The parents of Muhammad Youssef Abdulazeez, the lone gunman who killed four US Marines in Tennessee, wonder how their son’s suffering from depression led him to embark on a ‘heinous act of violence.”
It’s easy to say that the family was not aware of his transformation into an extremist. But all this didn’t happen overnight. It’s being reported that a night before the attack Youssef sent a text message to a friend wherein he quoted excerpts from a Hadith — “Allah, the Exalted said: Whosoever shows enmity to a friend (wali) of mine, I have declared war against him.”
It’s Hadith that says how Allah deals with those who maltreat devout Muslims, but apparently Youssef took its meanings out of context and went into action the very next day.
Apparently it’s an issue of interpretation (or misinterpretation) of religious scriptures and how an individual or his group twist certain holy verses or a Hadith to justify an act of horror.
Terrorists who attacked Army Public School in Peshawar last December or those who beheaded Pakistani soldiers also came up with justification from scriptures.
Daesh is now running a full-fledged government, beheading its opponents and those taking up fight, enslaving women, enforcing a distorted interpretation of religion at gunpoint; no one is able to challenge them on ideological front.
Religious scholars — of any religion — need to come up with alternative narratives to counter terrorist outfits’ misleading propaganda. Or else, they will keep producing, despite military offensive against them, waves of brainwashed zombies ready to kill or be killed to “enter paradise.”
Time is running out as fight against logic, peace, harmony, inclusiveness is getting intensified. — Masood Khan, Jubail
Misinterpreting the faith
