Prophet Muhammad said:

“At the end of time there will be young men, they are young in age, they have empty intellect, faith will not go past their throats. They will read the Quran but beyond their throats i.e. they won’t understand it, so you find some non Muslims pick up the Quran and say “this Quran preaches terrorism.”

No, the Quran is the furthest away from terrorism but they have not understood the Quran.

The Quran has verses of history where history is recorded, they translate it as though they are commands for me and you.

Nay they are not commands. When Allah says:

{Fight those who have fought you.}

He has addressed it to those people at the time of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him).

Then Allah says:

{Drive them out of the same place that they drove you out from.}

What was that place? It was Makkah. The believers were driven out of Makkah so Allah is instructing them that “now, you have the permission to drive them back out of there.”

So none of us should interpret those verses the way non Muslims want us to interpret the verses today; and, in turn, call us a bunch of terrorsits. May Allah protect us. We aren’t that.

Islam is full of peace and all of us need to understand that. So we must not fall in the trap.

We need to know these verses are connected to issues that occurred in history; we need to learn from them.

There are people in the world of Islam who do act in a manner that is against Islam, which you can label as terrorism… no doubt in my mind, I know it, you know it, there is no point in denying it… but it’s not fair to judge Islam for the actions of some Muslims; otherwise all Christians are crusaders, but they aren’t, and all Jews are Zionists but they aren’t.

We know there are groups amongst every religion that are military, but let me tell you in terms of the teachings: we believe that there is war because you have the right to defend yourself; otherwise, if defending yourself was a crime, then I call on to all the countries in the world to throw their weapons in the ocean.

But they won’t, they have army, navy, marine,… why? Because someone may attack us and we have to be ready to defend our soil, our land, honor, our whatever.

Islam is what? Islam is a nation like any nation and we have equal rights. But you tell me a nation which says to the people “don’t kill women, don’t kill children, don’t kill worshipers,… whatever religion… he is in his church, he is in his temple, whatever he may be, don’t approach them.

“don’t burn a tree, don’t destroy a house, don’t kill an animal, don’t betray, don’t act treacherously.”

Which nation on earth applies these in their warfare?

None.

They bomb milk factories, they bomb children, they bomb women right before our eyes… and they are not terrorists, they say we are terrorists! Subhanallah!

Some Muslims misrepresent Islam through violent acts such as going to a supermarket or a train station and bombing themselves in the name of Allah, we say Islam is the first to say this is prohibited.

First you can not commit suicide.

Second, you can’t kill innocent civilians.

What Islam permits is that if the two armies meet, like armies are meeting all the time, then you have the right to do what to do in the battlefield. People buying vegetables to have lunch are not included. So to kill them in the name of Allah is oppression. The Prophet said:

“The believer will remain within the margins of his religion unless he spills blood illegally.”

Once he kills one innocent soul, he will be held responsible by Allah and it may be the reason he will enter the hellfire.