The Peaceful Park
- Aug 14, 2016
- 3 min read
Islam: the religion of peace?? The media doesn't show a lot of that does it? Rather, it shows Islam as the religion of violence, the religion of bombings, the religion of beheading, the religion of belligerence.
When you look into the etymology of the word "Islam" in Arabic, you get the same root word as you would for the Arabic word for peace, "salaam". When you take a step more into figuring out what "Islam" means, you find out that it means "submission" and this act of submission refers to God and not a human being. Now you're probably thinking why I brought up the fact that Islam is derived from salaam, the word for peace, if the translation for Islam is totally different. Well the answer to that is simple: although the literal definition of the word Islam may not necessarily mean "peace", the religion revolves around peace.
Interactions in Islam revolve all around peace. When a Muslim meets someone, the first words he or she says are "Assalamualaikum", the Arabic phrase that means "peace be upon you" to which the other individual replies with "walaikumussalam", which means "and peace be upon you as well". Afterwards, the two will converse and before they split ways, they will repeat this exchange as these phrases can be used as both "hello" and "goodbye".
Contrary to what many people believe, Islam does not even support war or killing. People often point at the verse of the Quran that says "slay [enemies] wherever you may see them" as proof that Islam is a violent religion (4:89). I'll have to admit, if I were to glance at this verse without any other information about it, I would also get chills running up my back. People often don't include the next verse when talking about this. The next verse following the ferocious verse states that if these enemies "do not make war on you, and offer you peace, God does not allow you to kill them" (4:90). Is this not what war is? Attacking those who wage war against you and ignoring those who wish not to be involved? If so, then how is this proof that Islam is violent? These verses are merely guidelines for how wars and battles should be fought but taken out of context, they can be manipulated into malicious statements used as propaganda against Islam and Muslims. The Quran has many verses that condemn killing stating that "if anyone slew a person unless it be for murder or for wreaking corruption in the land, it would be as if he slew all of humanity" (5:32). Does this not show how Islam hates killing? If even the killing of one person is equated to the killing every single human being, how does ISIS, or Al-Qaeda, or Boko Haram, or other supposed "Islamic" radicals and extremists organizations support the killings of innocent children, women, and men? The simple answer to this is that these killings are not supported by Islam and are rather slap in the face of Islam. What these terrorist organizations have done is hijacked the name of the religion in order to have a reason to support the inhumane crimes they commit. They pull and extract what they wish to extract and shove aside those verses and quotes that condemn these acts.
In opposition to what Donald Trump, Ted Cruz, and other bigoted demagogues claim about Islam, this religion is a religion of peace with little to no toleration of violence and killings.
Below is a video created by Culver City High School's Muslim Student Association in response to Trump's islamophobic comments stating that he would place a temporary ban on Muslims entering the United States. This idea is completely illogical. If there is a bad seed, you throw that one seed out and use all the other seeds. If you throw out all the seeds in fear of that one seed, how will this benefit you at all?
I had the pleasure of being in this amazing project and helping make this video successful. This video contains bright messages and shows the proper representation of Islam and the coexistence of many religions rather than hate. I urge everyone to share this video with your friends and family and spread the love that Islam is built upon.
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