No to Violence, No to Terrorism

by Dr. Abdul Qater Tash

Where will the acts of violence now sweeping some parts of our Arab world lead us? How long will this bloodbath continue?

I was shocked to read the recent statement of Dr. Ahmad Al-Salem, secretary-general of the Arab Interior Ministers Council, on the toll terrorist activities have taken in the Arab world. According to him, the number of victims in the last five years has reached 60,000. The material damage caused is estimated at billions of dollars. What this means is that 12,000 people are killed by terrorists every year. This works out to 1,000 people killed every month—about 33 every day.

Had they died in wars against the enemies of the Ummah, it would have been easier to accept. They had not. They were innocent people whose lives were sacrificed so that men with vested interests could realize their evil ends.

The time has come to call a halt to this bloodbath. A firm stand should be taken against terrorism. The first step should be to condemn terrorism in unequivocal terms and to forge a broad-based front against it.

For too long a time, many in our part of the world have remained silent about this phenomenon. Some thought it would save them from its effects. They were mistaken. Violence does not differentiate between people. Terrorism is a plague that plays no favorites.

More dangerous than the silence was the stand of those who justified it. They were trying to defend the terrorists, describing them as people with true and legitimate grievances who were forced to resort to violence because they could not find any other means to win their rights and make others listen to their complaints.

But what was the result? Terrorism grew into a devastating fire devouring everything in its way. And “the people with grievances” could not win their rights. Their voices were lost in the uproar of the destruction they had brought to their societies.

In fact, they were opening a wide door of evil which cannot be shut. How can the heavy price paid by innocent people with their blood be justified, however noble and legitimate the causes might have been?

Violence and terrorism in the Arab world have taught us hard lessons that we cannot afford to ignore. We cannot pretend any longer that the phenomenon does not concern us. The first of the lessons is that the effect of violence is not limited. It is a fire raging through the entire Arab world. All of us must confront it unitedly. Those who have not been hit by its sparks today are sure to be hit tomorrow.

We should take a determined stand against those who justify terrorism and those who try to present an attractive picture of terrorists, no matter what slogans they use.

Our determination should be stronger and our effort more concerted against those who use the mask of religion to justify terrorism and to defend terrorists. The damage they do is all the more serious because they are presenting a distorted picture of Islam and its message—apart from the support and encouragement they give to terrorists and their crimes against themselves and their peoples.

It is indeed high time for all of us to take a united stand against terrorism and terrorists, and to declare in one voice, “No to terrorism and No to violence.”