L'Islam est Charlie

In the aftermath of the Paris massacre, many a person will again ask how human beings are capable of such atrocities in the name of God. In a previous blog, Red Baron had already described that fanaticism and religious intolerance are not the privileges of Islam.

Patriotic French Muslim (©AFP)

Muslims in western countries somehow helplessly call the Paris killers devils who pervert Islam. In the same breath, they assure their Christian neighbors that they observe the constitution and consider freedom of the press a fundamental asset.

Je suis Charlie in Arabic (©AFP)

Red Baron was curious about what the Imams had to say in their Friday prayers last week. The well-known Imam of the Drancy mosque in Saint-Denis, a Paris suburb, Hassan Chalghoumi made some rather general statements: These are criminals, barbarians. They have sold their soul to hell. This is not freedom. This is not Islam.

The tenor was the same in the mosques of all major cities: The assassins are brainless. They are no Muslims. They damaged Islam more than the Mohamed cartoons.

We Muslims are strictly against any abuse of religious feelings and are disgusted by the action of immature youths who brought death and grief to Paris. These murders are an attack on our religion, like the Mohammed cartoons. We strictly condemn both.

Many Imams cited Qur'an Sura 5,32: If anyone slays a person, it would be as if he slew the whole people. However, the text reads slightly differently from the original. It originally refers to Cain having slain his brother Abel: We ordained for the Children of Israel that if anyone slew a person - unless it is in retaliation for murder or for spreading mischief in the land - it would be as if he slew all mankind.

Taking the original text, who will interpret the exceptions correctly?

L'Islam est Charlie.
The proof: Charlie Hebdo of January 14, 2015.

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