Are political clerics destroying the image of Islam? According to columnist Saad Al-Ramla of Iraq’s Sotal Iraq newspaper, clerics with outdated interpretations of Islam should keep out of politics and the law, because they are ruining the lives of ordinary Muslims trying to live in the modern world.
Directing his invective toward today’s politically-active imams, columnist Saad Al-Ramla writes in part:
There seems to be an acceleration of news that features clerics and their abuses, their rulings and their terrorism. This distorts the shining face of Islam in the West and the world. Now in America, Europe or Australia, you can’t say you’re a Muslim, because the image that precedes you is terrifying and brings to mind bombings, suicide bombers, their victims, body parts, blood and senseless killing. Is this the Islam that you aspire to? Is this the message that you would like to convey to the world?!!!
Islam has become tied to the victims of September 11, those in Bali, London, Paris, Iraq, train stations in Madrid and everywhere else that blood is shed in vain. This suggests a brutality unprecedented for any religion in the world. Not even the Mongol Genges Khan was so terrifying.
Is it reasonable for us to continue cutting off the hands of thieves? Perhaps they were in need, or poor, or motivated to commit their regrettable deeds by hunger. Isn’t it possible that Muslims are mistaken for butchering people in front of satellite TV cameras and the world? Isn’t it the fault of those who use swords, knives and daggers to apply tyrannical sentences under the pretext of applying Sharia Law that others look at Muslims with suspicion when they travel?
I say to the clerics now in control of Iraq and anywhere else in the world: leave politics to politicians, because since you have gotten involved, things have severely deteriorated and people have suffered shortages, conflict, strife, poverty and destitution. Focus on educating the soul and instilling the values of tolerance, humanity, love, peaceful coexistence and good. Return to your mosque/barracks and render to Caesar what is Caesar’s.
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