Islamism and Terrorism - Essay Example

This paper seeks to refute this controversial claim by supporting that Muslims are not terrorists. Undeniably, there have been extreme cases of terror attacks in different parts of the world. Most of these terrorist attacks, if not all, have been associated to Islam. Islamic terror group referred to as al-Qaida supposedly did the infamous September 11 attack. However, controversy theories have refuted these claims and posited that the September 11 attacks were conducted out of the realms of Islam.

Terrorism refers to acts of violence or otherwise that are meant to pressurize a ruling regime to act in favor of the terror instigators. Although the definition of terrorism varies widely, it can be generally agreed that terrorism has a political orientation. Most of the terrorist attacks that have happened in recent times have been directed towards political leadership regimes. Terrorism may be a physical act such as the September 11 attack or it may be non-physical such as cyber terrorism.

Largely, physical terrorism has been associated with radical Islamism. Whenever there is a potential terror threat, Muslims are always the first prime suspects. Actually, a large number of Muslims have been questioned or detained in various parts of the world as being suspects of terror. On the other hand, the Muslim community has heavily contested involvement in terror activities claiming that it is in fact against their religious beliefs. According to the Muslim community, Allah is against killing of innocent people.

Indeed, “Terrorizing innocent people is not acceptable in Islam, it is totally against the religion” (Abdullah, 2007). More notably, the jihad is also not holy although it is justified. They believe that the world is supposed to live in peace and harmony despite the differences in religious affiliations. Muslims contest that most terror instigators hide behind the curtains of Islamic religion to pursue their inhumane interests. Although they support martyrdom and jihad, they are solidly unified against terrorism.

However, the characteristics of radical Islamism are quite similar to characteristics of terrorisms and perhaps the primary reason why the controversy over the relationship between Islam and terrorism exist so strongly. Therefore, differentiating between radical Islamism and Islamic terrorism becomes difficult. Despite the similarities between them, terrorism and radical Islamism are certainly different. Accordingly, radical Islamism is not democratic in nature and does not, in any way take advantage of political or democratic loopholes in the society to express their dissatisfaction.

Instead, radical Islamism seeks to express their faith in religion by use of religious platforms and means. Their acts are religiously propelled and as such do not use terrorism as a means of communicating their dissatisfaction. This concludes us that neither Islam nor radical Islamism is synonymous to terrorism. Even the violent activities of radical Islamism do not count towards terrorism. The two oppositions on clarity of definition of the term terrorism make the issue complicated. However, there is overwhelming evidence supporting that Islam is indeed not synonymous with terrorism.

More clearly, Islam is not associated with terrorism. According to leaders of North American Islamic organizations “As American Muslims and scholars of Islam, we wish to restate our conviction that peace and justice constitute the basic principles of the Muslim faith. We