Terrorists misrepresent Islam – Dr. Bilal Philips

Dr Abu Ameenah Bilal Philips a Jamaican-Canadian Islamic scholar based in Qatar, has established an online Islamic university that offers courses in various fields of human endeavour. He was recently invited to Nigeria by an Islamic organisation, Light of the Umma. He responded to questions by Daily Trust reporters in an interviewed. Read excerpt:

We have many ills like kidnapping and political thuggery. What is the Islamic way of handling such behaviour?
Well I can’t say anything about Nigeria’s society, but when you talk about social or societal ills, I think it is something to do with leadership. If the leadership is good, good moral behaviour will be ingrained in the people. Thus, I know Riyadh, where I lived for over 20 years, I don’t know anybody who had been kidnapped. And I never locked my door or locked my car when I left it. I could leave my keys inside the car and walk away and not worry about somebody stealing it.
I never heard of anybody whose house was broken into. That is to say such thing would not have occurred. Life was secure, safe and peaceful; the society was secured and peaceful. So we ask, where did that come from? Why it is not found elsewhere? I think the reason for that is that Islamic law was implemented across the country. Islamic law which is swift in dealing with injustice is precise, it is not left to many interpretations.
So that system which has worked for over 1400 years is still the best system for the Muslim society. I believe it is the best system for any society. But of course, it is not imposed on anybody. But for Muslim society where Muslims form the majority it is their right to implement it. And it does not mean terrorism; suicide bombing or extremism and other things that now seem to be associated with when somebody said Sharia. In America about 22 of the 52 states of have banned the Shari’a and when the people asked what exactly they were banning?, they said, “we are banning suicide bombing.” But the people called their attention to the fact that, that is not the Shari’a. This shows that in their own understanding the Shari’a means violence.
Shari’a means praying five times a day, fasting in Ramadan, giving charity (zakkat) from the wealth of the rich and distributing it among the poor; this is Shari’a.  But of course Shari’a means if you commit murder, you would be executed. The world has also shifted in its concept of criminal justice. They are trying to avoid the death penalty, purporting that murder is not going to bring back the life of the one who is murdered. But the consequence of not executing that murderer will be another murder. So you end up building jails until you run out of jails like in UK were a very big ship was converted into a jail.
I have witnessed execution twice in 20 years and one chopping of hand in 20 years.  But the knowledge that you could lose your hand if you are caught is enough to deter you from committing that kind of offence.
 The attempt to establish a state operating on the basis of Islamic jurisprudence is often given as the cause of ISIS, Boko Haram, Daesh and other terrorist groups. Can you shed more light on this?
Religious extremism is something which exists in all societies over the span of human civilisation. There have been religious extremists all round. It is not something new; it is not unique to Islam. The only thing is that, when people go to the extreme among Muslims, they are labeled as Muslim extremists, but when Christians go to such extreme they are not called Christian extremists. This is the problem.
The media keep on linking Islam with extremism. If you read newspapers you will  read about extremist actions of  Christians all around, but nobody calls that Christian extremism. But any time a Muslim is involved one sees Muslim extremist, Islamic extremism. You hear that over and over again! So in the mind of the public, extremism and terrorism have been linked with Islam.
Well it is true that those people who are Muslims, who became extremist do so in the name of Islam. It is true that ISIS, al-Shabab Boko Haram, are all using Islam to justify their actions. However, again, this is not something new. There have been groups such as the hashashin, one of the assassins who have been assassinating rulers across the Muslim empire and they considered themselves to be Muslims; they used Islamic terminology to justify their action.
The Qarmatians did the same thing. They attacked Makkah and killed pilgrims and put their bodies into the well of Zam-zam and took the Black stone away to eastern Arabia for 25 years. You know, they considered themselves to be Muslims. You have the Kawarij durinng the time of Ali bn Abi Talib.
The extremist groups are using the name of Islam solely to earn massive support. And if we are to look at terrorism this is not something new. There are extremist groups that have been unleashing violence against civilian populations. What was world war I and II? These two wars were fought in which about 70 to 80 million people died. What Islam has to do with that? 40 million died in world War I; 60 million died in World War II. Nagasaki and Hiroshima, what was that?
According CNN, recently John Kerry went Japan to attend the memorial of the people of Hiroshima but he did not apologise for the bombing. Is that not terrorism; what is terrorism?
Those who are engaged in the greatest act of terrorism control the media. Therefore, they have identified other people as terrorists and freed themselves. This media game goes back to what they refer to as Islamophobia.
A report was done in UK back in the 90s called Runnymede Report; this report is on Islamophobia. They concluded that it exists and is real. Islamophobia is defined as irrational hatred and fear of Islam and Muslims. There is no really logical reasoning for it. They say, the main source are two: the media and the politicians.
To be continued.