Misguided into Thinking about Armed Jihad

So there is yet another member of my community who is sadly convinced that armed violence is justified and this is grave news. At least the Inter-Religious Organisation has quickly stepped in to voice their faith that the person detained does not represent our whole Muslim community. My non-Muslim friends also know that the majority of Muslims do not support violent jihad but they admit that there will always be others who just want to focus that Islam condones terrorism. People would always believe what they want to believe in, just like the deviant preachers who use religion to justify their anti-US politcs e.g. Anwar al-Alwaki, Osama bin Laden. What is left for us Muslims to do is to continue stressing to fellow Muslims and non-Muslims that such individuals bent on violence go against the teachings of Islam and use the Quran and Hadith selectively. Insyahallah more and more people would be convinced that Islam is a religion of peace.




Ties among religious leaders remain strong: IRO president
By S Ramesh | Posted: 06 July 2010 1814 hrs
Channel News Asia
     

SINGAPORE : Singapore's Inter-Religious Organisation President, Venerable Sik Kwang Sheng, has said he is confident that the latest ISA detention case will not affect relations amongst the different religious leaders.

He told Channel NewsAsia that those detained formed a small minority of the Malay-Muslim community and they do not represent the community at large.

He stressed that over time, the rapport between the leaders of the Malay community and the other religious leaders has grown with trust being built amongst one another.

Furthermore, Venerable Sik added that the Malay community leaders have done a lot to tackle the challenge of self-radicalisation.

He said he is confident that with close cooperation with authorities, the matter will be well handled.

That is a view shared by Muhd Faiz, the president of Darul Arqam or the Muslim Converts' Association of Singapore.

Mr Faiz also said that education is the key to stopping self-radicalisation cases.

He said: "There's free access on the Internet, so curbing it, shutting down the sites is not a feasible solution and I feel that the best way is through education, which means strengthening the community. The Muslim community must rally together to self-police the propagation of such radical ideas."

One way to do so, he said, is to ensure better access to qualified religious teachers. This would ensure that those seeking religious advice would not turn to the Internet for answers. He added that the Muslim community should also watch out for tell-tale signs of radicalisation.

Meanwhile, the chairman of the Hindu Advisory Board, Mr R Bawajee, said the latest detention by the Ministry of Home Affairs was a case of someone being misguided by self radicalisation.

He said as a result of this, there should be no notion of distrust of the Malay-Muslim community.

Going forward, Mr Bawajee cautioned that everyone must be vigilant about cases of self-radicalisation because this could happen to individuals of other communities too.