Muslims have to take the responsibility to fix Boko Haram and other extremist groups

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Kidnapped Nigerian school girls

May 13,
2014 – DALLAS — Finding the truth is our own responsibility, as
it brings relief to each one of us and removes fears and prejudices towards the
others. Indeed, that is the unwritten purpose of religion; to create societies
where no one had to live in fear of the other. Isn’t that the bottom line of
God’s will? As a society we have faltered in blaming the religion for the acts
of individuals.

A majority of people of faith shrink from the
responsibility of speaking up, and instead flame the blame and mess up societal
harmony even further. Here are two extreme examples of the brutes in a civilized
society like ours and “developing societies like Nigeria” in this
case.

In 2009, the words of Pastor Robert Jeffress of the First Baptist
Church of Dallas generated fear, anxieties hate and ill-will, it was him and not
the reflection of his Church, even if the congregation sheepishly clapped and
gave a standing ovation in the Church when the pastor said, “Islam is an evil
evil religion and Quraan is a book written by a false prophet” with full
passion. The religious clergy of different faiths in Dallas did the right thing,
they spoke up and together we held a conference on Quran led by Mike Mohamed
Ghouse of the World Muslim Congress, the story in video and print is captured at
www.QuraanConference.com in its entirety.

Going to the
“lower end of the civility” (per bigots) in Nigeria , Abubakar Shekau the Chief
of Boko Haram shamelessly said that, “God instructed me to sell them (the 276
girls), they are his properties and I will carry out his instructions.”
Like Pastor Jeffress he has duped his congregation and the world to believe that
it is his religion that made him do or say the the wrongs.

The Muslims
around the world have avoided their responsibility in asking Mr. Shekau to have
a conversation and acknowledge what God says in multiple verses in Quran
including 4:19 (Asad translation), “O YOU who have attained to faith! It is
not lawful for you to [try to] become heirs to your wives [by holding onto them]
against their will; and neither shall you keep them under constraint with a view
to taking away anything of what you may have given them, unless it be that they
have become guilty, in an obvious man¬ner, of immoral conduct. …” These are
innocent girls, and this man is holding them against their will.

Muslims
rightfully claim that Prophet Muhammad was a mercy to the mankind, and he was
the first law giver who liberated women from the clutches of men’s oppression,
and declared that men and women are each other’s protectors, and a woman has a
right to decide who she marries (1400 years ago, whereas she was considered a
chattel in the west until a hundred years ago), and has the right to divorce and
own her own property separately. Mr. Shekau is going against the prophet, and it
needs to be called out.

The first word revealed to the Prophet was
“Learn” and Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) had famously said, “Learn, even if you have
to go to China to learn, do it, learning is important, “he further beefed it up
by adding that a woman’s education is a must, as she must willingly sign the
marriage or a business contract and that obviously required education. Mr.
Shekau on the other hand believes education for girls is evil.

Pluralism
is the way forward; that is respecting the otherness of others and accepting the
God given uniqueness. Freedom of consciene and speech are the golden rules of
civil societies, and Islam emphasizes that there is no compulsion in
religion.

The more we push them, we essentially tell them to dig in.
Dialogue opens up opportunities with least damage and least cost. On our part in
the west, we have failed to communicate to the world that our education system
is designed to deliver good for the society at large. It is necessary for us to
learn and share about each other in a world of increasing conflicts to mitigate
and to  nurture goodwill. We had a successful event in Florida when Pastor Jones
wanted to burn 3000 copies of Quran, full report at
www.WorldMuslimCongress.com

Poor Religion has been an easy target of
blame for the evils men do, as if it is a tangible being that can be beat up,
butchered, buried and put to rest. Blaming religions does not do any good, its
like barking at the wrong tree, but getting to the individuals and having a
conversation with them increased the chances of building cohesive
societies.