TO EACH MUSLIM YOUTH

I challenge you – not your faith.

You’re a devout believer seeking meaning and acceptance. You will be promised great rewards for terrorizing or taking the lives of others. You will be promised rewards, and told that depriving an infidel of life is true expression of your Islamic faith.

History would regard your violent act as misguided, committed by a naïve, impressionable person out of touch with reality. If terrorism is righteous and unselfish, why is it condemned by Muslims and the family of nations? Jihadi leaders would strap explosives to you, but not themselves. Dying for your religious beliefs, while irreparably harming innocent others, would serve only the personal political aims of tyrants.

There is no glory in terrorizing and killing others. Reward, fulfillment and contentment come only in this life, through actions of benevolence and compassion. Islam will permit you to enter Jannah by simply living a peaceful, moral life.

Do you choose a selfish act that causes deaths, suffering and misery? Or do you choose a lifetime of actions which benefit humankind?   

Will Walsh ©2023 - 2024