From Sanchit Sharma. Quora.


The primitive and stereotypical reasoning of people has deteriorated the true meaning of Islam. We mistake Islam with terrorism. We run for our lives when we see a Muslim. We run off in trepidation. We are scared of the repercussions that might follow. Stereotypes have taken over our mind.

Nothing of that sort is going to happen.

The word Islam itself, meaning "submission," is a derivative of a Syriac word for "making peace." It is a faith that calls for charity, humility, and service. And it resembles the other great monotheistic religions to a remarkable degree. Like Christians and Jews, Muslims believe they are descended from Abraham. They worship the same God and believe in the prophets. They hold that Jesus was a great prophet, although not the Son of God. In the Koran, there are more references to the Virgin Mary than in the New Testament.

A religion that carries "peace" in its own name cannot be coupled with terrorism.

What do you think of Islam?

The primitive and stereotypical reasoning of people has deteriorated the true meaning of Islam. We mistake Islam with terrorism. We run for our lives when we see a Muslim. We run off in trepidation. We are scared of the repercussions that might follow. Stereotypes have taken over our mind.

Nothing of that sort is going to happen.

The word Islam itself, meaning "submission," is a derivative of a Syriac word for "making peace." It is a faith that calls for charity, humility, and service. And it resembles the other great monotheistic religions to a remarkable degree. Like Christians and Jews, Muslims believe they are descended from Abraham. They worship the same God and believe in the prophets. They hold that Jesus was a great prophet, although not the Son of God. In the Koran, there are more references to the Virgin Mary than in the New Testament.

A religion that carries "peace" in its own name cannot be coupled with terrorism.

The volatile state of the Middle East and the current ongoing conflict, which, I last checked, started, over 50 years ago has forged an atrocious image of Islam into our minds. Our minds are embedded with the image of a terrorist annihilating other people. Why? Have we ever asked this question to ourself?

Because this is this way we grew up. This is what we were taught. It is up to us to bring the change and trigger it for good. People hate Islam, because of the ongoing conflict and the atrocities Russia and the US have caused over the past 50 years. They link Islam with terrorism. Whose blemish is it?

Let's put in a perspective, shall we?

Indonesia has the biggest Muslim population on the planet. It represents over 12.5% of the complete Muslim majority of the planet.

When was the last time you heard about a terror attack in Indonesia?

Never, because you were probably too busy to scrutinise the situation in the Middle East than to actually look into the substantial facts and figures. Let me put some light on what I'm trying to propagate through an example.


The religious affiliation of people in Indonesia

Let me put some light on what I'm trying to propagate through the following examples:


Boston Marathon Bombing, United States of America

Dzhokhar Anzorovich Tsarnaev

Russian? No, Chechen. But he was the person behind the Boston Marathon Bombing. He was an alumnus of one of the elite universities in the world, University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. He was studying Marine Biology. Now, he was not a Muslim and a well-educated student at a prodigious university, but at the end, he was the conspirator of the attacks. He did it. Now, the question arises that why would a well-educated student who is not a Muslim will initiate such a terror attack?

Because a terror attack is not about being a Muslim or following Islam, it just means being vindicated to a particular organisation.

It is about seeking revenge; it's not about any religion — whatsoever.

Let's talk about some other examples.

Right-wing extremists, often white supremacists , were responsible for 115 incidents within the same period. Events like Robert Dear’s killing of three people at a Colorado Planned Parenthood women's health clinic in December 2015 for offering abortion services.


Robert Dear, the culprit for killing three people at a health care centre

A gunman opened fire on a crowd of concertgoers at the Route 91 harvest music festival on the Las Vegas strip in Nevada. Perpetrator Stephen Paddock, 64, of Mesquite, Nevada, fired more than 1,100 rounds from his suite on the 32nd floor of the nearby Mandalay Bay hotel, killing 58 people and leaving 851 injured from gunfire and the resulting panic.

Last Vega's mass shooting

On February 14, 2018, a gunman opened fire at Marjory_Stoneman_Douglas_High_School in Parkland,_Florida, killing seventeen students and staff members and injuring seventeen others. Witnesses identified nineteen-year-old former student Nikolas Cruz as the assailant, and he was arrested in Coral_Springs,_Florida by the Broward_County_Sheriff's_Officeshortly after he escaped the scene


Florida School shooting

My point here is that none of the above-mentioned attacks were done by Muslims. These weren't Muslims or neither affiliated with them or their ideas, in fact, they were Catholics. Common people who lived like you and me; but were responsible for such barbaric acts. So who is to blame here for such acts? The entire Christian religion or the people who committed these?

Furthermore,

Even if all terrorist attacks were carried out by Muslims, you still could not associate terrorism with Islam.

There have been 140,000 terror attacks committed worldwide since 1970. Even if Muslims carried out all of these attacks (which is an absurd assumption given the fact mentioned in my above points), those terrorists would represent less than 0.00009 per cent of all Muslims. To put things into perspective, this means that you are more likely to be struck by lightning in your lifetime than a Muslim is likely to commit a terrorist attack during that same timespan.

When a drunk driver causes a car accident, we never blame the car manufacturer for the violent actions of that driver. This is because we understand that we cannot blame an entire car company that produces millions of safe vehicles just because a reckless person who used it to cause harm hijacked one of their cars. So what right do we have to blame an entire religion of over 1.6 Billion peaceful people because of the actions of a relatively insignificant few?

I will not deny that terrorism is a real threat, it definitely is. However, it is extremely incorrect to associate the words “Muslim” and “terrorist” when literally all the facts implore you to do otherwise.

Folks, how more naïve could we possibly be?

There are over 2.2 billion Muslims currently living on this planet. If they all were Jihadi’s or terrorists you’d probably be dead by the time you finish reading this sentence.

Over 1 billion Muslims fast for a whole month to go through the pain of the poor and we call these people terrorists. Revaluate, please?

Islam is 1400 years old, terrorism started 50 years ago after the west started invading Middle Eastern countries. There's your root cause.

It is the Media. They perpetuate stereotypes about people. They want you to believe what they sell. Don’t buy it, folks. Don't buy it.

Szkpytqgdcvx925:
My point here is that none of the above-mentioned attacks were done by Muslims. These weren't Muslims or neither affiliated with them or their ideas, in fact, they were Catholics. Common people who lived like you and me; but were responsible for such barbaric acts. So who is to blame here for such acts? The entire Christian religion or the people who committed these?

Furthermore,

Even if all terrorist attacks were carried out by Muslims, you still could not associate terrorism with Islam.

There have been 140,000 terror attacks committed worldwide since 1970. Even if Muslims carried out all of these attacks (which is an absurd assumption given the fact mentioned in my above points), those terrorists would represent less than 0.00009 per cent of all Muslims. To put things into perspective, this means that you are more likely to be struck by lightning in your lifetime than a Muslim is likely to commit a terrorist attack during that same timespan.

When a drunk driver causes a car accident, we never blame the car manufacturer for the violent actions of that driver. This is because we understand that we cannot blame an entire car company that produces millions of safe vehicles just because a reckless person who used it to cause harm hijacked one of their cars. So what right do we have to blame an entire religion of over 1.6 Billion peaceful people because of the actions of a relatively insignificant few?

I will not deny that terrorism is a real threat, it definitely is. However, it is extremely incorrect to associate the words “Muslim” and “terrorist” when literally all the facts implore you to do otherwise.

Folks, how more naïve could we possibly be?

There are over 2.2 billion Muslims currently living on this planet. If they all were Jihadi’s or terrorists you’d probably be dead by the time you finish reading this sentence.

Over 1 billion Muslims fast for a whole month to go through the pain of the poor and we call these people terrorists. Revaluate, please?

Islam is 1400 years old, terrorism started 50 years ago after the west started invading Middle Eastern countries. There's your root cause.

It is the Media. They perpetuate stereotypes about people. They want you to believe what they sell. Don’t buy it, folks. Don't buy it.

Nice one. JazzakumAllahu Khairan.

While the core of the OP's write-up is very true, it is also myopic when it comes to the bigger picture of islam.

Yes, the terrorism label that is put on many muslims is very unfair. That is discrimination.

However, islam's problems go beyond being unfairly called terrorists. There are many issues plaguing islam in the modern world that make many non-muslims to see islam as a backwards religion at times.

1. Underage marriage
2. Discrimination against atheists
3. Discrimination against LGBT
4. Failing women's rights (eg equal representation in mosques and govt)


1. Many muslims believe that a woman can get married from the onset of puberty. This has led to many underage marriages. This can be seen on Northern Nigeria. Saudi Arabia recently had to ammend their laws in 2019 to ban underage marriage- before then, a 60 year old man could marry a 14 year old girl in Saudi. The good news is that many muslims disagree with this puberty ruling and want the age of consent to be 18 years.

2. 13 islamic countries outrightly put atheism as illegal. No need to elaborate

3. No need to elaborate

4. No need to elaborate

Szkpytqgdcvx925:

From Sanchit Sharma. Quora.


The primitive and stereotypical reasoning of people has deteriorated the true meaning of Islam. We mistake Islam with terrorism. We run for our lives when we see a Muslim. We run off in trepidation. We are scared of the repercussions that might follow. Stereotypes have taken over our mind.

Nothing of that sort is going to happen.

The word Islam itself, meaning "submission," is a derivative of a Syriac word for "making peace." It is a faith that calls for charity, humility, and service. And it resembles the other great monotheistic religions to a remarkable degree. Like Christians and Jews, Muslims believe they are descended from Abraham. They worship the same God and believe in the prophets. They hold that Jesus was a great prophet, although not the Son of God. In the Koran, there are more references to the Virgin Mary than in the New Testament.

A religion that carries "peace" in its own name cannot be coupled with terrorism.

While I would like to agree.

The bolded is a fallacy.

It's like saying the Democratic Republic of North Korea can not be a dictatorship, because it has 'democracy' in its name.

Besides that, you make decent points.

Szkpytqgdcvx925:




Islam is 1400 years old, terrorism started 50 years ago after the west started invading Middle Eastern countries. There's your root cause.

It is the Media. They perpetuate stereotypes about people. They want you to believe what they sell. Don’t buy it, folks. Don't buy it.

Terrorism didn’t start 50 years ago sir. Terrorism started the day Muhammed commanded Muslims to slay unbelievers where ever they find minding their own business

Terrorism is as old as Islam itself