It begins with a sense of injustice. The sensitive kids feel it most.
“The community and especially these youngsters, they see a double standard,” Sheikh Wesam Charkawi says. “They see persecution of Muslims everywhere in the world. In Palestine, in Africa, Burma and so on.
“They feel Muslims have been abandoned and believe it is their sense of duty to help.”
Charkawi worked with a group of five schoolboys some time ago. They were expressing what he calls “superficial” approval of the work of Islamist groups fighting the regime of Bashar al-Assad in Syria, and flirting openly with the idea of joining them.
For months social workers had tried to get through to the young men. Eventually the sheikh, who is based at the Auburn mosque in western Sydney, was asked to assist. [286 Comments]
[TOP RATED COMMENT 54 votes] If Muslims have a problem with the Americans, Australians, French, British, Danes, Indians, Filipinos, Thais, Myanmarese, Chinese, Nigerians, Israelis (to name a few) and themselves in almost all countries where they are in a majority then, maybe, just maybe the problem lies with Muslims themselves? So I would like to ask the Sheik if introspection is a foreign concept in Islam?
[2ND 47] "Muslim leaders work to dissipate 'fixation' with Isis among youths"
Easily done. Just tell them Islam was made up by a man and it's not true. Allah doesn't care about them or the rest of the Ummah or anything else and they're not going to paradise if they're stupid enough to get themselves killed in Iraq. They'll just be dead virgins who have wasted their chances of having fun and having lives. There, job done.
[3RD 45] Moderates should stop trying to explain away the bloodthristy quranic passages and should instead either rewrite the quran or throw it away and make a new book to blindly follow without question that hopefully would have a little less genocide and slavery in it.
[4TH 40] Far from being the source of the problem, Charkawi says the Qur’an and Islamic religious tradition provide the pathway out of violence.
This simply isn't true. Yes, there is a small number turning to extremism but they do so because of their or others interpretation of their religion. If Islamic religious tradition provided a pathway out of violence we would see evidence of this en mass. We do not. Islam is predominantly represented in violent acts around the world.
This points to there being huge a problem within Islam and this is what needs addressing. There is a problem when the government has to spend time and money on programs to tackle extremism in one specific religion.
[5TH 39] As Paul miller notes above the real issue here is that theses would be Jihadis are actually following the teachings in the Qua-ran. Further to that the so called "injustices" the author here blathers on about are on the whole self serving nonsense and the stuff upon which the "Muslim as victim" narrative is built even when they are utterly false (which they mostly are).
Islam is a religion in desperate need of a total reformation, it is, as it ever was , almost totally at odds with modern society and until Islam is either suitably reformed or ceases to be we will continue to have issues with the followers of this faith in countries like Australia
[6TH 38] Mohammed himself fought battles against his enemies in Arabia and his immediate successors spread Islam across the Middle East and North Africa and southern Europe by violent invasions. Almost from the start the history of Islam has a link to violence. It's just a fact.
Christianity also had violent periods, but they came centuries after its founding and do not have the same intimate connection with the history of the religion.
[7TH 36] I sometimes wonder, and I mean really wonder why 1.6 billion people think the creator of the heavens and the earth, knower of all things, originator of creation, designer of quantum physics and the expanding universe talks like this:
Quran (5:33) - "The punishment of those who wage war against Allah and His messenger and strive to make mischief in the land is only this, that they should be murdered or crucified or their hands and their feet should be cut off on opposite sides or they should be imprisoned; this shall be as a disgrace for them in this world, and in the hereafter they shall have a grievous chastisement"
There is no context that could explain a perfect being exhorting mankind to solve issues in such an inhumane way. Wake up guys!!!! [The Guardian] Read more
