Removing terrorism from pervasive Muslim stereotyping

On the morning of Sept. 11, the first comment of one of my colleagues on the terrorist attacks was "I hope they are not the Palestinians." As a Muslim, this sentence, which was another example of the common habit of associating any terrorist activity with Muslims from whatever nation they may be, hurt me as much as the tragic event that was taking place. But I should confess that I cannot accuse my friend because of her thoughts. I think the people to be accused are some minorities that misinterpret Islam and others who present these minorities as representative of the Muslims all around the world. It is another fact that most of the time the true reasons behind the terrorist activities are shadowed by the religion of the perpetrators. Unfortunately, the way the media presents these activities without thorough investigation makes it more difficult for to resolve the situation.

Here I would like to state that Islam is a religion of peace and tolerance. Anyone who looks at the sources of Islam (Qur'an and Sunnah) cannot find anything against the above statement. I would like to continue my words by mentioning some sentences from a contemporary scholar of Islam, M. Fethullah Gulen: "The world should be assured that, although there may always be some who exploit any religion for their interests, Islam does not approve of terrorism in any form . . . No terrorist can be a Muslim, and no true Muslim can be a terrorist. Islam orders peace and the Qur'an demands from each true Muslim that he or she be a symbol of peace and support the maintenance of basic human rights."

History has witnessed many crimes and wars in the name of religion. Now we are at the beginning of a new century and I, as a young Muslim, pray for and hope that it will be a century of peace among people of different religions who try to understand one another's beliefs, instead of choosing the easy way of accusing each other.