Religion

Islam, ISIL, and the war on terror

Since the terrorist attacks on september 11, 2001 (aka 9/11) Us Americans have, in general, viewed Islam as a religion of violence and hate. But, that's not exactly true. As I mentioned in the first chapter, there is nothing in the Qur'an that relates to violence against 'infidels' (Non-muslims) Yes, the Muslim Arabs did conquer the Middle East, North Africa, and most of the Iberian peninsula (Spain and Portugal) but unlike ISIL, for the most part, accepted religious tolerance. Sure, they did sack some zoroastrian fire temples and confiscate the goods there during the military operations, but were much more tolerant than the Byzantines or Sassanids.

In fact, the muslims respected christian churches as holy places and shared them with christian leaders, and many muslim leaders worked with their christian counterparts during the Umayyad era. Until 718, when the failed siege of Constantinople led to muslims resenting the non-muslims, as well as restrictions been put in place. Along with classifying people according to religion, instead of social structure, that was the worst that happened to the non-muslims living in Arab held areas. Not to bad compared with what ISIL has been doing.

Back to ISIL. They were in the news a lot recently, until Donald Trump ran for president. But whatever. ISIL claims they do despicable stuff such as destroy ancient monuments, in the name of god, which is completely dumb. They have also called upon the world's muslims to launch a global jihad. 

About the 'global jihad.' that doesn't make any sense. Why? Because jihad doesn't mean 'holy war,' it means struggle, either a war or struggle against unbelievers (in Islam) and the spiritual struggle within oneself against sin. The former makes some sense when talking about ISIL, but as it has two meanings, it is up for debate. 

Our war on terror is a little bit like our war on drugs. Hear me out. 

Yes, we have made some progress, but I think we have done more harm than good. Why? We have destroyed thousands of lives in both wars, with mandatory minimums and drone strikes. I feel that the progress we have made doesn't equal what we have lost.

This is the last part of this story, as I want to take a break from religion for now. I will be writing more since I don't have school anymore.

Next story...

I'll be writing what I think of non religious topics