Islam

Islam means the religion of peace. A person following Islam will find that he or she is surrounded by noble teachings, the aim of which is to establish peace between man and Allah, the Creator of all;between man and man; and between man and the rest of Allah’s creation.How does such a religion deal with the issue of terrorism? And what does the word terrorist mean? Dictionaries will define a terrorist as one who systematically uses violence and intimidation to achieve political ends –or one who controls or forces others to do something by violence, fear or threats.All these definitions are covered by two words in the Holy Qur’an, the sacred book of Islam: Fitnah and Ikrâh.In the Holy Qur’an, God begins to deal with the issue of terrorism by teaching Muslims never to become terrorists in the first place.Two of the very first verses of our Holy Book say: ‘Al-Fitnatu ashad-du minal qatl’ –meaning that in the sight of Allah, ‘persecution, or making people constantly fear for their lives, is much worse than killing’. And also:‘Lâ ikrâha fid-dîn’–‘There shall be no compulsion in religion’, that is to say,that no one has the right to force others into complying with their demands or compelling others to follow their line of thinking.Allah reminds us that it is those who have abandoned Him and thrown away all good, and divested themselves of every shred of human decency, that are the ones who will eventually resort to terrorizing others,forcing them into complying with their demands.