In the Guardian, Karen Armstrong searches for a way to refer terrorists who are Muslim
We rarely, if ever, called the IRA bombings "Catholic" terrorism because we knew enough to realise that this was not essentially a religious campaign. Indeed, like the Irish republican movement, many fundamentalist movements worldwide are simply new forms of nationalism in a highly unorthodox religious guise. This is obviously the case with Zionist fundamentalism in Israel and the fervently patriotic Christian right in the US.
In the Muslim world, too, where the European nationalist ideology has always seemed an alien import, fundamentalisms are often more about a search for social identity and national self-definition than religion. They represent a widespread desire to return to the roots of the culture, before it was invaded and weakened by the colonial powers.
Because it is increasingly recognised that the terrorists in no way represent mainstream Islam, some prefer to call them jihadists, but this is not very satisfactory. Extremists and unscrupulous politicians have purloined the word for their own purposes, but the real meaning of jihad is not "holy war" but "struggle" or "effort." Muslims are commanded to make a massive attempt on all fronts – social, economic, intellectual, ethical and spiritual – to put the will of God into practice.
While rescue workers toiled deep underground to retrieve bodies from one bombed subway tunnel, the country’s most senior Christian, Jewish and Muslim leaders gathered, anxious to head off religious tensions caused by the attacks, which the authorities have said bear the hallmarks of Islamic extremists. A number of retaliatory acts against Britain’s Muslim population have been reported since the attacks.
The religious leaders sought to distinguish between Islam as a faith and as a label for the terrorists.
Sheik Zaki Badawi, the head of Britain’s Council of Mosques and Imams, said: "Anyone claiming to commit a crime in the name of religion does not necessarily justify his position in the name of that religion. People do things in the name of Islam which are totally contrary to Islam."
He was speaking alongside other religious leaders – Sir Jonathan Sacks, chief rabbi; Rowan Williams, the Anglican archbishop of Canterbury; Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor, the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Westminster; and David Coffey, the moderator of the Free Churches.
Each took turns to read from a shared statement urging what Dr. Williams called "the continuing efforts to build a Britain in which different communities – including faith communities – can flourish side by side."
Why They Did It – a commentary from an Iranian in the (UK) Times
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