Daily Times

Many Muslim youths wonder today as to how Islam came to be the byword for violent extremism and terrorism, despite the fact that the word is derived from the Arabic root implying peace, submission and obedience.

In a religious sense, Islam means submission to the will of God and obedience to His law.

The fact is that Muslims were always allowed to maintain social interaction with Christian and Jews. They could eat together and Muslim men could marry Christian and Jewish women. The Charter of Madina, drawn up on behalf of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) shortly after his arrival in the city promised freedom of religious beliefs and practices for all citizens. It required that representatives of all parties, Muslim as well as non-Muslim, be present for a consultation or negotiation with foreign states. It imposed a tax for supporting the community in times of conflict. It declared the city a place where blood would not be spilled.

The carter is a truly remarkable document. It preceded the American Constitution by more than a thousand years and the Magna Carta of 1215 by almost six centuries. It made inter faith harmony, peaceful co-existence with other religions, common responsibilities and protection of minorities the bedrock code of an Islamic state and society.

The carter is a truly remarkable document. It preceded the American Constitution by more than a thousand years and the Magna Carta of 1215 by almost six centuries. It made inter faith harmony, peaceful co-existence with other religions, common responsibilities and protection of minorities the bedrock code of an Islamic state and society

Muslim conquests began in the lifetime of the prophet. During the reign of the caliphs Muslims conquered large swaths of the Middle East and North Africa as well as parts of southern Europe and the Indian subcontinent. The caliphate founded by his companions, was succeeded by the Umayyad and later the Abbasid caliphate. As these caliphates fractured and fell, other Muslim dynasties arose. Some of these grew into Islamic empires. These included the Safavid, the Ottoman and the Mughal empires.

Following the Portuguese and Spanish exploration of the Americas, European powers including England, France and the Holland established their overseas empires. The repression and plunder of the colonies led to a number of freedom movements in the colonized countries. Decolonization started at the end of the 18th century when most of the European colonies in the Americas gained their independence. Spain never recovered from the loss of its New World colonies, but Great Britain, France, Portugal, and Holland turned their attention to the Old World, particularly South Africa, India and South East Asia.

The second industrial revolution, in the 19th century, led to new imperialism. The pace of colonization accelerated rapidly, the height of which was the scramble for Africa, in which Belgium, Germany and Italy too took part.

The colonies of the defeated powers in World War I were distributed amongst the victors as mandates. It was not until the end of World War II that the second phase of decolonization began in earnest.

The threat of a violent Sunni Islamism was essentially nonexistent until 1979, when the Iranian Revolution and Afghan jihad became symbols of the potential power. In Afghanistan, the United States and its Cold War allies won their cheapest victory using Sunni Jihadists courtesy Pakistani intelligence and Saudi dollars. This also made US the unchallenged global super power.

The Jihadists who won the war against Soviets, were soon abandoned soon. It is worth noting that Islam or Muslim were never associated with extremism, radicalism or terrorism.

Terms like Jihadist Islam were coined and new narratives linked it with extremism, radicalism and terrorism after Muslims were identified as the future threat to Western civilization following the collapse of the Soviet Union and its Warsaw Pact allies. The narrative helped generate sub-narratives to pulverize selected Muslim countries.

The writer is an armed froces veteran with rich experience in military and intelligence diplomacy