An interesting article at CNN:
At a recent debate over the battle for Islamic ideals in England, a British-born Muslim stood before the crowd and said Prophet Mohammed’s message to nonbelievers is: “I come to slaughter all of you.”
“We are the Muslims,” said Omar Brooks, an extremist also known as Abu Izzadeen. “We drink the blood of the enemy, and we can face them anywhere. That is Islam and that is jihad.”
Anjem Choudary, the public face of Islamist extremism in Britain, added that Muslims have no choice but to take the fight to the West.
“What are Muslims supposed to do when they are being killed in the streets in Afghanistan and Baghdad and Palestine? Do they not have the same rights to defend themselves? In war, people die. People don’t make love; they kill each other,” he said.
But in the same debate, held on the prestigious grounds of Dublin’s Trinity College in October, many people in the crowd objected.
“These people, ladies and gentleman, have a good look at them. They actually believe if you kill women and children, you will go to heaven,” said one young Muslim who waved his finger at the radicals.
“This is not ideology. It’s a mental illness.”
Sadly, it is not an ‘mental illness’ at all and calling it like that denies the very real danger this ideology poses to non-extremist Muslims and to non-Muslims. It is not a mental illness, it is a very dangerous ideology, that appeals to quite some young Muslims for different reasons. One other thing we have to get rid of ASAP, is the notion that the West has caused and continues to cause terrorism by ‘our’ foreign policies. Sure, it might be a part of it, but – as I see it – it is mostly an excuse used by extremists. Sadly, certain people make the mistake of falling for it.
There is a battle going on for the soul of Islam (in Europe), so much is clear. “13 percent of British Muslims believe the July 7 London bombers were martyrs.” 13%. That also means that 87% disagrees, but 13% is not an insignificant number. Far from it. The duty of moderate Muslims and of Western governments is to make sure that this number does not increase.
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