The bloodsheds, massacres, and homicides of the world wars were turning out as a distant memory but the growing terrorism crashed the peace plans and shook the entire world. Taking the instances of 26/11, Christchurch attacks or the blasts in Sri Lanka, the brutal manslaughtering conferred an added dimension. However, isn’t it astonishing that these extremists are identified as the constituents of religious groups despite of reckoning the fact that they are mere subversives and a threat to humanity? Are Islamic fundamentals interpreted or distorted?
“Much of the success of Islamic fundamentalism is based in ignorance or in manipulating other peoples’ ignorance of what the religion is and what the Quran says.” These golden words of Shakir Mustafa, teaching professor of Arabic at Northeastern University delineated the disconcerting fact that the emergence of ISIS has just played a handy part in renaming the fanatics as the Islamic ones. He exclaimed that the only botheration is that the religious extremists in Middle Eastern countries have co-opted the phrase as a rallying cry, falsely referencing the Quran to claim Islamic superiority over all other religions. The Arabic professor comprehended “The phrase ‘Allahu akbar’ in the form that these extremists are using it simply does not appear in the Quran”.
Heather Littlefield, professor of linguistics at Northeastern University, echoed Mustafa’s sentiment, noting that it’s not the words themselves that are firearms, but rather that they’re being manoeuvred to mean something they don’t. If anyone hears this beautiful music: ‘Allahu akbar.’ Islamic fundamentalists realised the kind of reverence the phrase has for Muslims, it has just been the terrorising claims for the non-Muslims. Compounding the problem is a growing fear among non-Arabic speakers over the intent and meaning of the phrase.
Harminder Singh