I shuddered on Thursday evening when I heard the news that a gunman had opened fire at a US military recruitment center in Chattanooga, Tennessee. “I hope he’s not Arab and Muslim,” I told my mother as we watched the news on the television.
Unfortunately, I was proved wrong. The gunman, Muhammad Youssef Abdulazeez, 24 years old, was born in Kuwait to a Kuwaiti mother and a Palestinian father, but grew up in the US. According to interviews with high school and college friends of his, he was friendly, funny and observant, praying five times a day and fasting during Ramadan. He had a degree in electrical engineering, was on his college wrestling team, and from all accounts came from a well-rounded and socially integrated family that was well-liked by all in the neighborhood they lived in.
So what could have gone wrong to provoke this outburst of violence that saw Abdulazeez kill four Marines and later be shot dead by police in his car? Time magazine quoted the SITE Intelligence Group which said the gunman maintained a blog in which he wrote about his thoughts on Islam.
In one post, Abdulazeez emphasized the importance of studying Islam in order to gain rewards after death. “Don’t let the society we live in deviate you from the task at hand,” he wrote adding: “This life is short and bitter and the opportunity to submit to Allah may pass you by.”
He also urged other Muslims not to listen to “other prisoners,” including so-called ‘scholars’ or even your own family members, said Time magazine.
So once again we have a lone gunman, male, in his early 20’s, Muslim, deliberately go and attack persons in a civilian setting and then be killed himself. Just a few weeks ago we had the gunman in Tunisia who mowed down foreign tourists on the beach at Sousse, who in his mind were probably thought of as dirty infidels for drinking alcohol and baring their bodies in public, and all of this during the month of Ramadan no less.
He too was said to come from a “normal” family, even having dabbled in hip-hop music a few years ago. He obviously did not stop to think about how dependent Tunisia is on tourism, and that perhaps having a national debate and voting on new restrictions on tourists, rather than shooting them on the beach, would be a much better way to deal with resentment against them.
What can be concluded from these attacks is that our youth are being reached by a distorted version of Islam that is enflaming them and encouraging them to go out and commit these acts of terrorism, all in the name of Islam. It is also causing a huge anti-Muslim and anti-Islam backlash in the West that is seriously damaging the reputation of our religion and putting the safety of millions of Muslims living in non-majority Muslim countries at risk.
Muslim states for too long have been complacent about this growing threat that started after the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. I have not seen a concerted and coordinated effort to defend, promote and explain Islam and the Muslim way of life to non-Muslims around the globe. Too often we feel that we do not need to do this, using the argument that the terrorists of Daesh and Al-Qaeda do not by far represent the majority of Muslims. This may be so, but that does not exempt us from reacting proactively to what is happening to us and our religion. No one else is going to defend Islam as eloquently or as thoroughly as Muslims themselves. For sure, we have many non-Muslim allies, but in the end they will not feel it is a life or death issue for them. For us it is.
Arab countries in particular should put together an all-encompassing campaign to educate non-Muslims about Islam and to counteract the many unfair attacks that our faith is suffering in the West on a daily basis. The amount of garbage that I read about Islam in the US and Brazil, is incredible and outrageous. We need to do educational campaigns through TV, radio and Internet programs; have cultural exchange programs to bring more young students to live and study in Muslim countries, and actively defend local Muslim communities under attack in non-Muslim countries.
Thank God we have the financial means to do this. All we need now is the courage, determination and vision to implement various such programs before it is too late and we witness new Crusades against Islamic countries. That is something we never want to see again.
