Silence "“ The Mother of Terrorism
- By Ali Haider (alihaider1960@ gmail.com)
Terrorism is amongst the most powerful weapons in the hands of enemies of Islam today. A weapon in general is always in the hands of enemies who targets on his opponents. But terrorism is that weapon which the enemy places in the hands of his opponents and they themselves kill themselves. Today there are enormous amount of write-ups, books and media material on this subject. We can divide this pool of material generally into two sources, pro-western propaganda of Islam as a preacher of terrorism, and another against this propaganda. The western media and also some of Muslim media influenced by west tarnish the value of Jihad (Struggle) under the banner of terrorism. Islam being a promoter of Jihad becomes a promoter of Terrorism also. It is no doubt in most of the incidents of terrorism, the hands involved in conducting terrorism activities are those of Muslims, but the brains driving senses into these hands are not of Muslims. The forces inspiring these hands to come into action to take innocent lives are nowhere coming from Islamic teachings. Then what really are those inspiring forces.
A very beautiful exegesis of this issue of terrorism is presented by Imam Ali ibn Abu Talib (a.s). In his collections of sermons, letters and sayings compiled as Peak of Eloquence (Nahjul Balagha), he mentions several cases of such terrorism. If we do a proper analysis of this subject in the light of this book, we can easily derive this conclusion that the father of terrorism is Oppression and mother of terrorism is Silence. It is the marital contract between these two, which gives birth to terrorist elements in the society. How?
Oppression means injustice done to any creation, ranging in different levels and grades. It could be injustice to life, injustice to wealth and most important injustice to values. Many of the struggles in history could be seen where there was no direct influence of religion, but it was some social value that was the driving force. Like the Independence struggle of India against British oppression, this was driven by the desire to be free. It was a revolution based on the value of Freedom. Whenever Oppression exists in society, Islam demands immediate action to it, to the extent possible and by using legitimate means. Islam does not permit us to remain silent to oppression. The Holy Quran says " And fight in the way of Allah with those who fight with you, and do not exceed limits. Surely Allah does not love those who exceed the limits". Imam Ali (a.s) says, " One who remains silent to oppression is amongst oppressors". Imam Sadiq (a.s) mentions " Fear in the heart of oppressors (from believers)" as one of the gifts to believers.
This proves that Oppression demands a response. And being silent on being oppressed is not just a non-desired act, but also a very highly condemned act. One who remains silent to oppression is considered amongst the oppressors and is cursed by Islam. As we regularly recite in Ziyarat Al-Warith "Curse be upon those who heard the call to deliver their duties (against oppressors) but remained silent". As silence prevails in an oppressed society, it gives more fuel to the oppressor's motives. It is necessary that we clarify that this silence is not limited to the directly oppressed class. Those who are not directly oppressed, but if their Muslim brothers are oppressed, they should also consider themselves as oppressed. Imam Ali (a.s) in his letter to Malik Al-Ashtar says " A society cannot be called Islamic unless it's people stand against the usurpers in the society". Such is the emphasises of standing up and rising against oppression, that an Islamic society is certified as being non-Islamic by Imam Ali (a.s) just on the pretext that it lacks the virtue of rising against injustice.
This oppression when coupled with silence of majority eventually becomes a source of frustration and internal self-burning for a few selected. This group of few then decides to come into action to stand against these oppressors. This group who comes out with the right motives to uproot oppression from the society, eventually end up becoming terrorists and in reality do such condemnable acts, primarily because of lack of guidance. They lack that insight and wisdom by which they should handle the issue. As such all their wisdom and insight gets veiled under the curtains of prevailing silence in the society. The path that they adopt in principle is justified as Intifadha (Resistance) , but the means adopted is wrong. Hence, use of such incorrect means even in reaching sacred goals becomes a source of defamation. The enemies of Islam over here resort to their cunningness and capitalize on this aspect. They present this objective in the Islamic terminology of Jihad (struggle) and themselves justify this in the light of Quranic teachings, but they do not condemn the use of incorrect means under the light of the Holy book. They do not mention this principle presented by Islam, that "Means justifies the ends, and not ends justifies the means". They even go beyond this and themselves adulterate the society with their own preachers who instigate the youths to adopt incorrect resolution path, those youths who are victims of notified oppression by tyrants and silence of majority. This ends up into creation of suicide bombers, who kill innocent people.
If the majority had not resorted to Silence, these elements of society would not have come into existence. If all would have adopted the value of rising up against tyranny, then there would never be a group of such terrorists coming out, doing this and hence defaming Islam. Once this has been done, now this silent group wakes up to defend this defamation,. Now they organize big conferences, seminars, press releases to prove that this is not Jihad and we condemn suicide bombings etc. We the Muslims whom Allah(s) wants to take an upper hand on unbelievers come into a defensive mode. Why? Because we remained silent earlier and did not took a legitimate offensive route. There is a beautiful sermon by Imam Hussain (a.s), known as Sermon of Mina. This Sermon's basis is awakening of sleeping and silent souls against injustice. This sermon is specifically targeted to that group of the community, the Religious Scholars (Ulama). Imam Hussain (a) at many instances in very strong words has criticized the Ulama for their silence in this sermon. Imam Hussain (a) considers rising against oppression primarily as the duties of the Ulama, or at least should be lead and guided by Ulama. It is the silence of this category, which results into lack of guidance. And lack of guidance means adopting an incorrect path, and turning this sacred value of Jihad into terrorism. This is where those who are practically under the leadership of Wilayat-e-Faqeeh can never adopt the path unless instructed by their leader.
As discussed that Oppression and Silence leads towards terrorism, it is essential to specify that it is not just bloody oppression that is the source. The oppression of values can in many cases become a source of uprising. The body might remain preserved but the soul would be oppressed. A True Muslim always struggles and wants his faith to preserve by not just self-purification but also social-purification , known as social reformation. He/she cannot tolerate non-Islamic ideologies adulterating Islamic values. This is where the Ulama have a major role to play, in order to counter this ideological oppression. Today the enemies have implanted many such ideological evils in our society through the hands of the same so called Muslims. They want to achieve their motive of defaming Islam through this channel now. There are many examples within Shiite itself, like "Disrespecting and abusing Marjaiyat and leadership, insulting righteous Ulama through poetry and speeches of zakireens, the issue of Aliyun Waliyullah in Tashahud, an attempt to introduce Nusairiyat in Shiite, use of brutal and unethical language from the pulpit by some zakireens on personalities respected by non shias, show friendly inclination towards Jews and explicitly declaring Jews and Hindus as better than other Muslim sects, separating Shariat control and Ulama interference into politics, into sports, praising characterless women under the banner of Islam, making characterless women as role models, etc. All these are done right under the nose of Shiite and under the banner of Shiite. Now this is oppression. Those who are inspired by the teachings of pure Islam would consider themselves very severely oppressed from this oppression, but majority remains silent. What will this then result into? Same thing "Terrorism"!. If today the Ulama don't speak out and condemn such ideological adulteration done by a bunch of orators and public personalities, this will end up into more and more frustration, eventually leading into violence.
It could very easily lead into a certain group of youths and individuals adopting illegitimate means to resolve this issue. They might end up blowing themselves out in such gatherings where the true values of Islam "“e- Naab are targeted for. What will happen then? Shia killing Shia's! Defamation of Shiite! Who will be responsible? Once again the same silent spectators of oppression. How can a follower of Aba Abdillah accept this statement " Our Muslim women should make a semi-nude tennis player as their role model"? This challenges the Ghairat (Zeal) of the Muslims. The community wants the Ulama to respond to this. They want the Ulama to come out and condemn such statements. If they not do this and remain silent, then this might very soon deliver a child, by the name of " Terrorism". The mother of Terrorism is "Silence". So decide now where do we stand. Rise up against injustice and achieve felicity or remain silent giving birth to Terrorism? It is essential that we eliminate the causes before it manifests its effects