BY
Hadi Yahmid, IOL France Correspondent
PARIS,
May 18 (IslamOnline.net) - Muslims should move beyond “just”
condemning the latest series of bomb attacks carried out by
“extremists” against western targets, said French Islamic experts
on Sunday, May 18.
“The
moderate trends in Arab and Islamic countries should take up as
practical as historic a role in better portraying the image of
Muslims, rather than leave the situation at the hands of
extremists,” Loarant Matean, a professor of Islamic studies in the
Sorbonne, told IslamOnline.net.
Matean
warned that extremists are “painting a distorted image of Islam by
twisting its good values such as of right, love and freedom.”
He
cited the latest bombings in Saudi Arabia and Morocco, blamed on Saudi
dissident Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaeda network, which he said hold the
image of Islam captive to those extremists.
Four
simultaneous explosions rocked western housing compounds the Saudi
capital Riyadh on Monday, May 12, leaving at least 39 people dead,
mostly Americans. While a coordinated five car bombings against
Belgian, Spanish and Jewish targets in Casablanca, Morocco’s largest
city, took 41 lives.
But
Muslims’ repeated assurances to the West that al-Qaeda attacks are
not related to Islamic teaching “no longer works, as the moderate
Muslims still stand silent over what happens, or at best spell out
condemnations,” which the French expert said are by no means enough
means “to end anti-Islam campaigns”
Matean
said the solution is as clear as that “Muslims of all affiliations
should line up for against attempts by such small groups as
al-Qaeda,” to put a religious spin on their actions.
Al-Qaeda
always justified its attacks as a part of Jihad, holy war, leaving
Islam all over the world mistakenly thought to be a religion calling
for shedding blood and instigating violence, Matean contended.
Justified
Noticeably,
elites in Arab and Islamic countries now pressed the need for facing
barrages of distortion afflicting the image of Islamic thought,
another French expert said.
“Islam
calls for noble and human values that are far away from blind grudge
that lead to destruction and killing,” added Stfane Gabat, a
political science professor.
“But
moderate Muslims should move to confront ways of thought propagating
that Islam is a ghoul and Muslims blood suckers,” he said.
“The
issue is that one-billion Muslims all over the world bear the brunt of
the offenses and misdeeds committed by “a few numbers who distorted
all values urged by this noble religion,” said the French expert.
