What’s wrong with Islam?

March/April 2006

BEIRUT: A suicide bomber on Tuesday killed 27 innocent Iraqi shoppers at a crowded market. The news was broadcast on most TVs across the Arab region as people went around with their lives as normal.

But when terrorists blew up one of the Shiite shrines without causing any civilian losses on Wednesday, the Shiites in Iraq and most of the region went on frenzy as they took to the streets. Protestors retaliated against Sunni mosques burning down a couple of them and leading to the killing of 10 believed to be non-Iraqi Sunnis in Basra.

Now what message would such a behavior send? That Iraqi Muslims care for a divine construction more than they care for human lives? Apparently they do.

To further elaborate this point, check out how, over the past few weeks, scores of angry Muslims protested what they believe were blasphemous cartoons depicting the prophet of Islam published in a Danish newspaper. These demonstrations resulted in a dozen dead protestors in Pakistan and another dozen dead in Libya after confrontations with security forces.

As demonstrations intensified across the Muslim world, still no one protested human losses. All what counts, from the point of view of these furious mobs, was to "defend" what they believe to be divine. Again, the importance of the deity, divine construction and depictions, win over the importance of human lives.

Who wins importance over who sounds a complicated theological question indeed. While in Christianity the deity is believed to have sacrificed his life for the salvation of humanity, Islam seems to set this trend in reverse: People should die for the exultation of the deity. While the Christian god teaches tolerance, the Muslim god seeks revenge.

Is this true? Does Christianity teach benevolence while Islam teaches cruelty and barbarity?

The answer is certainly no. Islam, like other heavenly religions, is a faith of peace. From its book, the Quran, one can not but notice that all of Quran's surahs – except for one – start with the opening statement: In the Name of God, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. The exception surah, Bara'a also known as Tawba, was a call on the prophet to break out with the infidels. But the context of this exceptional surah was way too different than today's events.

So Muslims, especially the more devout among them who listen to Quran chanting or read the Quran on their own, are reminded all the time that God the almighty is gracious and merciful. In their compulsory daily prayers, Muslims recite the Quranic verses, also using God's peaceful language.

Even in their casual greeting, Muslims are famous for their "peace be upon you" line.

So what happened to all of this grace, mercy and peace? Why are people dying across the Muslim world while many Muslims look indifferent and busy demonstrating? Why is a lousy cartoon or a burnt down construction treated as being more valuable than human life?

The demonstrations, the killings and all of this short-tempered behavior do not represent Islam. Islam is merciful, tolerant and peaceful. Their Islam is vengeful, politically-motivated and inhumane.

Islam has more to it than the behavior of some of its lost children. To these everyone should pray that God bring them back to their senses and to the true religion, which like all other creeds whether divine or human, is a message of peace and goodwill.