By Dr. John Andrew Morrow
“And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?” (Matthew 7: 3-5)
“Muslims are terrorists,” we are told, time and again, by war-mongering politicians for profit, the servants of the global elites, the corporate media, and the billions of debt-slaves that populate a planet on the verge of military and man-made ecological disaster. All too often, meek-minded Muslims are put on the defensive. “Islam is a religion of peace,” they apologetically answer when, perhaps, they should take the offensive. “Bad dogs!” “Bad dogs!” Muslims are told, bowing their heads in shame, seeking to please their masters. Apart from Takfiri terrorists, the proverbial dogs of Hell, Muslims do not belong to the canine class. However, rather than allow themselves to be punished, and whine like weaklings, they should sometimes growl, bark or bite, in a metaphorical manner. After all, as a wise guy once said, “we are not animals.” Sometimes the best answer is to be found in a question. So, when we are accused individually, and all Muslims are condemned collectively, we should show the master man exactly where we stand and remind him of his history upon the land.
Who killed over 100 million indigenous people during the conquest and colonization of the Americas? Muslims? Who brought 10 to 15 million African slaves to the Americas during the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade? Muslims? Who caused the deaths of 5 million African slaves during the Middle Passage? Muslims? Who killed approximately half a million Aboriginal people in Australia? Muslims? Who massacred 10 million Congolese from 1865 to 1909? Muslims? Who started World War I which resulted in 40 million deaths and 25 million wounded? Muslims? Who started World War II which resulted in 70 to 85 million deaths and more than 100 million wounded, without even counting the 30-50 million Chinese civilians massacred by Japan? Muslims? Who dropped the nuclear bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki killing two hundred and fifty thousand civilians? Muslims? Who was behind the massacre of one million Rwandans in 1994 by machete, club, and gun? Muslims? Who was behind the massacre of one million Algerians between 1954 and 1962 and then between 1991 and 2002? Muslims? Who created terrorist groups and labeled them “Muslims,” in order to commit atrocities (namely 9/11, Bin Laden, the Taliban, al-Qaeda, ISIS, DAESH, Boko Haram, and others)? Muslims? What is certain is that there are Muslims who allowed themselves to be duped into serving the sponsors of terrorism due to their ignorance of the Covenants of the Prophet Muhammad with the members of other religions, treaties of peace, pluralism, and co-existence that were applied for over 1300 years.
When the Israelis expel one million Palestinians and steal their land, that is not terrorism. When the United States murder over one million civilians in Vietnam, that is not terrorism. When Israel kills more than 20,000 civilians during their 1982 invasion of Lebanon, that is not terrorism. When the Serbs rape fifty-thousand Muslim women in Bosnia and twenty-thousand women in Kosovo, that is not terrorism. When the United States destroys 1.5 to 3 million lives in Iraq, out of its greed for oil, that is not terrorism. When Western powers kill over 31,000 civilians in Afghanistan, that is not terrorism. When American drones kill over one thousand civilians in Yemen since 2002, that is not terrorism. When militant groups that are armed, trained, and supported by the West massacre half a million people in Syria in recent years, they are not considered terrorists: they are freedom fighters. However, when Muslims try to defend themselves, that is terrorism! Westerners should learn some wisdom from Hollywood for once. As Han Solo said, “It’s their planet. We’re the hostiles.” It seems that the term “terrorist” only applies to Muslims in the same way that the label “savage” was applied to the millions of freedom fighters who died fighting against colonialism. The thief is the one who always cries: “Thief! Thief!” As history has shown us all too well, imperialist terrorists always accuse those they are going to massacre of being terrorists. See how they demonize us when they wish to destroy us. Remember the facts and remember them well. As R.J. Rummel, a scholar from the University of Hawaii, established after a lifetime of study, 50 million human beings died as a result of colonialism during the 20th century. And Western colonialism lasted for centuries. Consider the catastrophic loss of human life caused by self-identified white Christians and secularists. If self-professed Christians and self-righteous secularists claim that Muslims are terrorists, they should take a good long look in the mirror.
We, Muslims, do not call to violence. Evidently, we are not oblivious to the fact that there are those who claim to be Muslims, some of whom even lead Muslim-majority states, who dedicate themselves to slaughtering other Muslims. They are not dogs that move their heads and tails to show how happy they are to have anti-Muslim masters. They are blood-thirsty mastiffs, Dogo Argentinos, Presa Canarios, Fila Brasileiros, and Boer Bulls, the most vicious breeds of dogs in the world, who were trained to commit the filthiest outrages, rapes, and murders. We do not belong to this breed of so-called Muslims. Rather, we belong to those believers who encourage awareness of the truth, strive for justice, and work for peace. While we empathize with the victims of Takfiri terrorists, and denounce their atrocities, we express our condolences but not our apologies. We are not responsible for actions that we did not commit. We are not the terrorists of the time. We are the greatest victims of the terrorists of the time. And while we oppose terrorism, we, as human beings, reserve the right to resist oppression and occupation. Consequently, we call upon all those who fight for what is right to respect the rules of just war even when our enemies, both internal and external, fail to respect them.
Dr. John Andrew Morrow chairs The Covenants of the Prophet Foundation. He received his PhD from the University of Toronto where he studied Hispanic, Indigenous and Islamic studies. He has published hundreds of scholarly articles and dozens of academic books, including Finding W.D. Fard, Islam and the People of the Book, Restoring the Balance, The Words of God to Prophet Muhammad, Islamic Images and Ideas, Religion and Revolution, Islamic Insights, the Encyclopedia of Islamic Herbal Medicine, and Arabic, Islam, and the Allah Lexicon. His most influential work is The Covenants of the Prophet Muhammad with the Christians of the World, which is available in English, Spanish, Italian, Arabic, and Indonesian.
Dr. John Andrew Morrow 