Muslim Scholars’ Take on the Negative Consequences of “Terrorism”

I pen this editorial feeling weary of having to address this particular topic yetagain. But please bear with me, for the senseless murder of fourteen innocentsin San Bernardino on December 2, 2015, occurred only twenty-two milesfrom my home. Although I do not regularly attend the mosque that the killersfrequented, I personally know that its director is one of America’s best Muslimleaders in terms of knowledge, wisdom, and kindness. Lastly, one victim recentlygraduated from the university at which I teach.Over the years, I have addressed Muslim extremism and radicalism fromvarious vantage points: the identity of the Muslim extremists, whether their actionscan be intellectually and religiously described as Islamic (AJISS 32:2),and whether they could be decisively defeated (not wiped out) so that peacewill prevail (AJISS 32:4). I have deliberated how their violent acts against innocentsevoke apprehension and fear, thereby stigmatizing and staining allMuslims and even Islam itself (AJISS 29:1). I even addressed the erroneousperception that America’s imams cause radicalism and suggested how theyshould tailor their messages to combat extremism (AJISS 27:2). In this editorial,I explicate what a group of Muslim academics in the Middle East considersto be the negative consequences of “terrorism” (maḍār al-irhāb).1The first negative consequence of terrorism2 is that it “attracts God’s wrathand subjects the perpetrator to God’s severe punishment, both in this worldand the hereafter.”3 These Muslim scholars had the following verse in mindwhile extrapolating: “If anyone kills a believer deliberately, the punishmentfor him is Hell, and there he will remain: God is angry with him, and rejectshim, and had prepared a tremendous torment for him” (Q. 4:93). In a hadithnarrated by Ibn Abbas, the young Companion who has been dubbed the “fatherof Qur’anic exegesis,” he said that when this verse was revealed the Companionsasked the Prophet, “Even if the perpetrator repents, becomes a truebeliever, and does good deeds?” The Prophet responded, “How else can herepent?” (annā lahū al-tawbah) ...