Recently an insane person attacked many people in the City of London near the parliament building.
For days after the attacks the global media including CNN, BBC could not find enough adjectives to describe the incident. Phrases like “Islamic extremism, Islamic fanatics’, Islamic terrorism, Islamic radicalism were bantered about as if the entire investigation was concluded hours after the event.
We now know that the person guilty of the attack acted alone, was mixed race, from white and black parents in Britain, not from the Middle East and not born Muslim but ostensibly embraced Islam.
While I cannot deny if his Islam was genuine or not, some basic facts require absolute clarity.
According to Islam there is no such thing as collateral damage in war. This explains that innocent people that are not part of a conflict cannot be engaged or harmed in any way. Thus to knock-down ordinary people walking on a pavement cannot be excused. Any act that harm civilians are measured as murder or the conduct of a deranged person. Islam goes much farther and clarifies that however spills a single drop of blood of another person will answer to God for the spillage as nobody can create a drop of blood hence nobody can spill blood without a just cause like self-defense etc.
Again, harming civilians is not considered a just cause and thus the person who drove over the innocent people on the bridge in London cannot consider his actions justifiable.
In truth, that person has brought calamity on Muslims because of his actions and can be measured an enemy of Islam and the global Muslim community for generating unrequired Islamophobia.
The actions of a Muslim cannot be equated in any way to that of another with regards to war. Whilst, the Americans, Israeli’s and British and so on may have the ability and temperament to drop bombs from drones onto innocent people, Muslims are governed by a very different criterion.
Therefore, the next time a criminal kill, injures or maims innocent people in London, New York or Karachi, it is vital to note, the persons Islam is arguable even if that person thinks, he is Muslim.
While anyone can claim to be a Muslim, Islam does not work according to whims and fancies. It is a way of life that is governed by a many divinely ordained laws and prescribes that are not negotiable.
While many among us Muslims error, some more than others, like other people of different religions and cultures, the murder of innocent people in the name of Islam is indefensible.
The murder of an innocent, non-combatant Jew, Christian, Muslim or any other is offensive to God.
Cllr Yagyah Adams
Cape Muslim Congress