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Maulana Wahiduddin Khan on Muslim violence and negativity A Muslim friend of mine is very upset about the horrific terrorism that self-styled ‘Islamic’ groups continue to commit in the name of Islam. Because of what these groups are doing, she has become embarrassed to be seen as a Muslim by her friends from other faiths. When she goes out, she is apprehensive that others might discriminate against her or wrongly look at her with doubt and suspicion just because she has a Muslim name. What advice would you have for her and others like her?

Your fear lies within and has no existence outside of yourself. You should completely free your mind of this thinking. You must be convinced that these terror acts are not truly inspired by Islam but are done by some misled Muslims. I am myself an example of this way of thinking. I travel in India and all over the world and have no such fear because I have completely disowned the violent acts of Muslims. If you do not disown these acts unequivocally, you will have fear. 

I think that many Muslims think and talk negatively. Instead of asking God to bless and guide people of other faiths and to bless the whole world (and not just Muslims alone) with love, compassion, peace and prosperity, they ask God to destroy people of other faiths. Why is this so? 

This practice by certain Muslims is wholly against the spirit of Islam. This is well illustrated by an incident that occurred in the early history of Islam. In the time of the Prophet in Madinah, some people from a tribe killed Muslims while the latter were unarmed and unprepared. Knowledge of this made the Prophet utter certain curses against those who had murdered the Muslims. But at that very moment an angel from God appeared and admonished the Prophet not to call upon the curse of God on anyone. After this incident the Prophet never called upon the wrath of God upon any person. So, if Muslims are engaged in the act of cursing others, they are doing something that is certainly forbidden (haram) in Islam as the Prophet himself was asked not to do so.

It is said that a number of Muslims have been radicalized through the internet. What practical measures do you suggest for countering this, and, more than that, for bringing Muslims to actively work for peace and harmony?

Spread of peaceful literature and dissemination of peaceful ideas on the internet alone can counter the radicalization seen among Muslims today. De-radicalization will take place in the same manner as radicalization has taken place, that is, through the spread of ideas. There can be no other way. Misleading interpretations of Islam have been uploaded on websites on a great scale. A similar pattern will have to be followed with regard to peaceful interpretation of Islam. There is enough matter in our literature for doing this work. 

Why is it that many people are more easily swayed by negative propaganda, propaganda directed against others, than by positivity? Why do protest movements—directed against this or that government, country, community etc.—often seem to find more sympathizers than movements working for a positive cause, like world peace and harmony?

The basic reason for this is people cannot analyse events with wisdom. Even educated people failed to provide the right definition for wisdom which is a proof of the above reason. Thus if there exists no definition for wisdom, how can there be a wise analysis of issues? As per my study, the right definition of wisdom is the ability to discover the relevant by sorting out the irrelevant. Negativity persists because what needs to be sorted out is considered as a relevant aspect. This is why people become attracted to negative interpretation of events and happenings. Negativity is the price to be paid for not being able to do a wise analysis of events. Because people cannot analyze the situations that present themselves, they easily become negative about trivial issues and then resort to complaining and protesting. This is a worldwide phenomenon and not specific to Muslims alone.

Success
Success is a matter of cool decisions taken
without a wavering and changing of the
mind. It is a result of acute observation and
initiative after unremitting attention to a vast
number of petty details.