by Kamel Abderrahmani

After every terrorist attack, there is the tendency to say, "This is not Islam." Yet those criminal acts are justified and inspired by texts that are the reference point for Muslims and Islamic institutions worldwide. There is an urgent need to reform Islam from within, by the Muslims themselves. Coexistence with other religions is the way to remove Islam from sclerosis and stagnation.

Paris (AsiaNews) - After every terrorist attack, such as those in Egypt or Paris, voices are raised in the West as in the East, to blame or to defend Islam. These voices are divided and, at times, conflicting: a situation that does little more than better coalesce Islamist terrorism, hate and division among the nations.

In my contribution I want to talk about the boundaries between Islamism and Islam. Our questions multiply and torment our minds, exposing phenomena that need to be analyzed and resolved. I and many other Muslims think that it is unacceptable to delay discussion on the issue of Islamic terrorism in this critical stage on which depends not only the future of Islam and Muslims but the rest of humanity.

Islamism penetrated the political sphere in the twentieth century with the appearance of the "Muslim Brotherhood" in Egypt and the "Jamaât at-tabligh" in the Indian provinces, with the objective of re-Islamizing Muslims in India.

These two groups, originally apolitical, have opted for the political path and sometimes armed themselves to achieve their goals, especially the establishment of the caliphate, a fact which is considered a religious obligation. These two movements are the source of inspiration for all contemporary Islamic currents, violent, or peaceful. They are movements inspired by ancient interpretations of the Koran and Sharia, such as the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, or Boko Haram in Nigera. We know: terror is sown in all those territories where Islamism, this devastating ideology, finds refuge. Those who disagree with Islam are being killed or pushed into exile. Faced with this plague, should we remain silent or should we speak without hypocrisy and without fleeing from reality?

Muslims reject the bond between Daesh and its henchmen on the one hand and Islam on the other. They maintain that those are groups do not represent Islam. Yet their criminal acts are justified and inspired by texts that are the reference of Muslims and Islamic institutions. For this reason, for a majority of non-Muslims, that diabolical state is considered to be a faithful representation of Islam.

For us, they are all right: it all depends on the chosen point of view, our theological, ideological, and political knowledge, given that within Islam these three elements are intimately bound.

Islamism, the illness of Islam, or its damned child, is the pure sense of nihilism and an alienation of culture and cult, the worst type of tragedy created by consecrated ignorance and the absence of a rational and critical spirit. It seeks a literal application and to be faithful to "Islamic Sharia". In other words, all of the arguments within the Islamic galaxy – those of Daesh, Boko Haram and other groups – throughout the four corners of the world are enrolled in the Islamic corpus and its culture as taught in Al Azhar, Islamic faculties, and in hundreds of thousands of mosques scattered east and west.

It is almost impossible to deny the existing link between Islamism on the one hand and the Islamic corpus, the ancient interpretations of the Koran and the hadith on the other: there is a passionate relationship between the two.

Moreover, today these teachings are the main source of the religious fanaticism of the new generations.

Daesh and the various Islamist terrorist and political groups have not invented anything new, they have not added a single word, idea or argument to what they have found in the reference books of Muslim theology. [These are] a true collection of dead, poisoned and poisonous ideas that emerged from the ancient interpretations of the Koran and the hadiths. What we are experiencing today is proof of this.

This situation primarily affects Islam which, blocked and transformed, has become the source of a nefarious doctrine; Then to all Muslims, who are likely to be excluded from other nations, to remain isolated and above all to corrupt coexistence with other members of the different religions in full respect, peace and fraternity.

This is why, today, we ask for the modernization, the reform of Islam from within, and above all to accept the contemporary interpretations of the Koran put forward by our contemporary exegetes who, Cartesian and rational, also have the capacity for critical thought.

Muslims must undoubtedly realize the danger inherent in this situation, because within Islam as it is presently conceived, seen and interpreted there is no boundary with Islamism: it is the incarnation of Islam itself. They must put an end to the usual chorus [which we hear] after every Islamist attack: "This is not Islam."

There is an urgent need to tackle this situation and begin to reflect on it and fully act upon it. It needs to be reworked in its entirety, from the ancient interpretations of the Koran to the methodologies of analysis, passing through the jurisprudence (figh) and the references of religious legislation.

This requires serious ground work that allows them to distinguish true from false and separate them. They must eradicate evil and uphold truth, develop it, make it a source of peace and coexistence first and foremost among themselves (Sunni and Shi'ite) and also with other nations and / or religions.

This is what we call the "barrier" (frontier) between them and Islamism. Otherwise, we will continue to live in fear and in the uncertainties of security, and Islam as a religion will continue to be exploited, sclerotic and stagnant.

We have so often said that consecrated ignorance and the failure of intra-Islamic reform do nothing more than favor Islamic machine guns, swords and suicide attacks.

In a saying that is attributed to the prophet, he had announced the coming of the reformers. But it would seem that, either Muslims are unable to find the real reformers, or they have been mistaken in their understanding of the meaning of reform. Today they urgently need to be incisive in this.

As for the Westerners, they are right to be afraid, to be Islamophobic and to accuse Islam, because we are the fruit of this tree called Islam and have presented them with a tired Islam, one burdened with history. They are right because Muslims have not dared to recognize the evil, extract it and eliminate it. It is [now] among them and if they do not try to make this division, the future will be crucial and the abyss between contemporary Muslims and other nations will widen and the misery of this religion deepen, and with it the coexistence between Muslims themselves and the rest of humanity.

Kamel Abderrahmani

• Islam
• Fundamentalism
• Terrorism
• Muslims
• Daesh
• Islamic State
• Salafis
• Azhar
• Quran