by Ben Hughes

Created on: February 12, 2010

Religion, in any sense of the word, is not about terrorism. Religion is about love. Jesus brought love, grace and reconciliation to the word; Allah is defined by love, forgiveness and mercy; and so it is with all religions. There is no room for terrorism in religion.

However, some religious ideas have been twisted and distorted to help bring meaning and understanding to terrorism for ordinary people; and to bring terrorist acts to the forefront of religious beliefs. A main and mistaken belief is the link between Islam and terrorism.

The majority of Muslims are good, law-abiding citizens who stay faithful and loyal to the teachings of the Qur’an. However, all groups, whether religious or secular, will contain fundamentalists or extremists and Islam is no exception. Here, a minority of Muslims have misconstrued the meaning of “jihad” to mean a struggle between Islam and the rest of the world, whereby the aim of the jihad is to overcome opposition to Islam and impose the teachings of the Qur’an across the globe. However, the real meaning of “jihad” concerns the individual Muslim’s inner struggle with temptation and Shaytan (the devil). This struggle is about staying loyal and faithful to Allah, the teachings of the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) and the teachings of the Qur’an. In no way does it mention or condone terrorism or any acts of violence.

Likewise with Christianity. Jesus may have turned over the tables in the temple in disgust at the use of this holy space by the merchants, but he promoted forgiveness, humiliation and prevented his disciples from turning to anger and violence.

Even Judaism, with its Ten Commandments (“Do not murder”) do not condone violence. It may be a necessary course of action in the face of evil, but this does not mean it acknowledges acts of terrorism.

One problem is that religion appears to be hypocritical – preaching love and peace while factions are wilfully engaging in war, violence and terrorism in the name of God. Yet how can a God, creator of mankind, will His people to destroy each other. Violence is a human invention, far from the Garden of Eden, the beginning of the world and every other perfect state of nature. Violence stems from humans’ greed and selfishness and is far from the world God wants us to live in, but is the ultimate price of freewill.

Studying any religious texts will demonstrate that God is not a vicious, vengeful or destructive God and He does not preach violence or terrorism. Yet it is those who don’t follow the texts closely or want to impose their own interpretation on them who feed the link between terrorism and religion. It is these the media love to focus on and the public love to hate. It is also these people who unfortunately, yet perhaps gladly, are not really religious, despite their claims. Being religious is not about who prays the most or who can give the best interpretation of the scripture – being religious is about a personal relationship with God and it’s difficult to have a relationship with Him if you disregard His teachings about loving one another. This is why true believers in God despise acts of terrorism.

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