Terrorism

            A bomb goes off in a marketplace in Jerusalem. A suicide bomber launches himself into a bus full of women and children in Tel Aviv. Foreign tourists get massacred at a holiday resort in Luxor, Egypt. Villages upon villages get annihilated in Algeria. The list of events worldwide which have come to symbolize the "Islamic Terror" are endless. From the times in the 70's and 80's when Pan Am, and TWA airplanes were hijacked, to the mid 80's in war torn Lebanon where Americans and Europeans would be held as hostages for years, to the bombing of the World Trade Center; all such incidents have come to be identified with the religion Islam. Such incidents from past and present have undoubtedly affected Muslims worldwide. Any Muslim who wants to practice his or her religion and express the desire to live under the banner of Islam is labeled a fundamentalist or extremist. Any Muslim man who walks down a busy street in London or Paris with a beard and a scarf on his head, is looked upon as being a terrorist, who probably has an AK47 stashed somewhere on their body. Muslim women who are veiled can't go anywhere in the Western world without being taunted as being oppressed or being mad for covering themselves up. However, are such beliefs about Islam really justified?.
             One of the many shortcomings which has arisen is judging Islam by the conduct of a minority of its people. So what is the reality of Islam? How does one dispel the myths which have been created and spread so viciously? The only way to examine Islam fairly is to look at its belief system. Look at its sources, the Qur"an and Sunna, and see what they have to say. This is the way to find the truth about what Islam says about terror, terrorism, and terrorists. The very name Islam comes from the Arabic root word "salama" which means peace. Islam is a religion that is based upon achieving peace through the submission to the will of Allah.