship or follow! And you will never follow what they follow! Neither will they follow what you follow! So tell them that they enjoy their path and you stick to your path!

So I believe killing someone on religious grounds is NOT justified in any case! And if you believe you are the accurate and true Muslims and Ahmadies are not, they instead of killing them, why dont we invite them to what we call the true Islam? What are we afraid of? We are afraid that their tablighi jamaat might turn Muslims to the Ahmadiyya faith? Why are we afraid of that when we believe ourselves to be “true Muslims”. If they propagate their religion, we should propagate ours! Isn’t it justified?

Bombs destroy railway lines, industrial centers, hospitals, schools and places of worship. Huge buildings built at a huge cost and labor, are reduced to ashes. Old men and women, innocent children rot in underground cells while the youth is wrecked ruthlessly on war front….. Everyone is scared!!!

The tragedy has not come upon us suddenly. The situation has been brewing for quite some time. There have been constant warnings that along with the refugees from Afghanistan enemy agents might be streaming into Pakistan. The rising tide of violence clearly indicates that we did not pay due heed to the timely warnings and did not take requisite precautionary measures to forestall the tragedy and tighten the ring round the saboteurs.

Behind this unprecedented chain of violence is a deep conspiracy. Pakistan has been the mouthpiece of the entire Muslim world. it is certainly a citadel of Islam. Whenever and wherever the Muslims have a problem in any corner of the world, Pakistan speaks up in their defense loud and clear. Our unstinted support to the mujahedeen of Afghanistan is a glaring example of our principled stand. No wonder our enemies at home and abroad are making frantic effort for our destabilization as essential to the final over throw of Islamic resurgence.

Alhamdulillah….!!! Pakistan is certainly the strongest Muslim country of the world. Its people are sturdy and industrious and its technicians and artisans are esteemed everywhere.

Who are responsible for this ruthless massacre? Who are the people who have perpetrated the most grisly crimes?……………………………………… (To be continued)

PAKISTAN-BANGLADESH FRIENDSHIP – ZINDABAD!