The media have consistently, for far too long, maintained shallow, hollow and horrific reportage on the terror perpetrated by miscreants who claim to be fighting for the sake of Islam.
The stock-in-trade of the media has been the broadcast of grievious sights of killings, maimings, bombings and mass destructions with these very people alluding to the Quran to justify their wicked acts.
This unfortunate phenomenon by the media has fuelled a warped perception and bigotry against many innocent muslims.
If the media had delved into the ideologies around which these terrorists sprung, it would have laid bare to their audience a picture of people fighting for their own political, economical and social freedom and not for the sake of Islam. I crave the indulgence of my readership as I go down the memory lane to reveal the tissues of the issues at hand.
First off, the Arabians are, by cultural orientation conservationist- always fighting against mordenisation. It therefore took a lot of struggle for Islam to permeate into the Arabian peninsula in the 6th century. The Arabs were at their conservationist best when a whole Arabian king (King Faisal) was assasinated in the 1970’s whose crime was nothing but the introduction of television. So conservatism for the Arab is non-negotiable.
Birth of Terrorist Groups.
Sayyid Qutb, an Egyptian, is the father of what has today become terrorist groups. He founded a brotherhood of muslims (similar to liberation movements in the Gold Coast) to fight against political oppression, economic exploitation and for freedom from the oppressors ( the british) for the Egyptian people.
The authoritarian government of Gamel Abdel Nassr cracked down on the Muslim brotherhood and Sayyid Qutb was executed and several hundreds fled into exile in the Arab world. The ideologies of Qutb began to spread by these political fugitives.
Osama Bin Laden, a student by then, came into contact with Sayyid Qutb’s brother(Mohammed Qutb) and Zawahiri ( an Eyptian, who later became a Second-Commander-in-Chief of Al Qaeda) and was indocrinated.
In 1979, the ideologies of Qutb coupled with Arabian Conservatism exploded on the streets of Iran toppling a goverment who was more leaned towards Russia ( the east). *The Red Army of Russia on the eve of Christmas invaded Afghanistan to protect the governments from similar fate. The U. S.A which was at cold war with the Soviets launched a covert attack on the Russians by chanelling money and sophiscated weapons to the civilians to counter the Russians to withdraw.
These armed militias morphed into Taliban and turn the heat on innocent civilians. But, the U.S.A at the time never mind since the weapons are getting to those who are eager to kill Russians.
The Taliban through Islamic propaganda and Quranic misintrepretation, recruited fighters (including Osama Bin Laden) from Arabia, Africa and other parts of the world.
In 1988, the Russians retreated and withdrew absolutely from Afghanistan but Talibans were still thirsty for blood. The Taliban fighters whose countries faced the same oppression exported these terrorist ideologies to their home countries. There and then,extremism began to spread through out Arabia, Africa and the Middle East.
Al – Turabi took the cue to Sudan and succeeded in ousting the government. Osama bin laden took it to Saudi Arabia and Al- Qaeda was born. Mohammed Yusuf took it to Nigeria to fight the economic disparity between the north and south and Boko Haram was born. Islamic Court Union morphed into Al – shabab in Somalia.
It is more than clear now that those monsters were not created on the approbation of Islam. These are people fighting for their well-being and not for the sake of Islam. Mission accomplished.
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