From: RANU CHOWDHURY <ranu51@hotmail.com>
To: Zahid Zamir <ibnzamir@hotmail.com>; bd journalists <bd_journalists@yahoogroups.com>; notun Bangladesh <notun_bangladesh@yahoogroups.com>; reform-bd <reform-bd@yahoogroups.com>; Zoglul Zoglul <zoglul@hotmail.co.uk>; BDPANA@yahoogroups.com <bdpana@yahoogroups.com>; ovimot yahoogroups <ovimot@yahoogroups.com>; la-discussion <la-discussion@googlegroups.com>; pfc-friends <pfc-friends@googlegroups.com>; chottala <chottala@yahoogroups.com>; ibnmasum <ibnmasum@gmail.com>; BANGLADESH C.FORUM <bdesh_cul.forum@yahoo.com>; farhad mazhar <farhadmazhar@hotmail.com>; Faruque Alamgir <faruquealamgir@gmail.com>; Dr FM Kamal kamal <info@drfirozmahboobkamal.com>
Sent: Tue, Jan 13, 2015 11:03 pm
Subject: {PFC-Friends} RE: An article in the Daily Star
Thanks for your excellent article. But I feel it was one-sided. I posted the following comments, but not sure if it went. I don't do FB, nor did I sign up for the TDS.
Regards,
RC
Excellent piece. Good quotes from the Holy Quran. These quotes should be widely circulated. But there is one aspect missing in the article. One does not become a thief out of nothing. To start with, want or deprivation makes one a thief, then it becomes his habit and then a profession. Similarly one is not born with a seal of terrorist. Circumstances force him/her to be one. Once someone becomes a professional terrorist, he will put forward any argument to justify his/her action. To root out terrorism, one must go to the root cause and try to remove those causes. Treating the patient is okay, but treating the disease is more important. But few will attempt that, other than blaming and condemning the terrorist and the terror acts. Everybody knows the underlying cause of the mid-east problems but nobody will dare to fix it.
Lately there are many theories in the print to suggest that much of the terrorist activities of the past were state-sponsored. Therefore, it is difficult to apportion the blame.
From: ibnzamir@hotmail.com
To: bd_journalists@yahoogroups.com; notun_bangladesh@yahoogroups.com; reform-bd@yahoogroups.com; ranu51@hotmail.com; zoglul@hotmail.co.uk; bdpana@yahoogroups.com; ovimot@yahoogroups.com; la-discussion@googlegroups.com; pfc-friends@googlegroups.com; chottala@yahoogroups.com; ibnmasum@gmail.com; bdesh_cul.forum@yahoo.com; farhadmazhar@hotmail.com; faruquealamgir@gmail.com; info@drfirozmahboobkamal.com
Subject: An article in the Daily Star
Date: Mon, 12 Jan 2015 16:50:16 -0500
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Thursday, January 15, 2015
[mukto-mona] Re: {PFC-Friends} RE: An article in the Daily Star/ Terrorism and Islam
Islam and terrorism: response to Zahid B. Zamir's article in the Daily Star, January 14, 2015
Zahid Zamir rightly decries terrorism and many, me included, will agree with him. Under the denunciation, however, lies the facile, age-old assertion that Islam is a religion of peace, and that terrorism cannot be compatible with such a faith. "The word Islam came," he says "from the same Arabic root as the word peace." End of story? Have we not heard it a million times? (Incidentally, "Islam" can also be said to have been derived from, "submission" to the will of Allah.) As usual, there are quotes from the Koran and storied from hadith purporting to show how peace-loving Allah wants Muslims to be. While there are many words, there are precious little facts and history.
It is the height of irony that Mr. Zamir invokes Robespierre, who "first used terrorism by sending thousands of people to Guillotines." I ask him to cast his mind some fourteen hundred years back. Terror by execution has a history that long predates the Reign of Terror under the French Revolution. Look at the scene that follows, for example.
The year is 5 A.H. The besieged Jewish tribe of Banu Qurayzah has surrendered to the Prophet of Islam. The men of the tribe, numbering anywhere between 600 and 900, are lined up. Then, one by one they are beheaded, 'Ali and Zubayr, the Prophet's companions, leading the slaughter. Trenches dug to receive the blood of the victims fill up. The high heavens fill up with the wails of women and children. The Prophet personally beheads the only woman condemned to die.
The terror of 5 A.H. is a historical fact, recorded, among others, by the historian Al- Tabari, and I am sure Mr. Zamir knows it. Yet in his mind it is eclipsed by the terror of the French Revolution. Neither does he mention assassinations ordered by the Prophet of Islam. Among them was the killing of Ka'ab bin-al Ashraf, a Jewish poet. Apparently the man was not well disposed towards the Prophet and is reported to have written poems satirizing him. (Smacks of Charlie Hebdo?) According to Sahih Al-Bukhari the Messenger of God said "Who will kill Ka'b bin al- Ashraf who has hurt allah and His Messenger?" A companion promptly agreed to kill the ruffian. The assassination was duly accomplished. Soon after, Abu Rafi, another Jew, was assassinated. Sahih Al-Bukhari describes the killing in considerable detail. After the killing, the assassin, by the name of Atik, told his accomplices that Allah has killed Rafi, and went on to report to the Prophet that the mission had been accomplished.
These blood-letting and cruelty speak louder than any of Mr. Zamir's pious wishes and quotations, and I have only so much time to deal with them. Muslims who have so far been content with the "Islam- is- a- religion -of- peace" slogan alone must think harder.
Talking of that history, it is gorier than the above accounts may suggest. Much of the present acts of barbarism by the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant, ISIS, has been inspired by history of the caliphate that followed the Prophet's death. Starting with the rule of caliph 'Uthman, the third Rightly Guided caliph, bloodshed started among Muslims themselves, with each belligerent faction claiming right on its side. Among the factions were the Khawarij, perhaps the most blood-thirsty. This is that caliphate the ISIS takes to, with its Khawarij faction as its role model. It is also that mirage of the Rightly Guided caliphs many 'true' still Muslims look up to. Mr. Zamir seems oblivious of that bloody history.
It has become routine for Islamists to present selective readings of the Koran and then assume that is all that is needed to 'prove' that Islam is a religion of peace and love This is no place to go into this issue in detail. Mr. Zamir's citation of several verses of the Koran purporting to urge men to treat fellow human beings with kindness and love call to my mind these verses of the Koran:
For the worst of the beasts in the sight of God are those who reject Him…(8.55)
And:
O ye who believe! Truly the Pagans are unclean, so let them not, after this year of
theirs, approach the Sacred Mosque. (9.28)
One naturally wonders if it is possible for humans to love those whom God damns so utterly?
Mahfuzur Rahman
-----Original Message-----
Mr. Zamir,
-- Assalamu' Alaikum. Here is an article of mine published in today's daily star on Islam and Terrorism . Here is the link for your information. please pen a few sentences in the comment section after you are done reading. Although Daily star has reduced the size from 1700 words to 1000 words, the message still gets across.
Waassalam.
Zahid
Posted by: "mahfuzur@aol.com" <mahfuzur@aol.com>
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