When preaching becomes lethal

Whenever the acts of suicide bombing come into life, Islam becomes a candidate for the cause. The recent horror in Marib, in which seven Spanish tourists and two Yemeni men were killed, appalled everyone. Real Muslims get tired of saying repeatedly, “Islam is not like this. These are not the morals of Islam.” But why do some people think that Islam condones these acts, and that they really serve their religion?  Of course, they are wrong, but the pressing question is why they are completely convinced that this is real service to Islam. 

The fanatic way that many Islamic scholars preach is one of the major reasons for this. Some religious scholars will deny these terrorist acts, but meanwhile they keep installing in the mind of Muslim youth that hate of non-Muslims.  They also complain that when foreigners visit Yemen, they spread immorality by drinking alcohol, spreading false concepts, and brainwashing the minds of the youth. In addition, they continually put forth conspiracy theories about the west that are patently untrue.  In these ways, they succeed in creating an infinite, dangerous hate in the heart of the people, and at the same time, anger at the government for colluding with the west. Those scholars use the infinite power of their religion, which is the most forceful power. But this power is lethal when it is misused. 

Oppression under the name of God is the worst, because it is the hardest to get rid of it; therefore, many European countries have adopted secularism, in order to get rid of religious conflicts in government. It is weird that we now hear some of these same fanatic scholars condemn these brutal acts. They are the ones who raised these monsters inside those young people. Youth is energy, and young people feel that they are doing something active when doing terrorist acts, because action is preferable to just complaining about things in the mosques. They become easy prey and the most malleable targets for terrorist groups, because they are faithful to these groups and feel that they are really serving God.  The attack last year on the Yemen Observer’s former editor-in-chief Mohamed al-Asaadi and his lawyer is one simple example. 

Some religious scholars called the newspaper worse than an unbeliever after it republished the offensive Danish Cartoons, although our newspaper placed a large black X over the comics, defended the Prophet, and condemned the Danish cartoons.  Some said that we did that to give legitimacy to the west, because they said that publishing the cartoons at all showed solidarity with the west.  Some young men then attacked al-Asaadi, a devout Muslim. The same religious scholar who condemned the newspaper then denied that he urged the young people to commit the attack.  It is true that he, personally, did not push them to do that. However, his words were the motivation and the inspiration for them to do so. The young people were the perpetrators of that act, because of the way that they interpreted the whole fanatic preaching they hear every day.  

Also, the same is applicable to the assassination of Jar Allah Omar, the revolutionary and deputy secretary-general of the Yemen Socialist Party, in December 2002 by the Islamist hardliner, 26-year-old Ali Ahmad al-Jarallah. He had claimed that Omar was not believer, which is why he killed him. That horrible incident happened due to the same kind of fanatic preaching that inspired the recent incident. It is really frustrating to see these poor young men commit these acts, when their energy could be used to help the country, rather than killing themselves and hurting the future of every single Yemeni. Worse, they are happy to cause death and destruction. Please, stop this lethal inspiration to the mind of the youth. Let their young hearts and minds be filled up with love, and tolerance and with the amazing and peaceful meanings of Islam. 

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