The family of Mohammed Yousaf, the lone gunman who killed five US Naval Services personnel in Tennessee, wonders how their son’s suffering from depression got changed into a ‘heinous act of violence’. Now it’s easy to say that they were not aware of his transformation into a jihadist. But all this didn’t happen overnight. It’s being reported that a night before the attack Yousaf sent a text message to a friend wherein he quoted excerpts from Hadith-38 — “(from Allah) whosoever shows enmity to a friend (wali) of Mine, I have declared war against him”. It’s a message from God how He deals with those who maltreat Muslims, but apparently Yousaf took its reciprocal meanings and went into action the very next day.
Apparently it’s an issue of interpretation of religious scriptures how an individual or his/her group twist to justify their acts of horror. Terrorists who attacked Army Public School in Peshawar last December or those who beheaded Pakistani soldiers also came up with justification from scriptures. DAESH is now running a full-fledged government, beheading its opponents and those taking up fight, enslaving women, enforcing a narrow interpretation of religion at gunpoint; no one is able to challenge them on ideological front.
Here comes the much awaited role of religious scholars to come up with the alternate narrative to counter the terrorist outfits’ propaganda outbursts. If we fail to do so, such outfits will keep producing, despite military offensive against them, waves after waves of brainwashed zombies ready to kill or be killed to please the God and enter paradise.
Time is running out as fight against logic, peace, harmony and inclusiveness is getting intensified.
MASOOD KHAN
Jubail, Saudi Arabia
