This image was posted on Facebook and I thought it
was intriguing and perhaps descriptive of a fallacy.
On the web site Encountering the World of Muslims an
article titled Common Misconceptions
about Muslims states that "the vast majority of Muslims are moderate, pious people who suffer more from
terrorism and violence than non-Muslims”.
A couple of years ago I took a History of Islam class
at DSC and one of the words we explored extensively was jihad. The meaning of the Arabic word jihad is
struggle. It generally refers to a struggle of one’s soul against sinful
desires. Muslims refer to this inner struggle as the greater jihad. We also learned in this class that along with the personal struggle of jihad, Muslims
also have social campaigns to end hunger and poverty. They refer to these social
movements as jihad.
I admit, I am a simple person and I simply like to think there is more good in the world than bad. Consequently, my opinion is that this image is cogent and clarifies a misconception
in a simple presentation. We don’t want
to ignore the issue of terrorism, just avoid drawing conclusions or stereotyping based on fear and fallacious
information.
I really like this post. Perhaps it's because and image can be much more potent than words.
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