Violence In Islam

The western public opinion started to see Islam as being inherently violent as they see Islamic State's (IS) actions. Sheila Carapico argues that "while lynchings, hate crimes, and family violence in America are individual exceptions to a sound social ethic, but ‘Islamic terrorism' is portrayed as if it were a religious expression" (1997, p.30). Violence is mainly motivated by some kind of political aims. Therefore, what we should be looking for is politically motivated Muslims, not the Islam itself. Muslims with a political aim in their mind are called the Islamists. An Islamists would be looking for the implementation of Shari'a law, meaning Islamic law based on Qur'an, not just in private life but also in everyday life. In this paper, I

First of all, Islamists who use violence as a tool to achieve their political goals live in extreme political repression combined with extreme economic despair. Secondly, their interpretation of Islam is much distorted, meaning they have a very paranoid understanding about "the other" people. Islamists use two major propositions of Islam to justify their use of violence. The first is "the centrality of socioeconomic equity and justice and the second is the doctrine of jihad. The first principle is derived from the many Quranic verses and sayings of the Prophet Mohammed urging Muslims to struggle actively in the world for justice and social equity. Islam's egalitarian ethic has been a mobilizing force for the underdog throughout history for moderates and radicals alike" (Hussain, 1995, p.33). To achieve social and political justice, jihad is the other concept. There is a difference of opinion about Jihad on how to understand the concept. Moderate Muslims see it as "a nuanced manner as a spiritual effort toward the good, starting within oneself and moving toward reform in the society at large" (Ghadbian, 2000, p.83). It is true for moderate Muslims as well, that the concept of Jihad does not exclude the use violence, however, it is seen as the last resort and there are various constraints on when and how to implement the violence. On the other hand, Islamists, most of the time do not care these limitations and try to use violence when they faced with an injustice