radical muslims ?*

The vast majority of Muslims are moderate, pious people who suffer more from terrorism and violence than non-Muslims. Ninety-three percent of Muslims do not support extremist views of terrorism.

Gallup, Inc. conducted a revealing poll about Moderate vs. Extremist Views in the Muslim World.

 The meaning of the Arabic word jihad is struggle. It usually means a struggle of one’s soul against the self and sinful desires. Muslims refer to this inner struggle as the greater jihad. Muslims also have social campaigns to end poverty and hunger which they also call jihad.

 Like Christianity, there are many sects of Islam. The two major branches are Sunni and Shi’a, but there are thousands of sub-groups, each having different doctrines, their own theology, and different Islamic schools of thought and law.

 Most Muslims are moderate, pious, nonviolent people who are trying to honor God in their lives. Muslim scholars who study the Qur’an explain Islam as a religion of peace, and most Muslims see Islam as a religion of peace as well, preferring to let others live as they wish. The media has sensationalized the views of a small percentage of violent extremists as the legitimate understanding of Islam as a community seeking global domination by force.

  Leading Muslim groups and scholars constantly denounce the extreme views of violent Muslims, while teaching against and refuting radical teachings. Google “Muslims against terrorism” and you will see this.

Prominent Islamic Scholar Refutes Claims of ISIS's Links to Islam ...

America Created Al-Qaeda and the ISIS Terror Group - Global Research

 

 

 Ben Shapiro is definitely out of his mind. His definition of ''Radical'' will make more than 3/4th of World Population as radicals. 
According to him:

1. you wish for shariah law, you are radical
2. you believe in a conspiracy , you are a radical
3. you protect your country against an USA ally and you are radical
4. You support Palestinian struggle, you are radical
5. legal action against cartoonists, you are radical etc ..etc..!!

It is alright if he starts with customary praise for his Jewish religion ( we will not get into radical Jewish settlers and their violence or State of Israel), but then he goes on to use all kinds of datas just to get the top figure of radicalized Muslims in every other big Muslim country. If honor killing gets lots of numbers, lets take that, if it is Sharia law, lets take that number, support for Hamas, well you are radical, defend your country, you are counted and hence ends up with almost radical Muslims being 600 million in almost 900 million population.( by zafar ul haq )

Bill Maher and Ben Affleck are Both Wrong about Islam | Benjamin ...

 

 

As far as my understanding of islam, there is nothing like radical islam rather you say radical islamists or those claiming to be Muslims. The Quran said, There is no compulsion in religion. It also teaches us to avoid extremism.

Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him said: “The extremist fanatics are doomed.” Although extremism is not a new phenomenon, the rebel exacerbations witnessed today requires prompt action and a strong resolve. The global extremist movement driving this form of anarchy is manifested in groups known by a multitude of names hiding behind Islam to roam among the Islamic communities without drawing suspicion. Extremism does exist. Admitting this and recognizing it as a dangerous force we can better plan to weed it from society. Islamic practice is a true following of the rules of Islam and extremism is a perverted view that deviates from the meanings of the merciful and moderate Islamic shari`ah. This elucidation is presented along this backdrop.

 This elucidation explores the type of extremism and terrorism practiced under the pretext of Islam. It draws on the Quran, the sayings of Prophet Muhammad and the sayings of Muslim scholars to expose the roots of extremism and assert the just position of Islam. It also discloses revealing statements of deviant men/groups to add to the case against them. First the historical place of Islam in society is explored, then how deviations from orthodox Islam occurred and lead to the emergence of extremist ideologies manifesting historically in groups like the khawarij (dissenters) and in modern times in groups including the named al-Jama`ah al-Islamiyyah, the Wahhabis and Hizbut-Tahrir. Their actions and methodology are identified. Today, extremist movements have killed many people in Egypt, Algeria, Syria, Saudi, Iraq and other places. Based on misleading reasoning, they have killed innocents. Daring to masquerade as Muslims, these extremists have attempted to destroy the reputation of Islam and Muslims. To refute them we quote a series of statements from moderate Sunni scholars; clarifying the Sunni stand against terrorism and extremism. Finally, this paper delivers solutions and warnings including, a need for Islamic scholars, Sheikhs and Islamic religious workers to remain at the forefront of the line of defence against extremists and prevent access to the extremist books. It is recognised that this work requires qualified and diligent individuals trained in deflating the calls of the named terrorist groups and activists of today.

The Beginnings of Extremism

Historically, many people embraced Islam freeing their hearts from the odious practices of ignorance and tribalism. Those true Muslims whose hearts pacified to the call of the Prophet were a people of middle ground, fairness and justice.

Others, whose hearts did not pacify with peace of mind, had ulterior motives and emerged to spread envious gossip by attempting to split the line. They constitute the fringe sects of destruction and diseased ideologies who had to conceal themselves with the cloak of Islam to spread their evil, disrupting the harmony of Islam.

The khawarij (dissenters) are among those who appeared in the first century on the Islamic calendar and whom the Prophet peace be upon him warned against in his hadith: “There will be those that come after me who will read the Qur’an but it does not go past their throats. They leave Islam like a spear leaves a prey, and they never return to it. They are the worst of the creations.”

Extremism in Modern Times

The majority of Muslims do not subscribe to extremist ideologies and theological perversions, which is why extremists find themselves constantly challenged, striving in every era to increase their small number and expand on their fringe positioning. Consequently, extremists have always tended to overtly gather to protect and pass their distorted views to the next generation built on youth. Today the khawarij still exist despite appearing under different names. Like their elders, they pass group-blasphemy to all those outside their sects. They continue to assault, to shed blood and to extort the properties of all those who defy them, the same way their elders did with the sons of the companions of the Prophet. Except today their threat is greater especially when they are not being faced with a unified and prompt ideological counter-offensive

 The khawarij of today follow the same concepts of their elders resulting in copycat acts of terror shedding the blood of the rulers; peoples of states; Imams; contractors; journalists; ambassadors; engineers; doctors; farmers; craftsman, and old and young males and females. They call upon peoples to dissent against the leaders by way of revolutionary coup d'états and armed revolts, to hit at the infrastructure of governments and to kill its soldiers and police officers. If people refuse their calls, they apostatize them and shed their blood and extort their properties; leading to the bombing of civilian buses and to planting explosives at airports, trains, public roads. Previously they have even destroyed mosque minarets with the praise of some locals. One of their speakers here in Sydney said on a local radio station about such killing that includes the likes of people in the police force: “It’s as permissible to us as drinking water”. Let us not forget the killing and slaughtering of the kids in East Jordan on the hands of these extremists. Their activist was caught saying: “Do not prevent us from its blessing”, implying he too wanted to contribute to the cowardice slaughtering. Clearly, these and the killing of the innocent are attempts to destroy the reputation of Islam and Muslims.

 Islam Against Extremism

As mentioned already, it depends on how one defines "extremism." Assuming the news definition and common usage, CNN has a good article listing the numbers of various "Islamic" terrorist organizations (there's a whole other discussion on how the question is wrong since Islam doesn't teach unwarranted violence, but that's another question entirely). The article estimates around 106,000 individuals are members or identify with these organizations. That's a pretty high number, but let's do some high-level number crunching so we can get a better idea of how big that is.

A recent Pew Research Study places the number of Muslims worldwide to be around 1.6 ( 1.8 )billion (or 23% of the world's population). So doing some basic math, we get that about .006625% of the Muslim population are "extremist".( by tariq yusuf )

 The vast majority of Muslims unequivocally condemn terrorism. Terrorism, defined as the use of violence and threats to intimidate, coerce, or exact retribution, especially for political purposes, flagrantly violates at least three interrelated Islamic principles: respect for life, right to due process, and individual responsibility. The principle of respect for life prohibits the targeting of innocent civilians even during a state of war.

 While one cannot speak for their motivations or methodology, Muslim extremists use the Qur’an the same way that Christian extremists such as the Ku Klux Klan and Aryan Nations or Jewish extremists such as Meir Kahane and Baruch Goldstein in Israel use the Bible: by taking phrases out of context and developing interpretations that serve their agenda.

They also ignore principles of the interpretation of texts followed by legitimate scholars of religion, above all the principle that a text must be understood with reference to the time, place, and situation in which it was given. The Qur’an, like other seminal religious texts, has a dual nature: one that is specific (particular or transitional) to the occasion, time, and place, and another that is universal and permanent, dealing with principles that apply for all times and places. The specific cannot be made to apply universally, while the universal always informs the specific. Ignoring this principle leads to arbitrary interpretations tailored to fit political agendas.

Most of the terrorism committed by people claiming Islam as their motivation is justified by a methodology that bypasses the bulk of classical scholarship. Various legal issues that pertained to the majority of the Muslim community were often left to the discretion and judgement of qualified scholars. ISIS and other similar groups, however, discount the role filled by traditional scholars. They promote themselves as “scholars” and then produce rulings far removed from what Muslims traditionally would find normative, acceptable, or humane.

  Muslims have consistently and repeatedly denounced terrorism since September 11, 2001. For a large sampling of such condemnations, see this list.

Unfortunately, these statements are rarely noted in the mass media in the US, leading many people to think erroneously that Muslims have not denounced terrorism.

This question, however, could also be answered with another question: why should Muslims be expected repeatedly to condemn terrorism? Are Christians or Jews expected to denounce every irresponsible or destructive statement or action made in the name of their religions? The question seems to assume that Muslims support or condone every act committed in the name of Islam unless they specifically state otherwise. This assumption is clearly unjust and unreasonable.

 In a total world population of around 1.8 billion Muslims, radicals and terrorists are a minuscule minority. A recent article by CNN estimates the total number of members of Muslim terrorist groups as around .00625% of the world’s total Muslim population. Even if one assumes that there is a total number of Muslim terrorists several times that figure, to account for “lone wolf” extremists and currently unknown groups, one still finds only a very tiny percentage of Muslims involved in terrorism or extremist violence.

What is true is that Muslim terrorists are very much in the public eye, especially in the U.S. and Europe, to the extent that some people erroneously believe that extremist violence is unique to Muslims. There are several reasons for this:

• Many actions of Muslim (and other) terrorists are deliberately designed to draw attention. The perpetrators of the 9/11 attacks knew, and intended, that images of these atrocities would dominate news around the world. Indeed, terrorism, which, on the scale practiced today, is something new in history, is intended precisely to draw public attention to the terrorists and their grievances.
• Closely related to the foregoing fact is the reality that terrorist violence can and does strike Western countries and hence poses a real danger to their citizens; it is, therefore, inevitably a matter of legitimate concern to Western publics (although the chance of one’s being killed in a terrorist attack is about the same as being crushed by falling furniture).
• There appears to be some clear media bias to emphasizing terrorism and extremism from Muslims over that from other groups—even when terrorism from other sources poses a clear danger to people in the U.S. Until the murder of 49 patrons of a gay bar in Orlando, Florida this past June, the number of people killed by Muslim terrorists in the U.S. was actually slightly less than those killed by right-wing extremists who often identified themselves as Christians. Nonetheless, the Journal of Communication reports that 81% of domestic terrorism suspects are identified as Muslims in TV news, while the FBI reports only 6% of terrorism suspects are Muslim.

In other words, while there are only a small number of Muslim extremists and terrorists, especially in comparison to the world’s total Muslim population, they loom very large in the public mind—for reasons both legitimate and not

 Muslim peacemakers are working throughout the world building bridges between people of different faiths. We believe the work we’re doing (at ING, authors of this document) in the United States to increase religious literacy is the best antidote for conflict.

Contemporary Muslim advocates of nonviolence include Sari Nusseibeh in Palestine, Maulana Wahiduddin Khan in India, Muhammad Yunus in Bangladesh, and women leaders such as Rebiya Kadeer in the Uighur region of China and Iltezam Morrar in Palestine, who led a successful nonviolent effort to keep Israel from building its “separation wall” through the middle of a Palestinian village.

In recent history, examples of Muslim peacemakers include Abdul Ghaffar Khan, a close associate of Gandhi in India, who called nonviolence “the weapon of the Prophet” and organized the world’s first nonviolent army, the Khudai Khidmatgar or “Servants of God”; and, in Iran, the late Grand Ayatollah Muhammad ibn Mahdi al-Shirazi, a major leader among Shi’a Muslims, who upheld the tradition of Muslim nonviolence.