Islam Denounces Terrorism

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Islam Denounces Terrorism

Book cover

By: Harun Yahya

Date: 2003

Source: Islam Denounces Terrorism was produced by Global Publishing (United Kingdom) and Okur Productions (Turkey).

About the Author: Global Publishing is a British-based publishing house. Okur Productions is a group of Turkishbased publishers specializing in Islamic literature.

INTRODUCTION

In The Clash of Civilizations, his seminal 1993 book, the academic Samuel Huntington argued that America's main global challenges over the coming decades would come not from a resurgent east, or post-Soviet Russia. Instead, he wrote, that as people defined themselves increasingly by ethnicity and religion, the West would find itself more and more at odds with civilizations that reject its ideals. In particular, Huntingdon predicted that a confrontation between Islamists and the West was inevitable.

After the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, Harun Yahya (a penname used by Adnan Oktar), a prominent Turkish thinker, set about demolishing the myths that a clash of civilizations was in some way inevitable, and that jihad (holy war) was not only a fallacy, but also incompatible with Islam. Already the author of more than one hundred books—which have been translated into more than twenty languages and include such varied subject titles as Islamic Denounces Anti-Semitism,Jesus will Return,Darwinism Refuted,Islam and Buddhism,—Islam Denounces Terrorism was a polemic against those who tried to justify terrorist atrocities by grounding their acts in religious terms.

"Religion commands love, mercy, and peace," Yahya wrote in its introduction. "Terror, on the other hand, is the opposite of religion; it is cruel, merciless, and demands bloodshed and misery. This being the case, the origins of the terrorist action must be sought in disbelief rather than in religion. . . 'Islamic terror' is an erroneous concept which contradicts the message of Islam. The religion of Islam can by no means countenance terrorism. On the contrary, terror (i.e., murder of innocent people) in Islam is a great sin, and Moslems are responsible for preventing these acts . . ."

Islam Against Terrorism, like many of Yahya's other works is available free over the Internet. In 2003, a film was made of the work.

PRIMARY SOURCE

ISLAM DENOUNCES TERRORISM

See primary source image.

SIGNIFICANCE

Though a sometime contributor to such august publications as National Geographic and New Scientist, Harun Yahya and his work remain best known throughout the Moslem world in general, and within his own country in particular. Like the written version of this work, the film was made available on the Internet.

America's invasion of Iraq in 2003 halted the threat of a dictatorial regime in the Middle East, but it also served to ignite insurgent attacks against American servicemen and Iraqi civilians. Again, the perpetrators cited Jihad as justification for the violence. Mainstream Islamic leaders worldwide have voiced concern that the religion of Islam continues to be increasingly associated with violence.