Islam, Media, and Terror: A Muslim Perspective

Disclaimer: This essay is a rebuttal against the orchestrated systematic media attacks on Islam, and the consequences of these assaults in the perpetuation of the War on “Terror.”
Discussing faith might not be the atheist/secular cup of tea, however, I would still advise perseverance. Read however much or little you can if only to adjust and address the imbalance created by years of media falsification. I would also advise to keep the article for future reference in case you ever need to refer to it.

A middle aged person today would have lived to witness 9/11 and its peculiar narrative, all the hubris, cover up and distortion of the event with full participation of the media. All under our watchful eyes. A war on “terror” declared, nations destroyed, countries devastated, human rights violated, and unwarranted lies perpetuated, without witnessing the real criminals ever being prosecuted or brought to justice.

The aim pursued by the warmongers—their mainstream media (MSM) and political associates— is to manufacture consent, blind acquiescence… no thinking needed, for ceaseless wars, for carpet bombings and wholesale assassination against countries where a majority of people are Muslims. And Arabs at large.

That systematic hammering from all directions is the toxic mechanism to remove human compassion from those who are subjected to that endless brainwashing, or to dwindle it down and make it selective. In fact, in concert with the endless flow of false information about Islam and Muslims—the wars, genocides, destruction of entire regions—is the deafeningly loud SILENCE, the almost total blackout of information and reporting…

…on what?

On the daily slaughter and ripping apart of populations, children, women, men, environment, vegetation, landscape, especially in Palestine where those who concoct this hatred are perpetrating it in the most visible way. And yet these daily routine acts of violence are the least reported: Children on their way to pray, children in schools, children playing in kindergarten, entire besieged populations getting mowed down, shot at point-blank range, starved, and imprisoned. AND NO ONE REPORTS IT!

At best we are subjected to the daily dose of endless somber about the woe of the holocaust, and the neverending grief and guilt of what happened to Jews, and their “exceptional unique suffering” comparable to none. All the while the drums of hate are beating against Hizbullah and Hamas as the “terrorists.” and a Palestinian teen who “makes a knife attack against a soldier.”

Of all the lies, manipulations, bias and concealment of truth of the MSM, nothing is more glaring than the distorted way Islam and Muslims are represented, cultivating fear of Islam and sewing hatred against Muslims in the hearts of millions across the globe— despite the fact that Muslims make up almost one fourth of the world’s population.

In this essay I will try to untangle the web of lies and to deconstruct the false paradigm imposed upon the majority of inhabitants of this planet. Focusing on key words that have been tactically, erroneously and repeatedly used in the MSM, and how they form the thread that holds the web of deception together (as masterminded and executed by the no-need-to-name crowd of the dark agenda).

Now try this, read these words … s…l…o…w…l…y… and loudly then count your heartbeats and pay attention to your feelings:

Allahu Akbar… Islam… Jihad… Fatwa… Dhimmi… Shariah… Caliphate…

Did you feel shivers running down your spine upon reading one of these words, let alone all combined?

These words have become trigger words in the trusting, receptive and unquestioning mind, provoking predictable reactions, discomfort and uneasiness shooting up on the spectrum of negative feeling fluctuating between hate, fear and anger all wrapped up in one.

• “Islam is violence and terror.”

• “Jihad is holy war and killing of innocents.”

• “Allahu Akbar is shouted before killing oneself along with others.”

• “Fatwa is the death penalty.”

• “Dhimmi is the oppressed non-Muslim living among Muslims.”

• “Caliphate is a Muslim ruler under whom non-Muslims would be enslaved and oppressed.”

• “Shari’a is a system of slavery where non-Muslims would be forbidden to drink alcohol and pork, and their women would be forced to wear hijab.”

• “Muslim women are the manifestation of oppression, uneducated, forced into wearing the veil, and enslaved by their men.”

• “Muslim men are long- bearded, scary-looking fanatics… and cruel, sadistic wife beaters.”

• “Muslim children are terrorists in the making.”

and so on and so forth.

Following the MSM and observing the endless propaganda against Islam, one can identify the unmistakable agenda aimed at projecting specific meanings assigned to certain words in order to achieve the intended mind manipulation.

The way these trigger words have been used in the past two decades, and what they’ve been associated with, have draped them with venom and soaked them with poison. Then they are used as a Perception Management technique of the highest order. Rather than awakening curiosity for knowledge, they are used to invoke terror, dim the intellect, and inflame the emotions. Thus, the listener is no longer able to think rationally, but only react emotionally with a massive adrenal rush, put in a fight-or-flight situation as if facing a primordial threat to life. All logical thinking disintegrates.

This is no coincidence, it is a concerted and calculated effort to numb the world against the ongoing/upcoming genocide in many Muslim-majority lands.

Reclaiming Our Language:

To reverse this mechanism, I will kindly request your company on a short journey in which you will witness with your own eyes the layers of poison being stripped away one by one. As you become informed with the true meanings of these hijacked words, be prepared to lose your bewilderment and leave the false drama behind you.

Suffice it to share the true meaning of these words as they are understood in the world and text of authentic Islam, and then for the penny to drop and the reader to realise the level of deception played upon his/her mind:

• Jihad is an Arabic word meaning the struggle, the endeavour to do your very best to be your best and to make this world a better place.

Any effort to help achieve that is called jihad, or struggle; going to school to learn is jihad, being a mother/father rearing children is jihad, spreading knowledge through teaching or writing is jihad, treating patients is jihad, looking after sick parents is jihad, siding with justice is jihad, defending the weak is jihad, feeding the poor is jihad, speaking truth in times of deception is Jihad, also defending yourself or others when attacked is jihad, and struggling against oppression is jihad.

Any action that one undertakes in order to bring good to mankind is jihad.

Life with all its ups and downs is a jihad.

The highest form of Jihad, however, is the Inner Jihad, or Major Jihad, that is, the ongoing inner struggle against one’s ego, arrogance, greed, fear, resentment, selfishness, jealousy, envy, etc., in order to achieve the Generous Temperament.

The Prophet Muhammad, Peace be upon him, said: “Verily I was sent to this World to define (and live by) the Generous Temperament.”

According to him, the codes of Generous Temperament (makarem elakhlaq مكارم الأخلاق) are seven:

• “Pardoning those who have oppressed you
• Giving to those who have deprived you
• Connecting with those who have shunned you
• Benefiting those who have abused you
• Counselling those who have deceived you
• Forgiving those who have maligned you
• Forbearing with those who have angered you.”

Contrary to common belief, the concept of holy war does not even exist in Islam; it is a European concept from the days of the crusaders, it has absolutely no equivalent in Islam. However, it does exist, as it seems, in the minds of war criminal politicians and Zionists of all varieties, and in the sick minds of those who have waged wars of aggression, invaded and destroyed so many countries around the world, maiming, expelling and killing millions of innocent people in the name of “God-given promised land.”

To translate the word/concept of Holy War into Arabic is quasi impossible. It would sound something like “Harb Muqaddassah” which does not exist in the language nor terminology. Neither the word nor the concept are known or used—not in the spoken dialect nor written Standard Arabic. It is evidently contrary to Islamic principles and Qur’anic values, as you will see from the Qur’anic evidence.

Then, how misleading and dishonest is the use and misconception of jihad as a holy war!

• Islam: Islam is an Arabic word that shares the same root (slm) with the words “salam” and “Istislam.”

Where “salam” means: peace, and “Istislam” means: submission.

The word Islam means: achieving peace through submission to God.

Islam consequently is nothing but the willful devotion and surrender to the will of the Creator, following the rest of creation, who follow these Laws unwillingly. When we love our Creator deeply, we are in a state of constant adoration, our will becomes nothing but His will and our desire will be identical to God’s desire.

Hence, the essence of Islam as a faith is that mankind can achieve peace by knowing, connecting, submitting with devoting and adoration to the All-Loving Creator. The Qur’an teaches: souls can only find tranquility, joy, and serenity by being in a state of constant awareness and remembrance of the Most Loving through which intimate closeness and true peace can be experienced and achieved.

• Allahu Akbar: God is the Greatest, Greater than any other idol/idea/being, people may seek for adoration and worship. Greater than wealth, greater than ego, Greater than tribe, greater than power, greater than desire… etc.

Allahu Akbar is used by almost two billion Muslims on this planet, hundreds of times daily, tens of times during the daily prayers. If it would mean what the media says it means, there would be no non-Muslim alive today.

• Fatwa is nothing but the expression of an informed opinion by an educated knowledgeable person, in matters of theology:

Being what it is, a mere theological opinion, it is not up to any one to enforce their fatwa/ opinion upon anyone. Absolutely not. Because it contradicts the free-will, granted to every human being by their Creator, which is the heart of the belief system in Islam. There is no hierarchy, no priesthood, no church institution, and no clergy in Islam; and that is something totally misunderstood, overlooked and ignored.

Any Muslim is entitled to formulate his/her opinion from their own investigation and understanding of the Qur’anic text. “Seek fatwa from within your own heart, even if people give you theirs,” as the saying goes.

• Shari’a is the Arabic word for “the road to the watering place.” In a religious context, it means “the righteous path.”

Shari’a is not a rigid set of Laws, but rather a Set of Principles with which one is expected to align himself/herself and strive to achieve JUSTICE—which lies at the heart of Shari’a and considered its foremost aim, using whatever means of human wisdom, knowledge, comprehension, effort and capacity to establish and nourish.

These are, the six principles of shariah which is concluded from the Qur’an by Muslim scholars:

1. The right to the protection of life.
2. The right to the protection of family.
3. The right to the protection of education.
4. The right to the protection of religion.
5. The right to the protection of property (access to resources).
6. The right to the protection of human dignity.

With the establishment of communities with people of Islamic faith, political entities were formed, and like everywhere else in the world, bodies of Civil Laws were set, with regional and local differences. These laws are derived from the predominant moral principles carried and defined in different locations and places where Muslims live.

While fleshed with human understanding and interpretation, the backbone of these Laws is sourced in major Islamic books and references, in the Qur’an, in the documented saying of Muhammed known as Hadith, and then in the works of Muslim scholars past and present to allow adaptation and evolution. In essence, it the same influence of initial religious moral principles found in any legal codex anywhere in the world.

No, Shari’a is not carved on stone or set in cement. No, Shari’a by its own definition cannot be enforced on anyone nor can following its principles be enforced on anyone, let alone on non-Muslims. Just like choosing to follow Islam can only be acknowledged and recognised when done under absolute free-will, so is following the Islamic moral principles, i.e. Shari’a.

I emphasise Shari’a can NOT by any means be enforced on a non-Muslim, it can only be applied for those who out of their own free will choose to live by Islam as a philosophy of life, faith and set of principles, otherwise it will contradict the major Qur’anic principle “No compulsion in religion.”

Despite all the incessant fear-mongering against the word Sharia, which has infected almost every corner in the Western mind and sphere of thinking, the phrase Noahide Laws—which has already been adopted by many countries in the world—did not even surface. It is a taboo that no one talks about and is never discussed in the Islam-crazed media, very few have even heard of it.

If you don’t know yet what Noahide Laws are, you can begin your research with Jewish Halachiac Laws for GENTILES

• Dhimmi: In predominantly Muslim societies the minority groups are referred to as ahl eldhimmeh. A foreigner living in a Muslim land is called dhimmi, which means in Arabic the protected.

  “In my dhimmeh” means within/under my protection. The name itself implies the fundamental necessity to provide minorities with protection and care in any Muslim-majority society. This has been the practice throughout history.

  Suffice to know that during the period of persecution of Jews they have always found safety and protection in Muslims lands. (!!!)

Living in a Muslim-majority society, in which Muslims participate in supporting the needy, the sick, and the entire society—as a duty (Zakah)—it is only reasonable that non-Muslim minority members would, too, participate in paying taxes (Jeziah) which would benefit society in general, including themselves.

A well known saying of the prophet is “Whoever harms a dhimmi harms me personally.” Throughout history minorities of all ethnic, religious, and ideological background have lived peacefully in Muslim lands enjoying full rights and responsibilities. A glaring example is the Christian community living in Palestine for centuries with full rights. The keys of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher are still entrusted with two Muslim families who look after the church. That was Christians’ choice (to reduce the tension among different Christian sects).

Does Islam tolerate other beliefs?

It is one function of Islamic law to protect the privileged status of minorities, this is why non-Muslim places of worship have flourished all over the Islamic world. History provides many examples of Muslim tolerance towards other faiths: When the caliph Omar entered Jerusalem in the year 634, Islam granted freedom of worship to all religious communities in the city.

Islamic law also permits non-Muslim minorities to set up their own courts, which implement family laws drawn up by the minorities themselves. When the caliph Omar took Jerusalem from the Byzantine, he insisted on entering the city with only a small number of his companions. Proclaiming to the inhabitants that their lives and property were safe, and that their places of worship would never be taken from them, he asked the Christian patriarch Sophronius to accompany him on a visit to all the holy places.

The Patriarch invited him to pray in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, but he preferred to pray outside its gates, saying that if he accepted, later generations of Muslims might use his action as an excuse to turn it into a mosque.

• Caliphate: Now what is the truth about “Caliphate?”

What does the word “Caliphate” actually mean?

Does it exist in the Qur’an, and if it does, in what context?

Like many Arabic words we’ve seen above—snatched out of the Arabic language, deformed out of context, eviscerated and ripped of meaning, magnified on front pages of the MSM, distorted, twisted and bent beyond recognition—the word Khalifah has been similarly abused. It has been used by Zionists and their apologists to foment hatred against Islam, to serve their hate-fear-mongering programme, and justify their incessant wars of aggression planned and executed against many countries in the Muslim world, to suit the Zionist agenda.

Even a major online “Free Dictionary” follows the same distortion without providing any evidence whatsoever:

khalifah – the civil and religious leader of a Muslim state considered to be a representative of Allah on earth; many radical Muslims believe a Khalifah will unite all Islamic lands and people and subjugate the rest of the world. [Italics for emphasis by author.]

Such twisting and misrepresentation in the realm of the “war of ideas” presented as “information” couldn’t be further from truth, as every person with slightest exposure to, or knowledge of Islam is able to verify.

Coming back to the word Caliph, it is a translation from the Arabic word khalifa (خليفة, khalīfah) meaning successor, representative, vicegerent, caretaker, substitute. It is used in the Qur’an to establish mankind’s role as representatives of God on earth in the sense of living by God’s names, attributes, and principles of Justice, Peace, Compassion, Purity, Generosity—to take care of, protect, and establish just and compassionate societies.

The true meaning is that every human being is given the responsibility of a caretaker of earth and life on it, NOT “the civil and religious leader of a Muslim state considered to be a representative of Allah.” And it does not apply to Muslims only, rather to the entire body of humanity.

Kalifah describes the real nature of man’s (as in all mankind) role on earth; a caretaker.

The term Caliph (خليفة‎ khalīfah) is also used as a title for the ruler, a head of state of an Islamic Ummah indicating his responsibilities and duties.

(Ummah: a community that accepts Islam out of their own free will and accepted to live by general set of moral principles as presented in the Qur’an).

Historically, leaders of a Muslim nation were called Khalifat Rasul Allah, i.e. political successors to the messenger (referring to Muhammad). Khalifah can be a female also, as was Sitt Al-Mulk in 11th century Egypt.

Conclusion

Do not gobble the unhealthy diet of processed indigestible toxic information fed to the dazed mind. Be alert, investigate, think, analyse, discern.

For further reading, in this link (Major Qur’anic Principles) you will find quotations from the Qur’an to highlight and fortify the foundations of Islamic principles related to the above.

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