Jihad Watch
We frequently hear from Muslim spokesmen in the West and elsewhere that today's jihad terrorists have twisted Islam, and have misunderstood its peaceful teachings. We have on many occasions noted the fact that this alleged misunderstanding of Islam is now a worldwide phenomenon, and that misunderstanders of Islam are often Muslim clerics who have devoted their lives to the study of the religion. And one element that has been conspicuously lacking from this scenario, and that I have called for many times, is any serious attempt by those Muslims who claim that the jihadists misunderstand Islam to teach against these misunderstandings within Muslim communities, in order to blunt the force of jihadist recruitment.We have seen several countries, notably Saudi Arabia and Yemen, claim to rehabilitate jihadists using the "true" teachings of Islam, but such programs have been marked by a high rate of recidivism and a curious vagueness about just how they teach against the jihad ideology from a Muslim perspective.
And here we go again. Six years after 9/11, 10,000 jihad terror attacks later, this Indonesian group decides that it's time to do something about all this misunderstanding of Islam. What will they do? That's not clear. I wish them well, but I wish they would spell it out, so if there is anything to it at all (which the unanimous vagueness on this point renders doubtful), other Muslims could do the same thing.
"Indonesian biggest Muslim organization declares to halt terrorism," from Xinhua (thanks to all who sent this in):
JAKARTA, Jan. 25 (Xinhua) -- The Indonesian biggest Muslim organization Nahdlatul Ulema (NU) vowed on Friday to stop the spread of misteaching of Islam, which could trigger radicalism and spark terrorism in the biggest Muslim country, the chairman of the organization Hasyim Muzadi said here.
Terrorim has grown fast in recent years in the country, which was supported by poverty and lack of understanding of the true Islam, through the spread of misteaching of the religion.
Among the teaching was hatred to the West and encouragement for retaliation through jihad in the form of attacks or suicide bombings targeting on the Western people or interest in Indonesia.
Many young people had been recruited and shifted to become suicide bombers, especially those from remote areas in the country which 87 percent of its more than 220 million population are Muslim. [...]
The more-than 40-millions followers Nahdlatul Ulema had the capacity to oppose the terrorist movement up to the level of grass root, said Muzadi.
"The Nahdlatul Ulama has a capacity to halt it (the spread of terrorism). The NU has an obligation to stop it. The (NU followers) at the grass root stage can be used to stop it," he told a press conference after meeting with President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono at the State Palace here.
The chairman of the NU said that tens of millions of members of the organization spreading across the archipelago would be a bastion of the spread of the wrong deliberation of Islam by terrorists.
"Should the followers of the Nahdlatul Ulema at the stage of grass root was already sterilized from the extremism, that would be very easy to stop the spread of the misteaching of Islam," he said.
Muzadi said that a proactive moves would be conducted to the community about the true Islam.
"We gave sermon to the people about how is the right teaching of Islam," he said.
Terorist has misinterpretated a Koranic verse about the legality for revenge through suicide bombings on infidels.
How does one interpret it correctly?
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