Reasons Behind Violent Extremism?

[Sahar]

What do you think the reasons behind extremism and violence that some (or maybe many) Muslim countries are facing are? Why is this path able to attract some Muslim youth?

 

[maro]

frustration , oppression , injustice ,Poverty , Lack of awareness and good islamic education................

 

[Aasimar]

I'm sure martyrdom doesn't play any role at all....

I'd say there are many reasons. Some social. Some Religious. Partly due to the fact that the west is using the middle east as a gas station, partly due to the fact that Islam is a highly intolerant religion, partly due to the fact that the only reason 1st world countries are in the middle east is to exploit them, so we are giving them 21st century weaponry with a 7th century political system.

I'd say the blame lies in many places, powerlessness being a very serious motivator. Take someone with nothing and promise them everything, and if they believe you, you have someone capable of doing anything.

These are all just speculation, no facts backing this up, just thoughts.

 

[maro]

partly due to the fact that Islam is a highly intolerant religion.

Really !! HOW is that ?!!

it's true that Islam encourages us to defend ourselves and our lands untill the last breath , IS THIS WHAT YOU CALL INTOLERANCE ?!!

 

[HopefulNikki]

What do you think the reasons behind extremism and violence that some (or maybe many) Muslim countries are facing are? Why is this path able to attract some Muslim youth?

When you're a teenage boy and your religious leaders tell you that if you fight against unbelievers in the name of Allah, you are guaranteed eternity in Paradise with virgins galore, that's hard to turn down.

 

[Aasimar]

Really !! HOW is that ?!!

it's true that Islam encourages us to defend ourselves and our lands untill the last breath , IS THIS WHAT YOU CALL INTOLERANCE ?!!

Tell me, what does Islam teach about treatment of accepting Atheism? Or Apostasy?

 

[maro]

When you're a teenage boy and your religious leaders tell you that if you fight against unbelievers in the name of Allah, you are guaranteed eternity in Paradise with virgins galore, that's hard to turn down.

Actually ,the one who fights to protect his land and family in the name of Allah , will certainly be guranteed Paradise ,
THe Quran also orders us not to transgree as Allah doesn't love the transgressors ,

IS THERE ANY PROBLEM WITH THAT ?

Tell me, what does Islam teach about treatment of accepting Atheism? Or Apostasy?

you tell me !
you are the one who claimed that islam is intolerant , and you are the one who have to justify your claim !
you must know something that i don't know , ENLIGHTEN ME !

and don't answer the question with a question , please

 

[TashaN]

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[Sunstone]

Does anyone think that if the governments in the Middle East were to become more democratic, it would reduce extremism?

 

[FerventGodSeeker]

Does anyone think that if the governments in the Middle East were to become more democratic, it would reduce extremism?

Judging by the situation now, that's a big If, but I would hope it would.

 

[fullyveiled muslimah]

What do you think the reasons behind extremism and violence that some (or maybe many) Muslim countries are facing are? Why is this path able to attract some Muslim youth?

I feel that injustices, perceived and real, poverty and all it's trappings, and most fo all of them is many muslims lack of knowledge of Islam. Weak iman is the result of this lacking, and many false ideals presented to an ignorant worshipper are taken as truths, when they are nothing more than bid'ahs, and kufr.

Not having or knowing the proper ways to release the anger these people feel, and not having a reliable way to do that. Not having a government that has a people's best interest in mind. It is difficult to be calm and comfortable when you see the destruction going on, and your gov't is helping it along at your expense. Islam is the only thing these people feel they have control over, but it is flawed when the knowledge is severely lacking.

 

[TashaN]

I would say the reason is--and you will be surprised for that--Islamic history. Not that its negative or teach hate, but rather, because when the youth read about where we were and how we become, they will feel they are useless and nothing but a bunch of chickens compared to the brave and wise early victorious Muslims.

Who remember when was the first time a Muslim was caught in a behavior of being violent or extreme, and what was the reason or let’s say, the trigger for that problem?

Actually, to be honest, it started before 1948, which is of course, before Israel was established. Most of the Muslims in the Middle East at that time forgot about what Islam have done to the Arabs. They forgot how ignorant and backwards they were and started speaking in the name of being pure Arabs, and how Arabs are great and words like Allah, Christ, etc are nothing than mere symbol which is holding the Arabs back from being the greatest--or one of the greatest--people on earth. I read recently some books about how the Arabs behaved in that time and how so many of them believed in secularism, communism, etc.

At the result of this wave of ignorance, Israel was established, and guess what?

The Arabic countries went on in their ignorance and beliefs in their race and that Israel doesn't stand a chance against so many Arabic countries surrounding her from all sides. Logically, they are right, but if you went back a little bit to read the Islamic history, the Muslims were always winning because of their faith, but not because of their race or to what tribe they belong to. They were fighting always in few numbers and they used to win. One day, the Muslims were with Prophet Mohammed in one of the battles, and they really felt so arrogant, because they won while they were so few, and they couldn't imagine that they will lose with a greater number of the army. Then God gave them a great lesson:

[25] Assuredly Allah did help you in many battle-fields and on the day of Hunain: behold! your great numbers elated you, but they availed you naught: the land, for all that it is wide, did constrain you, and ye turned back in retreat. (Quran 9:25)

Only few stood with Prophet Mohammed and won, and most of the army escaped and forsake their prophet. At the end God forgave them.

Can you imagine that!!!

They were with the prophet himself and they were about to lose when they started talking about their own strength, not the strength of belief.

My brothers and sisters from Egypt know well what their president--Jamal Abdul Nasir--was calling for, he was talking about Arabs, but not about Islam. It was so obvious for the believers that the Muslims will lose no matter what, because they were depending in their own strength, and being Arabs as they said, but they were shocked at the great sudden lose in 67 if I’m not mistaken when the lies of the local Radio and newspapers were no longer there after this great loss. Everybody was shocked, as they didn't believe that. Actually, it was obvious, because the leaders of Islam who won the battles were speaking in the name of Allah and in the name of Islam and they were leaving out behind any sins they used to commit, because there is no victory with sins. Anyway, i don't want to talk more about this little details but it’s just an example of some of the major reasons for this current mess.

After that as you all are aware, there was no trust possessed between Arabs and each one of them chose to protect his own land with power, and dictatorships till today, but the problem came with the new generations of Muslims who saw that they no longer can stand this injustice against them. Injustice against Muslims in Palestine and everywhere, and injustice within their own lands, so the situations exploded with a little help from some foreign countries who thought, it would be great to do some troubles in Muslims land, but the magician never thought the magic will turn against him, and the UK and USA know exactly how they were working out to pull the trigger so the puppet leaders we have never complain and to make them feel threatened, but things went out of hand.

Now, imagine that when the Palestinians do something, so everybody go so fast to condemn them, and if Israel have done something, so USA simply can use the VETO. For God's sake, they have used it to stop the UN from either condemning Israel or giving rights to the Palestinians for 24 or 25 times if I’m not mistaken, then when you ask the ordinary Americans about this injustice they say, what to do, Israel is our ally!!!

Excuse me? if you can't do a damn about that then question no more about what the Palestinians do whatever its. The root of this thing is so deep and a lot of reasons are behind it, and we can only cover part of it, and most of it are beyond our reason or comprehension.

Tell me please when do the Muslims become violent unless it was for the sake of defending their lands?

This is not justifying what they do now, but really, what is the source of this problem?
Isn't it because we are losing our lands and natural resources one after another?
And the puppet leaders don't give a damn because they THINK they would be safe for now!!!

Old people share with the youth their deep concern about the Muslims around the world but they are wiser not to act upon their anger and explode, but youth are youth, and they can't stand seeing their fellow Muslims thrown out of their own lands or being killed by a drunk foreign soldier. So they were willing to risk their lives rather than living in shame and humiliation. I don't know what would i do if i were a Palestinian or an Iraqi, but i know that i would rather die for the sake of my land instead of living in this shame.

Now, if there are no ordinary army within an Islamic country then who can help this youth to fulfill their dreams or nightmares "call it what you want"?

Some organizations like Al-Qaida and others can support them and give them the opportunity to defend their stolen lands and wasted rights and they fell for the trick!

They find themselves in the hand of weird mentalities which only think of nothing but total destruction but there is no way to escape after they engaged with them, so they become the prey of the aims of some violent leaders like that.

 

[TashaN]

Then, we can see clearly that the problem in here is the puppet leaders for the Muslim world, and the Arabic countries especially, and the result was anger and semi-revolution by some people in these countries.

Lesson 1: we should believe in Allah as the source of victory, but not in our race or normal strength.

Lesson 2: we should depend in ourselves in everything, and not on others to feed us or equip us.

Lesson 3: education, education and education is the key to understand the situation, because emotions, plain anger, hate and violence will not harm the enemy but harm and damage our own selves, our own people, and destroy our own countries. There is a real lack of priorities in Islamic ethics and rules whether in the matters of peace or war amongst the Muslims.

I read one funny story which happened after Mohammed peace be upon him passed away, and there was this group (khawarij) and no need to explain who they were. Anyway, they were Muslims, but they rejected some teachings, and were fighting the majority of Muslims for that. One of the famous scholars met them with some of his friends in the way, and he was so scared that they--Al khawarij--going to put an end for his life, so he remembered this verse:

6. If one amongst the Pagans ask thee for asylum, grant it to him, so that he may hear the word of Allah. and then escort him to where he can be secure. That is because they are men without knowledge. (Quran 9:6)

So he told them he was a pagan not a Muslim, after reminding them with this verse, and they allow him to go along with his friends, and they wouldn't spare him if he told them that he was their Muslim brother.

That's because they don't have a real grasp of Islam and chose to pick and choose from the Quran what they like and what go with accordance with what they want to achieve. That’s why the Muslims nowadays don't need any details about their religion, because it’s already there, but they need to learn the core of this message of Islam, and why God sent Prophet Mohammed?

Why some Muslims are willing to destroy the image of Islam and make it as a hell for the worlds while Mohammed was sent as a mercy for the worlds?

Its all because they forgot the purpose prophet Mohammed was sent, and they forgot the real core of Islam and they become like those Al-khawarij i mentioned earlier who chose to be blind from what goes smoothly with the basic human need and purpose, and decided to close their eyes and hearts for misguidance, for the sake of their own ego, but not for the sake of Islam as they claim. I hope some are trying to work really for the sake of Islam and i pray for those who posses the real spirit of Islam, and we should all pray against any leader of misguidance who are driving some youth into hell in this life, and hell in the hereafter.

I apologize for this long post and i just wanted to talk honestly with all of you about what was going on in my mind lately, and i tried to read a lot of books and search for the source of this chaos, and i started to understand, what do we really need to be Muslims, as what Prophet Mohammed would want for us if he was here with us.

Thanks not4me for the great thread.


Peace and blessing,
The one who always search for
The Truth

 

[TashaN]

Does anyone think that if the governments in the Middle East were to become more democratic, it would reduce extremism?

That will lead to a real choas, because democrasy can't do anything without justice. Most of the governments in the ME are useless and must be replaced, but not in a violent way of course.

It doesn't matter to Allah and to this universe rules whether a nation are muslims or not if there was injustice, because a system or ruler might stay on power if he was just, whatever his religion or beliefs were, but it won't matter with injustice whether the ruler is muslim, non-muslim, and whether he applied democrasy, or the spaghetti super hecho picho system.

 

[PureX]

What do you think the reasons behind extremism and violence that some (or maybe many) Muslim countries are facing are? Why is this path able to attract some Muslim youth?

It's not just Muslims. Most any ideology, religious or political or otherwise, can become infected with such ideological absolutism (extremism). Human beings can become addicted to the idea of their own absolute righteousness. And like any addiction, if left unchecked, it will tend to become insanely self-destructive. Think of nazism, for example. Or communism under Stalin. As the addict self-destructs, he/she needs their "fix" more and more often, and more intensely, and they care less and less about who gets in the way or how they get hurt. Eventually the addict reaches the point where nothing but the "fix" exists for them, and will literally kill themselves in an "overdose" of whatever it is that they have become addicted to.

In the case of someone becoming addicted to absolute ideological righteousness, the feeling of being right while everyone else is wrong is the dope that gets them high. And with religious righteousness comes the added high of believing that one is God's own representative here on Earth. To people with weak egos and/or a big resentment against other people, this kind of high can become a very powerful addiction. And they will easily become willing to kill or to die in the service of their "God" (which is really just their "dope": that is the illusion of their own absolute self-righteousness).

Does that help make some sense of it?

 

[Sahar]

When you're a teenage boy and your religious leaders tell you that if you fight against unbelievers in the name of Allah, you are guaranteed eternity in Paradise with virgins galore, that's hard to turn down.

What about the believer-believer case?! (Although i disagree with this and i see it a bit superficial look (sorry ) What about extremism and violence inside the borders of Muslim countries, on the Muslim land and against other Muslims?

Does anyone think that if the governments in the Middle East were to become more democratic, it would reduce extremism?

Exactly! Good point!

This leads me to talk about th relation between the government and the people. In fact, i believe the impairment that befell this relation is the first and the most important reason for what we see now from extremism/violent extremism. I am going to discuss four or five points that are related to each other in my opinion;
- I believe there is a very important deep rooted component in the structure of the Muslim individual which is religion; the structure of his character and identity. The environment around him should be in harmony with this component otherwise the results will be unfavourable and in fact we, as Muslim societies, suffer from this problem. What happens is the Muslim finds everything around him unislamic that shouldn't be the case for a society Islam supposed to be a very (if not the most) important element in its composition. The governments in most of the Islamic countries not just ignore this religion component but also asking its individual to have two faces; two characters, one in his home/his mosque and completely another one outside those two. Be a Muslim inside your room, outside it, forget something called religion. Or the other option, kill this part inside you which means to him execution. This Muslim also finds values coming from outside became the predominant in his society; the Western values. Thus i think that there is a real conflict between the outside (the environment around him) which is western and the inside whose root is Islamic. Indeed, this conflict can be seen and felt in many many Muslim youth. They don't know their identity anymore, are we Muslims? Arabs? Or is the West our resort? This led to 3 types of youth; 1st type; those who forget their Islamic root and any thing western is their ideal. The second, a section who refuses anything western and anything comes from outside. A third group is like the patchy cloth, patches from the west, east, from every where. In this group, you can't say if they are Westerns, Easterns, Arabs, Muslims..you don't know who they are exactly.

- Two important values are not found in the Muslim countries; Freedom and democracy/authority of people's will. In fact, governments of these Muslim countries are afraid of their people's will, afraid of freedom of thinking, speech and movement. People's interests are in a direction and their government's interests are in the opposite one. When there is no legal channels to work, then illegal channels will be taken. In most Muslim and middle eastern countries, you can't form a political party whose authority is Islam/Islamic Shari'a. Thus those who adopt this approach will not find except underground channels to work that in many cases will acquire extremist and violent direction after it was acceptable and moderate. From here, the mentality of fighting those corrupted governments that fight Islam and Islamic Shariah is Jihad to a degree considering anyone in these government or assisting it are kuffar and their blood is halal.

- The other point, youth potentials are wasted under the bad economic conditions, lack of good education and job opportunities. Their abilities need to be encompassed to be a creative and productive members of their societies so that these potentials can not be easily directed in the wrong way.

- The West again and again..the West colonized the middle east before which was basically military now they are occupying us politically, economically and culturally in addition to the military one. what happened and is happening, that the people found their governments only work for the western interests instead of resisting this occupation. These governments are tools of the west in the Muslim and Middle-eastern world. And absolutely, the Palestinian-Israeli conflict plays a very big role.

All this led to much anger and led to a wide gap between peoples and their governments that in many cases reach to a real clash. Extremism is an example of this clash, considering such corrupted governments the enemy and they should be fought. Western interference in our business and its injustice and bias in handling the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and their occupation of the Muslim countries and forcing their rules and conditions on them, made the West on the list of the enemies that should be fought.

 

[Sahar]

I stopped reading at FVM's post. I will continue, God willing, in the next break!

 

[fullyveiled muslimah]

You raised some important points, that I believe our non-muslim counterparts may not get or understand. You raise the issue of the West. You have stated what is indeed true about it. However, I will clarify something so that there will be no misunderstandings about what we mean when we say West. The "west" in this case is not the countries themselves, nor even its average population. The "west" are the components of western lifestyle that is in stark contrast to everything seen as good and righteous in Islam. The values and what a muslim considers haram, or at least threatening to his/her iman are promoted in these ME countries by their gov't and media. The good of the western values are neglected, while the evils the west faces, are promoted as good things to the muslims in ME countries.

For example, the west considers having sexually explicit encounters with the opposite/same sex in the form of relationships or casual sex as a good thing. Americans generally see nothing wrong with having a boy/girlfriend and is quite common and normal here. This attitude is transferred to a ME country where the standards in this regard set by Islam has long been in place. Most of these people are muslim, however ignorant of the intricacies of the religion they are. They have been taught, and rightly so that certain interactions between the oppposite sex should be appropriate and curtailed. This is to a much larger degree than an American, Englishman, German, are accustomed to.

Other values such as gender roles (not gender oppresion) are vastly different in the west than they are in the ME. ME countries have a more traditional view with its roots in Islam, and western views are much less rigid. We really are at pole opposites when it comes to culture and values, and when a gov't introduces these things to a society largely alien to them, you'll get a vast range of responses. Some will welcome it, others will slightly oppose it, others will more vocally oppose, and still others will violently oppose.

The alien effect felt by ME people to the introduction of western values, is equivalent to the alien effect that would be felt here in America should shariah be introduced here.

 

[PureX]

The alien effect felt by ME people to the introduction of western values, is equivalent to the alien effect that would be felt here in America should shariah be introduced here.

I agree, but why the violent reaction? Why not just ignore the western mores and retain the traditional ones? No one is forcing Muslims to watch Britney Spears vidios, after all.

And what about all those Muslims that embrace western culture and styles?

 

[maro]

Does anyone think that if the governments in the Middle East were to become more democratic, it would reduce extremism?

i say the governments of the middle east should become more islamic but not more democratic ,
"democracy" is part of the western liberal systems after all ,and although it may not contradict the "islamic rule " in many(but not all) of its aspects , but the word is still Alien , and we don't need any more "loss of identity" right now

THE other point ,is that i don't blame neither the west nor the corrupt leaders of the middle east ,
"THE west" is strong, and we gave up all the "keys" of our strenght , then why blame the west for invading our countries and stealing our riches ?
They have had "ambitions and dreams " about our lands since eternity ?and we know it ,where is the surprise ?!!

And the "unislamic leaders " are nothing but a very very normal outcome of the "unislamic " muslims we became ,
yes ,we are muslims "by name " , but truely we are a shame to this great religion ,and if i started counting the unislamic phenomena in our lives ,may be i will need a thread of my own , so what " victory " are we willing to achieve like that ?!!

I would say the reason is--and you will be surprised for that--Islamic history. Not that its negative or teach hate, but rather, because when the youth read about where we were and how we become, they will feel they are useless and nothing but a bunch of chickens compared to the brave and wise early victorious Muslims.

i disagree brother , the real problem is that we "ignore " our history ,
not all muslims are well educated like you are , actually half of the muslims are illiterate , which is almost a disaster !!

Although "READ" is the first word that brought this ummah to existance , we still don't read , what a pity !!