Selcuk Gultasli – Columnist, Belgium. Excerpt from the report made by him in the Second International Media Forum "Journalists of Muslim countries against extremism" in Moscow
Extremism has mutated into a sort of disease and today it affects each and every society, religion or culture. It will be wrong and misleading to pinpoint only one culture or religion as the only source of extremism.
Today although at different levels and density, we face Christian, Jewish, Muslim or Hindu extremism, among others.
When Anders Breivik killed 77 innocent people at the tiny Utoya island in Norway back in 2011, most of them girls and boys as young as 14, he claimed he was massacring people in the name of Christianity and to keep Europe as clean as possible from Muslims.
Jewish extremists are killing innocent Palestinians either to expand their already occupied land or to keep the Promised Land for themselves.
Radical Hindus are burning down mosques claiming they were constructed on former Hindu temples.
And when it comes to Muslims, I feel more responsibility to go into more detail as I pronounce myself to be a Muslim. I am a believer in God, the teachings of the Prophet Mohammad (pbuh) and try humbly to abide by the rules of the religion.
Because these extremists are committing these perverse acts of terrorism in the name of a religion I hold very dear, I feel both obliged and responsible to be more specific on this than the others.
Yes, Islamic world have many problems and suffered a lot. Yes, the West has a responsibility because of colonization and many other misdeeds. Yes, the current Middle East was shaped and the borders were drawn by the British and French by the Sykes and Picot agreement. Yes, Palestinians have suffered immensely and their suffering should stop immediately. Yes Muslim fundamentalists have killed far more Muslims than any other people belonging to a specific religion.
However, nothing, no good, decent cause let alone a religion like Islam can justify/tolerate or condone killing innocent people, spreading terror and desecrating the very religion these lunatics are claiming to defend.
As Muslims, we should be aware of the history and the problems created by the West or the others, but the gist of the matter is it is first and foremost up to us to fight these extremists if we are really believers.
I personally think we have long passed the line of condemning the attacks. We should, of course, condemn these despicable acts without buts and without ifs. We should be steadfast and categorical and unconditional in our stance.
However, I humbly believe we are now at a new phase where we as Muslims should lead the struggle against those extremists who have hijacked religion in our name but doing terrible things without our permission.
Maybe we should first start with a self-criticism. Rather than focusing on endless outsourcing our problems to the West or to the East, rather than blaming everyone but ourselves we may start with a serious and critical look at ourselves. Is not it, after all, what Islam is preaching and ordering, to start from yourself!
We can and we do claim a certain identity, which we think, was shaped by our religion. These rhetoric and gestures could only be substantiated in our actions; our declared loyalty to Islam can only be measured by our deeds not by our words, anymore. Faith for me is not the uniforms, dresses, slogans but to uphold the sanctity of human life and protect it as ordered by all religions.
We should all strongly refuse the totalitarian ideology being imposed by the terrorists and instead embrace pluralism, which sees differences as source of richness not hostility.
One of the things that upset me most is the strong inclination of Muslim masses to believe in conspiracy theories. Conspiracy theories make complicated issues to easy to understand and to draw conclusions yet they constantly keep us away from facing and confronting our basic problems. Thanks to conspiracy theories, on every difficult situation we can manage to put the responsibility to someone else.
Should not we focus on the lack of strong democratic traditions, basic human rights and most important of all the lack of rule of law as good reasons for recruitment of many disillusioned youngsters? All these values, democracy, human rights, rule of law, accountability, I reckon that they are compatible with Islam.
Rather than fooling ourselves with conspiracy theories, we must start putting democratic values, tolerance, and freedom of speech and freedom of expression into the textbooks and rethink thoroughly the curriculums in schools. Teaching of democratic values should start at a very early age.
Isn’t it a valid and legitimate question to think about the reasons why Muslims seek refugee in the West rather than the so-called Islamic states? Could the reason be that in these countries with all their deficiencies fundamental freedoms and rights are upheld and they are not up for negotiations.
When these terrible things happen, history has shown us the extremes do feed each other. Racist, xenophobic, extreme right wing political forces have lost no time in capitalizing on the situation and start to exploit the situation in the West. Islamophia is once again on the rise in Europe, almost one tenth of the European Parliament is now comprised of far right MEPs and they increase their vote with each election. Strange things are happening on European soil. In Denmark, a town called Randers made it compulsory to have pork in the their meals.
There are facts the West should also know. As a research by Utrecht University found it out the most devout Muslims are the most tolerant. Those with extreme views barely go to mosques.
One last point I want to make is the lack of interest on the side of the Western media to focus on Muslim leaders who have consistently condemned and stood against extremism. Quite often, you can watch extremists on Western TVs who have very little following if any.
