Tim Samoff // Weblog (old)

July 14, 2005

Classisying Al Qaeda as a cult...

This morning, I was thinking about all of the persecution that Muslims have to endure because of the actions of Al Qaeda. Because of one (widespread) militant group, people around the world are treated as if they are terrorists, even when they’re not. If we are to speak of “justice” in the world, maybe this is one place where we can all start.

As Christians, we endure relatively little persecution these days. Most of the world accepts the Christian faith, and where organized religion is not yet “allowed,” torture and death — let alone simple prejudice — rarely occur to those who call themselves Christians. And when a radical religious group with any sort of “Christian” ties does something drastic (think Jim Jones, Christian Identity, Branch Davidians, etc.), it, even more rarely, affects Christianity as a whole.

Muslims, on the other hand, don’t have it so easy. Even here in America people do “double-takes” when a head-covered Muslim family walks by. People openly talk about their hatred of “Iraq” and the terror that they wage on the world. What’s worse, when a terrorist-based tragedy occurs (as in the recent case of the London Bombings), Muslims are all but shunned from society.

So, what’s the difference?

Radical groups who begin under a veil of Christianity are usually quickly indentified as cults — and, if not, they usually are after they do something drastic enough to affect society. For this reason, when radical acts are practiced by these groups, mainline Christian organizations have little to fear as far as retaliation or persecution is concerned (except, maybe, when it comes to militant pro-lifers, book-burning fanatics, etc.).

The worldview of the Muslim people is very different. Currently, Al Qaeda are considered Muslim (although, sometimes referred to as “militant” Muslims or Islamists), and, sadly, most of the world views the Muslim people as a whole as being very close to Al Qaeda. This is wrong.

Watching the news this morning, one week after the London Bombings, made this clear to me. Muslims were fighting hard in interviews to separate themselves from Al Qaeda. Their agenda was not to report on the aftermath of the bombings in their community, but to remove themselves from any, and all, Al Qaeda references. And this makes sense, since most Muslim people — especially in Leeds, UK (and area with a very large Muslim population) — are now being forced to live under the scrutiny of most of the law enforcement agencies in London.

One solution to this issue might be to classify Al Qaeda as a cult and stop calling them Muslim or Islamists altogether. Did we refer to the Branch Davidians as a, “Radical Christian group”? No. The Branch Davidians were always called a “militia” or a “radical fringe group.” I think it’s this separation is very important. While some may think of all religious groups as the same, the majority of the world takes a very strong stance in differentiating “real” religion from that of “cults.”

If anything, for the cause of a Godly love and world justice, let us try hard to separate Al Qaeda from the Muslim people. Al Qaeda are not Muslim, just as we would say that most cults are not actually Christian.

(By the way, I guess I’m not the first to think of this.)

Posted at 08:34 am

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Hmmm… I don’t know if I’m to take the “la bona” comment as spam or not.

timsamoff () (URL) - July 14, 2005 at 11:57 am