In the wake of the deadliest attack on French soil since World War 2, one Singaporean Muslim has stepped up to the plate and called for his fellow Muslims to own the “Islamic problem” of the Islamic State (ISIS).
The Facebook post by Sulaiman Daud has since gone viral worldwide, as he pleads against the failure to address that the extremist militant group stems from the Muslim religion — and that their actions should accountable by Muslims.
His post has been shared over 31,337 times as of writing. His full post:
“I want to thank well-meaning non-Muslims who, in the wake of these attacks, have emphasised that they have been carried out by a small, twisted minority. A terrorist’s goal is to sow hatred and discord, and by not giving in, you are defeating their plans.
But I want to say that as a Muslim, I wish that we weren’t so quick to emphasise that this has nothing to do with us. While I personally have never killed anyone and none of my friends and family have ever resorted to violence, radicalism has everything to do with Islam. And the failure to address that out of a well-intentioned commitment to tolerance is making the problem worse.
ISIS is a Muslim organisation, and it is an Islamic problem. Let me say it again to be perfectly clear. ISIS is a Muslim organisation, and they are a cancer at the heart of Islam. And the problem will not go away until Muslims confront that.
ISIS attackers scream ‘Allah hu’akbar’ during their attacks.
ISIS recruits cite Qur’anic verses as justification for the rape and enslavement of women.
ISIS soldiers kill archaeologists, gay men and women, and people who refuse to convert to Islam because they are blasphemers.
There are no Christians in ISIS. There are no Buddhists, Jews, Pagans, Taoists, Houngans, Catholics, Wiccans, Hindus or even Scientologists in ISIS. ISIS is a Muslim organisation and they kill in the name of Islam.
So don’t say that ISIS aren’t ‘true Muslims’ or that they are ‘not really Muslims’. Like any large organisation, ISIS exists in a spectrum. You have the aimless, restless teenager who never amounted to anything in his life and traveled to Syria because he can’t find a job and doesn’t know if the Qur’an is to be read from left to right or right to left. But you also have pious professionals, businessmen, and academics who read their Qur’an cover to cover, pray every day, were seduced into radicalism, and truly believe that the Islamic State’s goal of conquest is a noble one. The so-called ‘Caliph’ Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi has a doctorate in Islamic studies.
So if you feel that Muslims are being oppressed or killed in Muslim countries, I expect you to also be just as outraged by ISIS. Because they have killed more Muslims in Iraq, Syria and Jordan than the entire US army. They have done more damage to the name and reputation of Islam than any Western nation. ISIS is Islam’s biggest enemy, not the US, not Israel or France or Germany or the Russians.
We have to own the problem. We have to admit that this is a religious problem, and we need to renew our commitment to a secular country which treats all religions equally. I have believed in the importance of secularism all my life, and with every day that passes that belief grows stronger. Religion is no way to govern a nation. Not any religion, and not any nation.
ISIS is not America’s problem, nor the British, nor the French. ISIS is not Syria or Iraq’s problem. ISIS is a problem for Muslims. And if you can’t admit that, you’re not really a good Muslim either.
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As well-meaning his intentions are, his thoughts may serve to fuel the fires of anti-muslim figures/islamophobes who only seek to blame Islam for ISIS and its actions. The debate has been raging for years — way before Sulaiman’s viral Facebook post — on whether Islam is an inherently violent religion. Though it is significant to point out that the warped ISIS worldview is earnestly rooted in Islamic scriptures, radicalism exists in every religion. Not to mention the fact that ISIS was borne out of political conflicts — a product of Syria’s civil war. The foundation of its power comes from politics, not Islam.
Yes, ISIS is indeed a problem for Muslims, but to what extent should a religion be blamed for its violent practitioners?
Muslims and Muslim organisations should not be expected to go up to the microphone to publicly denounce and apologise each time anything goes awry in the name of Islam — that’s pretty bigoted. Putting an entire group of people in the spotlight and demanding them to answer for their perceived mistakes (due to the actions of a few misguided individuals) is surely not the right ritual.
So yes, ISIS definitely has something to do with Islam. But Islam — and its peaceful practitioners — has nothing to do with ISIS.
UPDATE: Playwright, poet and all-round intelligent person Alfian Sa’at also disagrees with Sulaiman Daud’s call for the Muslim community to ‘own’ the ISIS issue.
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