Extremists... Who?

The world has done everything it can do to paint us as extremists, butwe have remained the moderates that we are because we belong to theUmmah that has been called Ummat-i-Wast or the Moderate Ones. ThisUmmah is moderate in all aspects of life ... in its thinking and beliefs,in its praise and love, in its deeds and worship and even in itsculture and politics. Muslims are neither worshippers of naturalphenomena like the Mushrikeen, nor cut-off from the world like thehermit monks. Neither do they abuse and curse the prophets of Allahlike the Jews, nor do they, like the Christians, call their prophet theSon of God. Neither do they believe that war is the first and lastsolution of every disagreement nor do they hate weapons of war. Neitherdo they let the world overpower their religion, nor do they let theirfaith become an enemy of the world. They have been taught moderationand they have cherished and followed it down through the centuries.

Let us not talk about the era that is called the Age of theirGlory, height, success and power, when their religious teachingsreigned everywhere, down from the mosques to palaces, but take a lookat the Age that is known as one of their weakness, downfall, submissionand defeat and which is considered as an era of their distance fromIslamic teachings. Even in this age you won't see any form of theoppression that has now become the identity of the West. Neitherburning piles of dead bodies nor towers made of skulls, neitherdesecrating places of worship nor dishonoring the prophets, neitherdefiling holy books, nor any brutal coercion to change one's religion,they were guilty of nothing yet all these tactics were used againstthem, the Muslims, in order to force them to become extremists andresort to violence. Even a harmless cat, if attacked by a number offierce dogs, will do everything it can to defend itself but its defensecannot be termed as terrorism or violence. Violent are those who barkat the weak, enrage them, take away their children, dishonor them andmake them aliens in their own territory. If as weak an animal as a cathas the right to defend itself and its young ones, then Muslims cannotbe deprived of the same right either, nor can they can be calledextremists if they use this basic right of theirs. Extremists are thosewho have snatched the sea-routes of the Muslims from them and theirthreatening armed aircraft carriers roam the sea equipped with deadlyand dangerous weapons. Extremists are those who are extravagantlyspending the wealth obtained from the oil fields and mines possessed bythe Muslim countries while the Muslims themselves are forced to live inabject poverty, hunger and deprivation. Extremists are those who haveforced the poor Palestinian refugees imprisoned in camps, to eat harammeat and the meat of dead animals; who closed the doors of their housesupon them, which they had built with their own sweat and blood; whopulled out their nails and cut their bodies with razor blades.Extremists are they who slapped economic sanctions on Iraq, killing1,500,000 Iraqi children who died of hunger and lack of medicines. Thefire ignited by them is still raging in Basra, Kufa, Karbala andBaghdad turning everything to cinders. The weapons of mass destruction(WMDs) that had been made an excuse for raining bombs and bullets uponthe defenseless Iraqis haven't been found anywhere as yet. The Iraqipeople, whom they said they were liberating from the cruel rule ofSaddam, who were promised the blessings of Democracy are not at allwilling to accept slavery in the form of freedom, curse in the form ofblessings.
Extremists are those, who turned Afghanistan into ruins in searchof one single man and after occupying Afghanistan herded the prisonersof war into containers like so many cattle, nay in fact, even worsethan cattle, and left the containers in the burning desert, where thesand was as hot as liquid lead and the sky was pouring down fire. Theprisoners shrieked in pain, sobbed for water, died of suffocation butnothing melted the hearts of the extremists. Extremists are those whocompared a Muslim country to a dog and committed as heinous a crime asflushing the Holy Quran down a toilet. And it wasn't the first time.History is full of such incidents of desecration, such fury-incitingacts committed by them but they were transferred from mouth to mouth,there is no written record about them. It also happened that to enragethe Mujahideen they abused the finest man in history, whom theChristian author of "Hero of Heroes" has referred to as the "GreatestHuman" of all times. At times, great Muslim conquerors like SalahuddinAyubi were abused to their faces. A Zionist soldier stood over thepages of the Holy Quran and challenged the prisoners to call their Godfor help. The incident appeared in the newspapers too that an Americanjudge, on hearing the news that thousands of dollars had been paid asreward for the capture of a mujahid, had angrily said, "Why paymillions of dollars? These Pakistanis are ready to sell even theirmothers for a few bucks." The Jews and Christians have tried their bestto make us follow the path of extremism but we have refused to do so.Neither have we ever deprived their kids of food, nor forced theiryoung men to eat carrion. Neither have we ever used dirty words for anyof their revered persons, nor violated the sanctity of their holybooks. How can we do all this when we are known as the moderate, thebalanced Ummah and are instructed to adopt moderation in simplyeverything? Jihad against oppression and cruelty is moderation also.InshaAllah we shall live on moderation and die on moderation too.

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