The roots of the “cancer” of Islamic terrorism are to be found in Wahhabi teaching, supported by Saudi Arabia. The rejection of fundamentalism must take place on three levels: through the affirmation of the brotherhood of all people, without absorbing the hatred of divisions; the prohibition on public expressions of fundamentalist Islam, which is in opposition to the host culture; cut all trade and diplomatic relations with states that support fundamentalism (Saudi Arabia and Iran). The denunciation of French-Arab philosopher Abdennour Bidar, a Sufi follower of Islam, in the aftermath of the Nice massacre and the murder of Fr. Jacques Hamel.
Paris (AsiaNews) - Since January 2015, a series of barbaric acts have targeted our nation France and wounding us deeply. Perpetrated in the name of Islam, they are the product of sick minds, as well as one of the most acute expressions of the radical crisis faced today's by Arab-Muslim civilization.
This brings us to one of the great difficulties in this analysis: what is the link between these isolated psychiatric cases and the general state of civilization?
Some say that there is no link. They are blind. As I demonstrated in my "Open Letter to the Muslim world" [Ed. Ibis, 2015], those who attack us today are among the most deadly tumors of a generalized cancer within Islam - which kills through its most pathological elements.
To unleash its destructive appetite, this Islamic cancer seeks the most fertile ground among the most vulnerable from the psychological point of view, as well as among those parts of the Muslim world that have been most destabilized by the power clash between local and Western desires.
Take care not to be mistaken: We are being hit by the shrapnel of a gigantic explosion whose origin is the Wahhabism of Saudi Arabia. Is it the epicenter of this cancer – the home of the holy places of Mecca and Medina, whose sacredness is being shamefully betrayed. Diverted from its obscurantism since the eighteenth century, this region of the world has now rotted the entire Muslim world with the money from its oil, which gave it the evil means with which to contaminate evil and degenerate an entire civilization into the nullity of obscurantism, emptying it of all spirituality worthy of that name.
Faced with this reality, we Muslims have several courses that we must take: Firstly, we must completely reinvent an authentic spiritual culture - of peace, nonviolence, universal brotherhood, freedom of consciousness for all in the face of dogmas, rules and traditional costumes, and finally of equality between women and men.
All Muslims who dare to say that such a culture is the majority in Islam are overly optimistic. They speak of their own case and generalize, and either do not see or seriously underestimate the rampant proliferation of fundamentalism.
This persistence in ignoring the depth and breadth of evil puts not only their personal freedom in terrible danger but also that of the human world.
For us, French people, who are faced with this cancer in the heart of Islam, there are three things to do.
Proclaim brotherhood instead of war, rejecting hatred between identities and having greater solidarity in stating our values without being divided by what attacks us.
Have the courage and the strength to fight not only against the radicalization of candidates to terrorism, but prohibit any public display of a fundamentalist Islam in our country, whose simple criterion is the contradiction of our culture - values, law, art of living.
Finally, have the courage to sever all commercial and diplomatic relations with unworthy and vile Muslim states that are based on the power of an archaic, intolerant and expansionist religion - Saudi Arabia, Iran, etc …
My conscience as a human being and my responsibility to Islam as a philosopher lead me today to repeat everything - and I will continue to do so, cost what it costs, until Islam is completely regenerated. And again, the other thing I will say ceaselessly, is that we all, each one of us, have our own responsibilities in the face of the tragedies and dangers of the present time: non-Muslims and Muslims together, it is our shared duty to struggle for peace at all levels.
(Taken from Abdennour Bidar's blog, July 28, 2016.Translation from French by AsiaNews)