Op-Ed: A Muslim Counter Narrative

This is a voice that is not heard at all, a Muslim call denouncing terror and attacking
civilians.
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Published: Friday, April 01, 2016 2:23 PM

Rebecca Abrahamson
The writer is author of Divine Diversity: an Orthodox Rabbi Engages with...
More from this writer

In the shadow of the terror attacks increasingly aimed at Muslims:

Easter Sunday, Lahore Pakistan: 69 killed and over 300 injured in a public park; Christians were the
target, many Muslims were killed as they mingled with their Christian friends on that festive sunny
day.
March 26 - Iraq a suicide attack at a soccer stadium kills 25 and injures many more Muslims.
March 16 an attack in a Nigeria mosque kills 22 Muslims.
But aren't Christians People of the Book, and who says that soccer is haram (forbidden) and what
objection was there to a mosque? No one is safe.
And at last, some Muslims are speaking out.
Javed Ahmad Ghamidi is a Muslim theologian who, at personal self -sacrifice, is spreading the word
that there can be a peaceful Islam. Websites, interviews on mainstream Muslim media, and recent
tours in the States, Australia, and the United Kingdom attest that he is no lone voice.[1],[2] He urges
full responsibility by Muslims for the current state of affairs in the Muslim world. He blames no one but
the state of Islam today for terror in its midst. The remedy - proper education and a vigorous Counter
Narrative. [3]
His denunciation of terror is straightforward and unequivocal.
Suicide bombings are a heinous crime worthy of hellfire! He states, and, Killing citizens on purpose
is a sickening crime! He refers to the killing of civilians as barbaric. He states if you committed a

crime do you really think that someone should harm an innocent member of your family? Even in war
and jihad there are ethical limits.
A member of the audience rises to his feet and challenges if (in war) non-Muslims brutally kill
millions of Muslims, then, according to you, we Muslims should only seek to strike military personnel,
who are actively involved in the killings of Muslims, and no civilians?
Mr. Ghamidi retorts, Yes this is exactly what I am saying!
The onlooker challenges, Where is this written?
Ghamidi, In the Quran!
Has this ever happened in history? and Ghamidi insists, Yes indeed![4]
The only possibility for Muslims to wage a war is in a fight against oppression and injustice(and)
has been given to Muslim communitiescollectively. .non-combatants and civilians must not be
targeted underany circumstance. The Quran has made it very clear that anyone who kills an innocent
human being, it is as if he has killed the whole humanity. Killing of innocents must be unequivocally
condemned.
In light of the above rules, it is very clear that such barbaric terrorist acts can only be termed as antiIslamic. [5](emphases mine).
To get an idea of the kind of support Mr Ghamidi has in the Muslim world, his Australian tour, autumn
2015, was touted a great success by a Muslim news service.[6] There, he spoke at seven venues
in five cities with audiences ranging from one hundred to four hundred participants. During his tour in
North America, summer 2015, he spoke in six venues.

Ghamidi has garnered over 300,000 likes on his face book page, is featured on
Muslim media, issues a monthly newsletter.
Ghamidi has garnered over 300,000 likes on his face book page, is
featured on Muslim media, issues a monthly newsletter complied with about a dozen staff members,
thousands of shares and thumbs up on his You Tube videos, and many supportive comments from
Muslims who praise his intellectual alacrity, use of scriptural sources and his sound logic[7]. Javed
Ahmad Ghamidi is getting his voice heard.[8] [9] So lets listen to him too.
He demands that Muslims cease blaming the West for their woes. He notes that the prophets
exhorted repentance without laying blame on outside factors, pointing out that the Bible never faults
Babylon or Rome for the fall of the Temple, but puts responsibility on the deeds of the Israelites
alone. [10]
Criticizing the current state of the Islamic medressahs (schools) as the source of radicalism,[11] he
states that the medrassahs are mistakenly promoting four points all apostasy deserves punishment,

non-Muslims must be subjugated, there should be a single world-wide Islamic government, and that
the modern nation-state is itself kufr (disbelief)". He refers to this current narrative as un-Islamic and
he challenges it in his essay, Islam and the State, a Counter-Narrative from his book, Meezan.[12]
Major points in the Counter Narrative: only during Muhammads lifetime could apostasy be judged,
but since the death of Muhammad, apostasy cannot be properly evaluated by human beings and
certainly cannot be punished by a court of law, even more so by the lay individual.
Concerning government, he maintains that Islam is primarily directed towards the individual. There is
no imperative to make an Islamic state, nor is there an imperative to merge one single Islamic
caliphate. He notes that the term Caliphate (khalifa) is not even from the Quran. He cites the
two ahadith (commentaries, legends) that are used to justify a world-wide Caliphate, declaring not
only may they be inauthentic ahadith, but a careful reading shows that the intent of
these ahadith were to prevent rebellion against a just ruler, not that there should only be one
ruler.[13]
Majority rule is Islamic and preceded modern democracy: The affairs of the Muslims are run on the
basis of their mutual consultation. (Quran 42:38) Should a Muslim state exist, the directives in the
Quran given to the individual cannot be imposed on society as a whole. Only the directives given to
society as a whole can be imposed by the state, and this is only salat - public prayer, and zakat
state tax. And in his words, modern dictatorships can be sent packing.[14]
State regulated prayer challenges western sensitivities, but lets put it in context. Among the positive
directives that an Islamic state can ask a Muslim to follow if one wants to be treated as a Muslim
legally by the state and enjoy rights as Muslim, then a state can (and not must) see if one is offering
the salat to God and paying zakah. In other words, salat andzakah are two legal requirements for
being a Muslim in the eyes of the state.
Yearning for a single Islamic government thus cannot be the prime goal of a Muslim. Education and
advancement must be the prime directive, and that is what Mr. Ghamidi is demanding now. Itjihad is
part of this.
Itjihad
Itjihad refers to the use of the intellect to solve challenges that exist outside the specifics of
scripture.[15] While scripture is inviolate, areas not dealt with by scripture are open to the freedom of
the intellect. This is based upon the hadith in which Muhammed instructs his followers to turn to him
for religious teachings, but not for issues that can be dealt with via study and reason. [16]
Mr. Ghamidi thus insists along these lines that all children have a basic right to a broad based
education in order to enable such intellectual freedom. He beckons Muslims to reclaim this part of
their tradition, which is essential for the advancement of the physical and social sciences.Itjihad surely
influenced such great Islamic thinkers as Jabir Ibn Hayyan, whose work on alchemy in the eighth
century influenced modern chemistry. Muhammed Al-Khawarizmi, ninth century, built upon Greek and
Latin mathematics, developing the system of algebra brought down to this day. Ibn Sina (Avicenna),
eleventh century, authored a medical encyclopedia that was in used in Europe up until the
seventeenth century.

There have been more, and at Mr Ghamidis urging, there should be more. Freedom of speech, he
declares, is essential to Islam.[17]
I wish the entire above article could continue have dealt solely with the concept of itjihad. Indeed, the
intellectual freedom that itjihad confers, Mr. Ghamidi strongly implies, is actually a key to lasting
peace, with energy taken away from dreams of political dominance that he maintains are not even
Quranic, freed up for development in the physical and social sciences.
But violence has descended again. Daily threats hinder our ability to view Islam without fear.
Thus, no matter how many fascinating ideas exist in Islam that could enrich us, such as itjihad, our
first concern is, again, our security. We cannot explore that realm until that realm proves that it is not
a violent one.
And that is exactly what Javed Ahmad Ghamidi is doing. [18]
Sources:
[1] https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1isGGyqPXxGb3i_Tr6agHg
[2] an example of Mr Ghamidi being interviewed on public media
http://www.javedahmadghamidi.com/videos/view/etiquettes-of-gender-interaction-ilm-o-hikmat-dunyanews-29-nov-15
[3] Rabbi Yaakov Nagen of the Otniel Yeshiva declares, taking responsibility is not the same as
admitting guilt or taking blame. The Jewish community took responsibility for violence emanating from
its community by holding a prayer rally after the Kfar Dumas arson attack, July 2015, in which three
members of the Dawabashe family were killed. We expressed our outrage. When a community takes
responsibility for its wrong actions, it uplifts itself, and serves as an example to others for them to take
responsibility for the wrong actions that emanate from them. If you condemn something that another
community did, you might just create more animosity, but if you take responsibility for your own
community, you uplift and enlighten your community and demonstrate to others that they can take
responsibility without admitting guilt. http://livestream.com/accounts/3116574/events/4361388
https://www.facebook.com/HanochDaum/videos/978968515458175/
[4] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wkeere99LBs
[5] https://www.facebook.com/almawridus/posts/1021029707941938
[6] http://www.amust.com.au/2015/11/ghamidi-australian-tour-a-great-success/
[7] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZNHTYU1S2Y&feature=youtu.be
[8] Lectures with English subtitles: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1isGGyqPXxGb3i_Tr6agHg

[9] His student Shehzad Saleem has produced many short videos in English that explains many
important issues. http://www.dailymotion.com/playlist/x3asf7_drshehzadsaleem_islam-and-nonmuslims-some-misconceptions/1#video=x223jcx
[10] Essays on Islam - Maqamat
[11] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=andINEkrX50
[12] http://www.al-mawrid.org/index.php/articles/view/islam-and-the-state-a-counter-narrative
[13] Essays on Islam Maqamat, pg 168
[14] Essays on Islam Maqamat pg 136 under The Rule of an Islamic Government.
[15] Essays on Islam - Maqamat
[16] I am also a human being. When I direct you about something which relates to your religion, take
it from me and when I express my own opinion [about something which is outside this sphere], then
my status in this regard is nothing more than that of a human being I had conjectured about
something. Do not hold me accountable for such things which are based on opinion and conjecture.
However, if I say something on behalf of God, take it because I will never forge a lie on God You
very well know about your worldly affairs. Hadith Muslim Al Jami al-Sahih 1038-1039.
[17] Islamic scholar attacks Pakistan's blasphemy laws:
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/jan/20/islam-ghamidi-pakistan-blasphemy-laws
[18] An outcry from one of Javed Ghamidis followers, posted on his facebook page - the pain of a
religious Muslim trying reclaim authentic Islam in the face of threats:
God O God ...!
Make the cause of truth the most cherished thing for us to live and die for. If life, wealth, honor and
freedom of expression are under threat, give us the strength to raise our voice against the
aggressors. If people are persecuted and tortured for adhering to the truth, bless us with the courage
to defend them. If people jeer and make fun of us to for upholding the truth, instill in us the patience to
politely smile back at them.

Why its time to go back to Islams holy book

Heena Khan

Updated: Dec 10, 2015 23:54 IST

The Republican Partys maverick presidential hopeful Donald Trump has called for all Muslims to be blocked from
entering the US. (AFP Photo)

So the Republican Partys maverick presidential hopeful Donald Trump has called for allMuslims to be
blocked from entering the United States. This is his response to the mass shooting in California carried
out by a Pakistani-origin couple - Syed Rizwan Farook, 28, and Tashfeen Malik, 27. It could equally
have followed the Paris attack on November 13, an event that, in his eyes, must have reiterated for the
whole world that Muslims are an inherently dangerous species.
The world has been bombed deaf into this realisation on different calendar dates. My memory begins
with Americas 3,000 dead on 9/11 and stretches all the way to the 2002 Bali bombings, the 2004 railroad
bombing in Spain, the London blasts 7/7(2005), serial blasts in local trains in Mumbai 7/11 (2006), the
attack on Charlie Hebdo office in France earlier this year and last months Paris attack.. While this timeline
could be stretched further back and may get augmented in the future, what we should be bothered with is,
have we learnt our lesson? My answer to that is a resounding Yes, but its a very different lesson from
the one that Trump & Co will draw. As Europe starts shutting its borders to Syrian refugees and there is a

security beef up all around a world that fears the next jihadi blowing himself up in the quest of Jannat in
the Hereafter, I suggest its time that we, and our children, re-read the Quran, the holy text of Islam.
The Quran (22:39-40) says, Permission to take up arms is hereby granted to those who are attacked
because they have been oppressed and God indeed has power to help them those who have been unjustly
driven from their homes, only because they said: Our Lord is Allah.
Islamic scholar Javed Ahmad Ghamidi sees this verse in the context of its timing. It was revealed when the
oppressed Muslims of those times were fighting the Quraysh, a powerful merchant tribe. Ghamidi writes
that every person who appreciates the linguistic style of the Quran knows that verses which authorise
Muslims to use force do not address them in their individual capacity.
These verses address the Muslims as a community. No person or group has the right to take a step on its
own on behalf of the Muslims. Thus political or state authority is an essential pre-requisite of war, he
writes.
According to the Quran, it was necessary in those times that the believer should be in a certain number
before they launch an attack, else it would be tantamount to suicide. Initially, the believer to enemy ratio
was 1:10 (the Quran, 8:66). However, later, after large scale conversions to Islam in later years of the
Prophet, this was reduced to 1:2 (The Quran, 8:66). It seems that in both these situations, the Almighty
would be providing the remaining help.
One finds logic to these verses, as also the stress on legal legitimacy and practicality of waging a war.
Therefore, scholars feel that an Islamic state should realize that if it wants to wage jihad, its military might
should never be less than half of the enemys military might even if it wants to expect Divine help. Allah
does not want his own to mindlessly blow themselves in public. The Quran is not supportive of clandestine
attacks on countries even with state support. And Paris, for one, was not Gods retribution.
The Quran narrates various instances during the age of Prophets when the Almighty sent down
punishments on earth on races which denied His truth in spite of being convinced about it. The purpose of
this retribution was to remind mankind of the Hereafter, when everyone would be accountable for their
sins. To put it in another way, before the advent of the greater Day of Judgment, several lesser days of
judgment were brought about in this world as an evidence of the Hereafter, so that mankind is left with no
excuse to deny the truth. However, this is Gods retribution only, and mankind cannot assume His role
now that the age of the last Prophet is over. Unfortunately, the terror groups take it upon themselves to
convey Allahs wrath in the name of jihad.
Call it propaganda or oversight, over the years a certain rhetoric narration of the Quran has gained
precedence, the more detailed explanation having completely bypassed the media scanner. Bloodshed has
come to define the word of Allah. While the scripture repeatedly says Laaa ikraaha fid-Diin stating that
religion should not be forced on anyone, the extremist groups have read the call to internalise the religion
in their day-to-day behaviour as a licence for forced islamicisation.
Paris has happened. California has happened. And while state action to check terror activity is a given, it
will not stop brainwashed youth from taking to arms. Blocking Muslims from entering the United States is
no solution either. One way to assuage the failed diplomatic policy of the West towards west Asia is to
stress on Islamic studies and initiate a counter narration to the demonized perception of Islam, and nip
terrorism in the bud.
The Quran (5:32) says, If anyone slays a person, it would be as if he slew the whole humanity: and if any
one saved a life, it would be as if he saved the whole humanity, and our children need to know this. Our
children need to know that a handful of gunmen cannot hold the whole community at war with the world.
Our children need to know that the Arabic word Islam means peace; and this is a peace they deserve.