Counter bigotry through knowledge and wisdom

There have been 68 great massacres around the world since the end of the World War II and about 85 million people have lost their lives in these massacres.

11 million of these people who lost their lives were Muslims. Furthermore, nine out of ten Muslims who died in these conflicts were killed by other Muslims.

None of the wars in the Middle East were waged on religious grounds, yet during these wars, religious motives were cynically exploited as leverage and many elements that served to whip up war fever came into play. These elements mostly consisted of religious fanatics.

There is no doubt that the Iraqi people suffered enormously because of the U.S. occupation. However, during the civil war that followed the occupation, the suicide bombers were Muslims. The Afghan Civil War erupted years before the U.S. invasion. It was none other than Muslims who fired upon each other in the Syrian, Yemeni, Sudanese, Algerian, and Libyan civil wars.

Because the ideology of bigotry cultivated violence, it paved the way for violence to flourish. Holding sway over the majority of the Islamic countries, the ideology of bigotry estranged many Muslims from fundamental human values such as compassion, mercy, love, and respect. These groups have always regarded the requirements of modern society such as democracy, human rights, and freedom of speech as utterly insignificant.

The number of those martyred in the Iraqi and Afghani Civil Wars is well over one million. To date, this number has reached 500,000 in Syrian Civil War. Over 20,000 Muslims perished in the Libyan Civil War and over the last 50 years, Yemen has witnessed more than 10 rebellions and civil wars. In the currently ongoing Muslim-on-Muslim conflicts, nearly 200,000 Muslims have lost their lives. Adding Somalia, Nigeria, Sudan and Pakistan to this list, nine of the eleven ongoing full-scale civil wars across the globe are within Islamic countries.

Both the murderers and the murdered are prayer-performing, God-worshiping, mosque-going Muslims. Abolishing the current atmosphere of discord is the foremost duty of all Muslims.

Islam is based on solidarity among Muslims.

In his last sermon our Prophet (saas) reminded the Islamic community that all Muslims are brethren:

"O believers! Listen to what I am saying to you very carefully. Every Muslim is a brother to every Muslim and the Muslims constitute one brotherhood. Nothing shall be legitimate to a Muslim which belongs to a fellow Muslim unless it was given freely and willingly."

This is the path all Muslims should follow.

The real problem the world is faced with is the trap of violence and the ideologies that give rise to it.  Bigotry stems from a grave misconception of Islam, and it is nurtured by superstitions. This grave misconception is causing the death of millions of Muslims, and it is growing at an alarming rate. The only possible cure lies in a rationalistic education based on the Qur'an. This should be the path followed in order to strive against radicalism.