Along with nuclear weapons, George Bush's whims and cockroaches, a dreaded word in today's world is Islam. But, if we delve into the past, one can find that the terrorist activities are repercussions of the atrocities committed on them in the past. Moreover, the bombings, the 9/11 incident- these are nothing compared to one of the world's most shocking events, Hitler's "concentration camps"!
Hitler was not a Muslim. Neither was Mussolini. Yet their activities chill the bone to the marrow today. Buddhism, the religion of peace is followed to a large extent in Japan. But, who can forget the methods of torture executed by them on their victims during the world war? The great famine in India was not a natural phenomenon, but the handiwork of British treatment on their Indian colonies. Christianity is supposed to teach benevolence, isn't it?
The "ethnic cleansing" of Yugoslavia…Muslims were thrown into bogs and killed by drowning in them. The crusades were nothing but mass execution of Muslims in Arab countries. Their women were raped and throats slit, their holy books were burned. The horror was disguised under a fashionable name- The "holy war". Even today, the rampage in Iraq is hardly the work of a Muslim!
We forget the contribution of Islam to the world. The Arabs solved the gap between the east and the west. The Arab sheikhs own most of the oil in the world. Muslims form a major chunk of history through their progress. A Muslim himself, Mughal emperor, Shah Jehan, erected the monument of love, "the Taj Mahal".
Unfortunately, for a few extremists, a whole sect of people are held responsible for terrorism and are looked upon with disdain.
Due to the resistance they face, the Muslims are exasperated. Every time something goes wrong, someone of their religion is held responsible. What is worse is that even the liberal minded people, people who don't get influenced by religion bias are getting dragged into this mayhem, causing more people to get antagonized and they rebel in the manner they are doing nowadays. Sadly, the media supports the developed countries and the handiwork of a few radical miscreants gets magnified. In this process, a whole sect of people is looked upon with suspicion and hatred.
But before we raise a finger at a sect of people, maybe its high time we returned to history. We are bound to find quite a lot of answers and a quite a lot of people answerable for the present state of the world.
