USA and Europe in a special context...

There were few questions raised by one Muslim brother living in USA about the activities/phenomenon of 'home grown' terrorists in Germany. His opinion is given below followed by my point of view on this subject. He writes

“I wanted to ask your opinion on why you think that Muslims of German Origin would think that Islam requires them to commit indiscriminate murder by setting off bombs and how that is likely to attract more Germans to become Muslim? The same question applies to English Muslims doing the same thing in UK!

The strange thing is that here in USA where Muslims have been discriminated against, profiled and the administration is the strongest supporter of Israel and waged aggressive warfare against Iraq, there is hardly any so called 'home grown' terrorist threat so far. Of course I don’t know how long that will remain so if the administration continues on the same path.

What are your thoughts on this and how can we prevent people from making these attacks which are clearly un-Islamic and make life worse for Muslims?”

My point of view goes as follows

“I don't think that any sensible and knowledgeable Muslim will try to attract people towards Islam by any act which itself is against rules and spirit of Islam i.e. the act of harming innocents.

I think we need to look at things in a bit different way.

I feel that people in Europe are freer, logically strong and also more informed about the international happenings than in USA! American media is very intelligently controlled and focused in desired direction(s) while in Europe it provides relatively diverse, neutral and free information. I feel this factor makes people well informed about what injustices are being done across the world.

Here in Europe especially in Germany police is normally very friendly but focused and effective, social benefits are good, life is not as competitive and hard as in USA, people normally are not pressed if they utter truth, judicial system is fairer, crime rate is lesser, political activities are open and well monitored, politicians don't have much chances to hide their agendas and activities: they are much accountable etc. These factors help people in thinking and acting more freely/bravely, so when they come across unjust happenings, they could easily act and sometimes in unexpected/unjustified ways.

There is another factor and that is history. European people experienced many wars in Europe(i.e. at home) and wars make people more careful, sensitive and foreseeable but USA did not had many such experiences. As a result people here in Europe have better feelings for those who are in problems due to wars etc. In addition to that European people have faced many problems in social and religious contexts and they are able to judge to a good extent the misuse of religions, religious feelings and nationalistic feelings etc but still there are chances that individuals could misuse sincere feelings of innocent people and can brainwash them in this environment.

When people have more information and free Will, it could sometimes become a side-effect but on the other hand it is very much necessary for free societies. I think fault is not with freedom, it is injustice which is normally the initiator of bad happenings. So instead of pressing freedom, injustice must be stopped! Secondly people must be educated more about true spirit of Islam. Thirdly, black-sheeps who brainwash people must be identified and punished.”

Every nation has its strengths and weaknesses including people of USA and Europe so everyone should be respected but should also be accountable. What i have written is my personal view and open to any agreements or disagreements by anyone.

In addition to that, in my opinion, there are three big groups who are involved in extremist activities.

1: Those who deliberately want to plan/commit brutal activities against innocent people due to their negative nature, biasing and hostility against others.

2: Those who are not much intelligent and could be easily brainwashed in the name of religion, nationalism, humanity, benefits etc. Such people don’t know themselves about real facts and are misused. This group is quite big since any ignorant could belong to it.

3: Those who play double games i.e. they act as hypocrites. They, for example externally belong to community B, can take money and other benefits from community A and can incite and brainwash people of community B, why? They create an excuse for the attacks of community A on community B, create bad picture of community B and also weaken community B!!! Such a group is almost invisible but is very intelligent and effective normally.

Questions, comments? Feel free.