I might be wrong but I believe I can almost imagine her. I can imagine her thoughts, her anguish, her pain and emotions; I can imagine her feeling of helplessness. I can imagine her heart nagging at her as she would watch those numbers, those scenes of brutality, of destruction on television, on newspapers, on social media; feeding on the truth and on Western propaganda against Assad.
I can imagine as she would read Quran may be without exegesis or may be with one written by some extremist mullah. As she would study extremist Islamic content, waking up everyday feeling that everything she has done, everything she is doing, this whole world, is so pointless. She should do something for her other life, her real life, the afterlife. She should do something for her brothers and sisters being killed, raped and wounded in Syria; how it would have made her blood boil.
So Aqsa Mahmood, a 20 year old British woman of Pakistani origin left her home to go to Syria last year where she joined Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), married an ISIS fighter and moved on to Iraq.
I am not apologizing for her, I am not justifying her actions, I am not showing sympathy for her. She does not deserve it. I am just trying to understand her and it is painful; it is unfortunate. It is painful because there she was, someone who, apparently, had the opportunity to achieve so many other things, who had the emotional depth, the will and the strength of character to feel the pain of others and to work for them and she has been wasted, destroyed just because she went off in the wrong direction.
If her parents are to be believed, and I admit they are not the best source since they must be scared for themselves and her siblings, there was no other fundamentalist involved, no one egging her on to the path she took. She was an integrated member of the society, attending college as a successful student. She just studied Islam on her own and turned to this path; to use the phrase media has been using for her, she was a 'bedroom radical'.
This puts a lot of question marks on a lot of thing. While it is true that we see what we want to see but no one is born knowing what he/she wants to see. It is the society and our experiences which teaches us that, of course our disposition plays a part as well. So before anything else her radicalisation puts a question mark on the British society, in the larger context it also puts a question mark on actions of several governments, USA, Saudi Arabia, Britain itself among others but more than anything else it puts a question mark on Muslims and on Islam.
I know the popular argument, this isn't real Islam. My question is, what is? Let me answer, its nothing. Islam is, apart from some basic injunctions and boundaries, to each just exactly what he/she wants to see, what suits each of us, at least for those of us who bother to think, those who present the abovementioned argument. For others, for the majority, the real Islam is the Islam that mullahs present, the radical Islam. The Islam that drives ISIS, Taliban and Al-Qaeda and their cohorts, the Islam that is based on the literal interpretation of some of the Quranic text and the Islam that Muhammad (P.B.U.H.)--in the last few years of his life--and his companions and later Muslim empires practised. The Islam that is outdated for the contemporary world.
What we need today is the Islam of earlier part of Prophet Muhammad's life in Madina, his political sagacity and his pragmatism, his kindness and his perseverance. Moreover, we need the rationalism of Mutazzilites, and the open-mindedness of sufis, we need to learn to care about this world and its people, we need to understand that the way forward for any religion in the contemporary world is through its ability to instill compassion and humility in humans and that the way forward for Muslims right now is working for the economic wellbeing and scientific progress of the Muslims not killing non-Muslims or conquering other countries. May be learn a bit from the people who according to us control thr world through economic means and whom we claim to understand and know.
Above all what we need is a close look at the spirit of Quran and life of Muhammad (P.B.U.H.) and mould our views, our ideology to suit that. We need to live in 21st century otherwise we would remain in the 7 century as we have been living for the past 1400 years. We need all this and more because while I can only try to imagine the wasted life and imminent death of Aqsa Mahmood and many others like her, even that imagination is so heartrending that I don't want to imagine anyone else like that again, ever.
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Are you as stupid as you look?After reading your article I am forced to conclude that no doubt you are. Listen simple man Islam is not like a television series it does not need to update or change or evolve according to the demand or the times to come. So I don't care if we are in the 14th century or the 21st or the 40th Islam has to be followed according to the quran and sunnah. And it sure as hell doesn't need any correction or modification from any others sources that you mentioned.
ReplyDeleteAnd I was just wondering what gives you the authority to write imbecile articles on religion and to pass snide judgement about people you have no knowledge off .In my opinion what she did was really brave and highly commendable and appros to her for that. Because no doubt when you were too busy sucking up to your economic powerhouse nations (US Nato etc) that you so clearly idolise you might have missed all the atrocities these nations (US Nato etc) committed.
It is hypocrites like you that I really dislike, who now all are losing their minds over 2 beheadings but dont care when millions of muslims are being killed raped and tortured and entire countries have been destroyed.
And wasnt your bestie America all down for 'saving' Syrians from president Assad a few months back but now is all butthurt when IS is trying to do mainly the same thing :topple Syrian government.
However comming back to the point as no sane person should try to defend their (IS) METHODS of doing that and neither am I .The point is hats off to her for trying to help her brothers and sisters when she could have so much more of the comfortable and posh life she was living and do nothing like the rest of us. So sir I advise you to avoid passing comments like "She has been wasted and destroyed because she went in the wrong direction'' because that makes you sound like the unwitted git that you are.
Imma end by saying what Allah says that He will clear all of peoples misconceptions that they had of who is on the right way and who is on the wrong path on the day of judgement ,till then however you can continue sitting in your dark corner and write 'articles' that aren't worthy of being read or published
Good day 2 you
Seeya
An interesting article, Farhad. I came across it whilst reading up on Aqsa Mahmood, as I have been trying to understand what has driven her (and more recently, the 3 British Muslim teenage girls) to leave their families and travel to Syria/Iraq. I myself am a British man of no religion. I long for a world where everybody is free and sufficiently educated to make their own decision on which faith to follow (or not). Whilst I do not like religion, I love people, and so I am trying to understand what we as a society can do to prevent more young British Muslims following the sorry path Aqsa Mahmood has chosen. I am heartened to read your words of reason, and hope you are not disheartened by the anonymous comment above. Let us hope that in the end, it will be people such as us who seek to understand, not hate, that win.
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