Its not more than a few days old, the attack on Nice, France. The French President Francois Hollande says they're in for a long battle because they have an enemy who will continue to hate.
How right is he? Very.
There's possibly some added twists here though. If you were able to sensibly question the attacker/s you'd probably find they regard themselves as soldiers in a religious war, a war against non believers and to them the devil which is all things non Muslim. As hate filled as they are, they somehow believe they're on a righteous path, in a righteous struggle against all things, to them at least, demonic and they'll be rewarded greatly for it.
How does a person get to this point, able to kill innocent men, women & children going about their normal everyday peaceful lives? Radicalisation is the usual reply, youth at risk, no job, no hope, no prospects are somehow easy pickings for the cunning people targeting them.
That may be true to a point, but the good orators who are rousing these disaffected, disillusioned young people to slaughter, how are they radicalised & why is there little or no attempt to de-radicalise them? What is it they believe?
Probably similar to the attackers, they may even be the attackers, but ideally they're motivated by a religious conviction. Does it reflect Islam as a whole or is it some twisted offshoot that's perverting or totally ignoring their holy book?
Well here's where we get close to where perhaps the focus should be in responding to these attacks to lessen the chances of further attacks. Propaganda war.
When Islamic leaders come out at journalists insistence and make comments on attacks its generally the same. They condemn the attack, they declare it is not what Islam is about and not always but sometimes they go close to playing a victim card themselves citing they're in fear of their lives because of the possible backlash of ignorant people who decide to target them.
So how can we see a way forward? How can people comment about these attacks, condemn them solely as the evil they are and keep moderate Muslims away from reprisals?
It might be easier than we think. We may only need Islamic leaders, clerics and imams to come out and use specific language regarding the attacks. We may only need them to verbally condemn the attackers and their actions from a theological viewpoint considering that is the motivation & reason they cite for the attacks in the first place.
We may only need clerics to come out and declare the attackers as APOSTATES, as enemies of the Prophet and their cause along with its reasoning behind it to be total heresy. THEN and only then do we have a stop and think position. Islam or at least a branch of it is central to the reason behind this, it has to be central to the opposition against it.
Had we used proper in context exegesis of the Christian Scriptures to test the actions & decisions of the powerful and those in control the Crusades might have been called off, so too the Dark Ages and the Spanish Inquisition. All the killing, torture and false imprisonment that was done in the name of Jesus Christ was never and can never be sanctioned by Christ or the Word of Christ.
The same stands for the modern day terror attackers. If they're doing it because of Islam, then Islam will have to be front and centre in the battle to stop it, in the war to win the hearts & minds of militant muslims.
If a person attacks and their justification for it is related to their religion, then that religion needs to test the attackers claim against their respective religion. In the case of ISIS, their actions are either the work of Muslims who are properly following their holy words OR they are heretical APOSTATES. Or extended even further they're HERECTICAL APOSTATES DOING THE WORK OF THE DEVIL.
There is no grey area in which to hide. There is no grey area, no middle ground. Its one or the other and only the clerics can publicly come out and use their scriptures to clarify...and hopefully de-radicalise youth at risk.
Sorry but the attack in Orlanda Florida was an abhorrent act of mongrel bastardry. The world leapt to condemn it, clerics mouthed words of shock and opposition and we saw buildings and bridges of note being covered in projected light of rainbow colours. Now again we're seeing French National colours being projected. No colours of Iraq or Turkey that lost many people in determined Islamic driven attacks. Why is that?
Why project colours at all, but if you are does life in some countries count for a lot whilst others are not worth anything at all?
Why not push hard for full and proper religious decrees on what's acceptable, what's not, what's heresy and what is the work of APOSTATES?
The answer might be closer than we think but I fear it'll stay close but unseen
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