Answer
Salam (Peace) Dear Andrew,
Thank you for your question and for contacting Ask About Islam.
First of all, I would like to tell you that your finding that “a large number of Islamic faithful people support terrorist type of attacks” is a hasty conclusion. But any person, who is following the media presentations of the present world events, is likely to feel so, though the truth might be different!
The media in general have a habit of highlighting the spectacular and the sensational, and they normally do not analyze events to convey the truth, but rather to confirm the prejudices of their target audiences. As a commentator has written, usually news as presented in the media is about something bad happening – war, crime, corruption, violence, natural disaster.
Good news is rarely reported… Chiefly news is uncovering whatever is bad rather than reporting whatever is good – questioning motives, searching out immorality, focusing on controversy and in general, looking for the worst in people and situations…’
Think of the “War on Terror”: The media has failed to properly show how the war was being fought against the people of Afghanistan.
The impression that was given is that all the Afghans were terrorists. Cluster bombs and food packets, which were not easy to separate from external appearance, were intermittently dropped on the starving people of that war-torn country.
The U.S media paid scant attention to this callousness on the part of “the civilized world”. But the BBC had reported it on Thursday, 22 November 2001. (Read: UN Wants End to Food Drops – by Jim Muir).
And to speak about the September 11th tragedy: TV showed the gruesome details of the events continuously for many months. In those attacks less than 3000 died, though the figure had been exaggerated earlier. But much worse instances of massacres had taken place in other countries, where the media were not so keen in telling the world what was happening.
Example, Srebrenica in Bosnia: There was about 8000 Muslims whom were slaughtered in cold blood, by the Serbians with the collusion of the Dutch “Peace Keepers” of the UN, in 1995. A large number of people were buried together after the massacre.
In certain cases, the victims were forced to dig their own graves, into which they were shot down! The women were separated from the men to be taken to places where they were raped and killed.
All this happened, and we did not hear about a “War on Terror” then. Please read how David Rohde of Christian Science Monitor uncovered the whole story in a path-breaking investigative reporting in The Rohde to Srebrenica
He wrote later in one of his articles about the U.S government policy on the matter:
“Last week, the Clinton administration made a long-awaited admission: it had not turned over, to the International War Crimes Tribunal, all evidence it has of recent mass executions of Muslims by Bosnian Serb forces. Many Bosnia watchers say the evidence may be necessary for prosecuting top Bosnian Serb leaders.”
There were many other examples of worse tragedies than the WTC attacks. But the world media would not care to give the full story there. This was because the people at the receiving end belonged to cultures and climes, “insignificant” from their point of view.
Just as the news of the massacres and suffering inflicted on certain groups is darkened by the media, good things are also obscured, when such stories disagree with the prevailing prejudices.
For example, immediately after September 11th, all the Muslim leaders condemned the attacks and the scholars gave out detailed fatwas (religious rulings) on the issues involved. But the world media were more interested in broadcasting rumors and scandalous items of news than in carrying these reports, which would have helped to clear many prevailing misunderstandings.
Indeed the alleged “mastermind” and “prime suspect” of the September 11th attacks, Osama was hailed as a hero by people in some South American countries. This is, as well as, in the Far East, by some non-Muslim people. Yet, such reports hardly saw the light of day.
Actually, I am happy that you concede to the Palestinians their right to a state of their own. In this context, I request you to regard the circumstances that led the Palestinians to adopt desperate measures:
The Jews claim that being the children of Abraham, they should get the land of Palestine promised by Jehovah to Abraham’s children. What is really funny is that the Jews do not consider the children of the first son of Abraham, Ishmael as deserving of this promise!
They believe that only the children of Isaac, the second son of Abraham deserve all the blessings from God, including the Promised Land. Their argument is against all norms of human rights or even natural justice. Still, some Christian churches also support this view.
Soon after the World War II, the British relinquished their mandate, under which they were keeping Palestine. They handed over to the UN, the responsibility of dividing the land into a Jewish state and a Palestinian state. The UN gave 56% of the land to the Jewish population who owned only 7% of the land at the time the decision was taken.
Naturally the Arabs considered this an open betrayal by the world body. Consequently fighting erupted between Arabs and Israelis and with western support the Israelis defeated the Arabs and captured most of the Palestinian territory.
On May 14, 1948, the Zionist leaders proclaimed the state of Israel and the British evacuated Palestine on the next day. As a consequence of the fighting in Palestine between 1947 and 1949, over 700,000 Palestinian Arabs became refugees.
More than 75 percent of the refugees left due to Zionist or Israeli military actions and psychological campaigns aimed at frightening Arabs into leaving, besides direct expulsions. The most infamous atrocity occurred at Deir Yasin, a village near Jerusalem, where Menachem Begin’s terrorist outfit “Irgun” killed in cold blood over 400 Arabs.
As a result of all this, the Palestinian people live as refugees in the land of their birth or under siege conditions. The largest Palestinian diaspora community, approximately 1.3 million, is in Jordan.
Many of them still live in the refugee camps that were established in 1949. From the very inception of Israel, that country, with the help of the US, has been continuously expanding its borders into Arab territory, by direct occupation.
They have been demolishing Arab homes, constructing Jewish settlements, irrespective of all the protests by the Palestinians, the UN resolutions and the appeal of all the sensible people of the world. Israel is the only country in the world without a specific border. It is also the only country that possesses nuclear bombs in the Middle East.
It is against this background that the Palestinians started a desperate last-ditch battle against Israel, through suicide attacks (martyr bombings). We do not support the idea of suicide for itself, but we support the cause of the Palestinians.
We cannot also support the attitude of those who imagine that the Israelis who come from far-off lands, to settle in Palestine, displacing the people of the Land, are completely innocent. Still, we cannot of course support those who ram planes into buildings, killing men, women and children.
Though, you should remember that Menachem Begin, led his gang to kill 400 sleeping men, women and children in Deir Yasin. In 1944-45, 100,000 British pounds, the highest reward in such cases, were offered for the head of Menachem Begin, the terrorist. The Western countries eventually changed their mind and decided to award him the Nobel Prize for Peace!
Why can’t the UN or the US – for all practical purposes the UN is the same as the US – prevent Israel from continuing its encroachment into the remaining land of the Palestinians? Why can’t the US withdraw its military support to Israel, if it continues to violate UN resolutions?
These questions are sidelined by those who blame the Palestinians for their only form of battle, which they fight with their own bodies, with their own lives. They do this, because they have no other weapon against the occupying marauders.
They have also lost all faith in the United Nations, which is at best, helpless against the unilateral decisions and actions of the United States and its protégé, Israel.
We must be wise enough to see the Palestinians’ motives and cause behind their martyr attacks. God knows best; and may He guide us!
I hope this helps answer your question.
Salam and please keep in touch.