Different perspectives on Islamic terrorism

Amy Tieu
Student

We know the attack to Charlie Hebdo publication caused by Islamic extremists this January, which resulted in the death of twelve people. What were the reasons for this horrible killing? The media has given two explanations behind this attack. The first explanation is Islamists against freedom of speech. The second and the most important one, they did what they did to revenge those who insulted the sanctity of the Prophet Muhammad. Both of them can be sum up to one reason, religious beliefs of Islamic terrorists. The cartoon “French cartoonists’ killers are death cult”, which is drawn by David Horsey, best portrays this statement. It is published on the Los Angeles Times after the attack and those terrorists claim that this action is the revenge of radical Islamists on French cartoonists who gave public offenses to their Prophet. Religious beliefs have made a strong impact on Islamic terrorists without realizing whether these beliefs are acceptable or not.

Horsey’s cartoon depicts a deathly place covered with skulls, while three armed men are prostrating in front of what looks like a grim reaper, saying, “We murder the French cartoonists in your name, oh, Holy one!” Ironically, the Death replies to them, “So, you fools still haven’t noticed I’m not Allah?” These men look really serious and show strong respect for the Death. Meanwhile, the grim reaper is portrayed as a much bigger, powerful character. He seems scary in his black cape and has no face as often seen in other images. He sits in a higher chair and looks down upon them. He is a caricature of Allah, whom radical Islam, which is portrayed as the three men, have faith and believe in. This cartoon is a representative example of how non-Muslims think of terrorists. Horsey makes a statement, like many people do, that Islamic extremists are worshiping death, and they enjoy practicing violent actions.  Meanwhile, non-Muslims see terrorists as those who just claim to preserve God’s will and the Shariat, but in fact, they are not. Terrorism, then, is seen as driven by religion because those terrorists by far have given a message to the world that they will do anything to preserve the absolutism of their religion.

To understand Islamic terrorism, however, we need to also see terrorism from the point of view of extremist Muslims and non-extremist Muslims. Muslim extremists have considered terrorism is how they follow the tenets from the Quran and protect the sanctity of their prophet. Thus, they think their terroristic acts are ideal. Non-extremist Muslims see terrorism committed by Muslims as a corruption of the faith and an appropriation of the faith in order to act out an unrelated grievance. It almost becomes stereotype that people assume Muslims are all terrorists. However, it is not true. Colbert King, in his article “Don’t Sugarcoat Islamic Terrorism”, says, “Not all terrorists are Muslims. Far from it. Terrorism is as abhorrent to most Muslims as it is for most of us.”

This video from Fox News best describes how a Muslim, ‪Imam Anjem Choudary, and a non-Muslim, Sean Hannity, perceive terrorism.

Although I mention here that we need to see terrorism from different perspectives, it doesn’t mean I agree with these violent and irrational actions. In his article, King also states “Radical Islamists do not represent Islam’s true nature, which embraces justice, equality and compassion.” It is necessary to understand why radical Islamists react too aggressive to any statement or image, which insult their religion like cartoons from Charlie Hebdo, but they cannot use lame excuse such as protecting sanctity of the Prophet or following Quran to create death threats around the world. It is simply unacceptable. It is unrealistic. Whatever religious beliefs Islamist terrorists use to defend their actions, they are unreasonable to both non-extremist Muslims and non-Muslims.