This is a Readers Article. The views, opinions and understanding expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect our own understanding on the issue. Any visitor, with a membership may write an article which would be posted on these pages.
I was looking at the news a little while ago to find that a
bomb had exploded outside the Imam Ali mosque in Iraq after morning prayers. At
first this upset me a great deal to the point where I questioned my faith. I
tried to reflect upon what had happened to the faith and why so much blood shed
occurs in the name of Islam. I finally realized that our faith, the faith of
Islam, has been hijacked by people to claim to be “Muslim” but in reality are
nothing more than murderers who are willing to exploit Islam for political
reasons. I thought about all those so-called martyrs of Islam in Palestine and
noted that these were not martyr but murderers! A true martyr, like Imam Ali and
Imam Hussein, dies for his/her faith instead of killing in the name of the
faith. To take ones life whether it be your own or another’s is far from being a
martyr, especially in Islam. Another thing that bothered me a great deal is the
animosity between Sunnis and Shia’s. I always thought Islam taught tolerance
towards other faiths especially towards faiths of the book. It is a great shame
that the common love for The Prophet and respect for Imam Ali is not enough to
unite or at least prevent conflict between Sunnis and Shia. How can we look
toward the future without solving the problems that exists within our faith
today?