The Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Saad Abubakar III, recently expressed regret about the fact that Muslim extremists make Islam look bad and have turned it into “a bashing boy…because people hold it responsible for the misdeeds of a few.” His Eminence, the Sultan, who is the spiritual leader of Nigerian Muslims and the President, Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs, then urged his faithful followers to be peaceful and to work hard to improve their religion’s ailing reputation. I really feel for the Sultan and for all decent Muslims who abhor the terrible crimes against humanity that are being committed, not just in Nigeria but worldwide, by psychopathic outlaws who claim to be super-devout Islamic warriors.
The activities of these marauding murderers is costing Muslims so much goodwill in many nations that have been subjected to suicide bombings and other acts of savagery. And many non-Muslims now view ALL Muslims with intense suspicion or burning hatred and regard Islam and its adherents as intrinsically evil. Muslim population The sad irony is that when outrages like the Brussels bombings of March 22 take place, Muslims – women and children included – also get caught up in the carnage. The Sultan and other principled Muslim dignitaries frequently point out that it is only a “few” individuals who are creating mayhem. And they are right in the sense that the number of active Muslim terrorists – or terrorist-sympathisers – is far exceeded by the number of Muslims who are not remotely interested in terrorism. However, the “few” are still a significant percentage of the overall Muslim population. And I would like to understand why so many Muslims are so full of blinding rage and so determined to destroy their own societies and The West.
I can see why impoverished and neglected Nigerian Muslim youths in the North-East might become emotionally brutalized and regard Boko Haram as an option. But I don’t see why so many Muslim youths are embracing extremism in essentially liberal countries in which everyone can count on basic necessities and thrive. In the UK, for example, hundreds of Muslim youngsters (whose parents emigrated from Pakistan, Somalia, etc) have benefitted enormously from the best that Britain has to offer – the welfare state, free education, free healthcare and so on. And yet, they (girls as well as boys) have bitterly turned their backs on their adopted country and abandoned their studies. Several are highly intelligent and could easily have become doctors, lawyers or whatever; but they have chosen to take off to Syria, Iraq and other war zones, to risk their lives by fighting for ISIS. Why?
My sister works for a local government area in London that has a lot of ethnic minority inhabitants; and she regularly interacts with non-White youngsters and tells me that many feel alienated and discriminated against by the White majority. I grew up in the UK and have not personally experienced much racism. But my father was a VIP and I went to elite British schools; and I’m humbly willing to accept that rampant racism is a reality for less privileged non-White UK residents.
However, non-White Christian kids from ordinary backgrounds face the same challenges as non-White Muslims from ordinary backgrounds in the UK. So why are the former much less prone to joining terrorist organisations than the latter? THIS is the question that Muslim leaders need to address. Christianity has a bloodthirsty past – history books provide us with gory details about the Inquisition, the Crusades, the anti-Jewish pogroms and so on. And the Christians of today are not saints either! There are violent Christian militants in the Niger Delta and homicidal Christian militias in the Central African Republic and nasty Christians wreaking havoc in numerous other locations. But Islamic terrorism is particularly widespread and particularly effective and particularly lethal and particularly worrying; and I don’t have a clue how this global menace can be eradicated. I’m not even sure that it can ever be eradicated. But it’s cheering to hear influential Muslims like the Sultan admitting that a serious problem exists. One can only pray that solutions can be found.
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