Enemies within

This refers to Gul Muhammad’s letter, ‘Terror beneficiaries’ (Aug. 19)
You will find many people arguing that terrorism is a conspiracy waged by the West and other nations to destroy the Muslim world. However, if you ask them to condemn Al-Qaeda, Taliban, Daesh, Boko Haram, Al-Shabab and dozens of other outfits, without any ifs and buts, they will come up with tons of counter arguments, like occupation of Palestine, invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq, civil war in Syria, dismantling of long established military dictators in the Middle East. All these conspiracy theorists are never sure where they stand. As per manifesto of all these terrorist organizations and outfits, enforcement of Shariah is their only aim.
They are not manned by Christians, Hindus or Jews; their foot soldiers are so-called devout Muslims who take pride in fighting for a noble cause.
Yes, the West and other nations are definitely making good money by selling arms to all sides, but there is no point in finding the enemies outside the house when they are all around and within us and within our society.
We need to understand that we need to coexist on this planet with the remaining five billion non-Muslims, Therefore enforcing your views at gunpoint is not going to help anyone. We are pointing guns at each other by declaring some apostate and others infidel.
Let’s be frank with ourselves. Who is dear to Allah and who is not is something between a person and the Creator. Once we learn this rule, peace, inclusiveness and tolerance will return to the Muslim world.
Till that time we will keep mourning our heroes for their sacrifices. Pakistan’s Shuja Khanzada is the latest in the long list of Pakistani martyrs who gave their life fighting the forces of darkness. — Masood Khan, Jubail