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Dr.Mourad Beni-ich is a Political, Intelligence & Strategic Analyst based in Washington, DC. Mr.Beni-ich holds a BA in Law, a BA in Political Sciences, a MA in Security and Intelligence Analyses, a MA in Global Terrorism and a PhD in International Politics. His studies were pursued in England and the U.S. Mr.Beni-ich began his career as a lawyer working for the British Home Office (The Ministry of Interior) as well as The British Foreign Office. Mr.Beni-ich gave many lectures in the United States regarding the current affairs in the MENA region, both in universities and organizations. Mr. Beni-ich is currently based in Washington, DC where he lobbies for the Moroccan affairs and coordinates with many U.S. officials and Think-Tanks to promote Morocco’s interests, both in the United States and Morocco. You can follow him on Twitter at: @MonarchKnight[/symple_box]
“God is Our Judge, Prophet Mohammed is Our Advocate, and Faith is Our Evidence”
Mourad Beni-ich
The modern human history will be marked as the worst era of humanity’s history of existence since we were cursed and punished because of an Apple. It will be remembered for the atrocities committed by those who supposed to protect the planet, and make it a safe place for us to live in. We all thought that what some historic personas did to the human race was awful, like Hulagu, Alexander the Great or Cyrus, but what we have been witnessing for over a Century is beyond what a sane human brain can digest and comprehend.
A quick glance at the reasons behind humans’ destruction of our civilization, and it will not take us long to figure out who are behind this catastrophe: Clergies and those who claim to be “Men of God”. This might be shocking to many, but every disaster shook the world happened because of those men and how they have hijacked all three Abrahamic Faiths to better serve their lust for power and greed.
Terrorism is the outcome of the restless attempt of clergies to implement and feed people’s brains with what is more like poisonous doctrine than what they were meant to pass onto them: The True Words of God. Terrorism is not something that occurs due to a criminal mind; not at all. Some terrorist are men of high intelligence and they are fully aware of the duties that have been set for them, the only thing they are not aware of is the manner with which they were indoctrinated and persuaded to fall for the trap of those ecclesiastics.
I will focus here on the trend of the late Twentieth Century and the current one: Islamic Fundamentalism and Terrorism. There must be a reason or reasons behind how, what was considered for over millennia, a peaceful and passive religion become associated with terrorizing people and bringing chaos and anarchy to the world. There must be a reason; something must have gone wrong from the time of Prophet Mohammed (PBUH) and modern days.
There is only ONE single factor on which we can build on, that caused the mess the world is undergoing, it is the fact that Muslims turned their back to the source of their faith and begun listening and canonization of those, who constituted themselves as the SOLE guardians of religion. We might come up with million reasons for the downfall of Islam and Muslims, but after years of reading history and religious books, this is what I personally concluded to be the main cause. Muslims have distanced themselves from God Himself, and, instead, the source of practicing their rituals became humans, just like them and with a more or less, a fake holiness.
Muslims are in an urgent need to shake the dust off their backs if they aim at gaining back what has been taken from them, their faith. It is extremely important that Muslims comprehend that there are no barriers between God and their prayers, they do not need indulgences to get closer to the Deity; He is closer to them than the Jugular vein.
Muslims have, for Centuries, been divided over which book and which Imam understood and explained the words of God right. Something that did not occur until a man called Al-Bukhari wrote a book that contains a collection of the Prophet’s sayings and deeds. In addition, there was another man, just a man, called Ibn Taymiyya, who wrote another book detailing new deprival in Islam and took the Holy Doctrine to different dimensions. Muslims biggest mistake was distancing from God’s Holy Book and what the Prophet had assigned for them.They forgot that there is only ONE God and He has and will forever have the exclusive right to judge His creatures. They forgot that Prophet Mohammed (PBUH) was and forever will be Muslims’ advocate, and they seemed to forget that their faith is what they hold dear and will be their evidence on Judgment Day.
In order to find the proper cure to what afflicted Muslims, and how their minds can be liberated from all folkloric Islam, it is important to point out the flaws in their way of practice and how they conduct themselves in this world. When idolizing a clergy and the sanctification of his persona becomes a taboo, then there is a serious problem. Not with the religion, but with those who claim its guardians.
To liberate Muslims’ mind and brains, it is crucial and important to get rid of the principle of “Guardianship” in Islam.
It is sad really to think that after the death of the Prophet, Muslims were not obliged to comprehend the Holy Doctrine in any other way rather that of which he has explained it to them. Their downfall began when some clergies and so-called “Muslim Thinkers” appointed themselves as guardians of the Islam, and anything said or stated out of their own personal interpretations, was considered an act ofinfidelity and heresy. Islam was a simple Doctrine and reflected perfectly how the Deity wanted it to be delivered to humans. This has been passed on from the older generation of clergies to nowadays’ preachers. It is worrying to learn that it became almost a taboo to criticize the book of Al-Bukhari or Imam Moslim; it is a risk to denounce the radical teachings of Ibn Taymiyya. No ordinary person has the right to interpret Islamic rituals according to how he perceives the religion. It seems like Islam became more like a private property of those fundamentalists and radicals. Anyone dares to do so, will be almost immediately, labeled a heretic.
Ordinary Muslims have an obligation towards themselves, they have to ditch and denounce the imaginary procuration those “guardians or trustees” of the Holy Doctrine. They have to comprehend that God is so accessible and without the need of going back to religious human reference. They have to understand that stripping those clergymen of their Sainthood is not an act of heresy. Al-Bukhari and Ibn Taymiyya are just ordinary men; they are not exempt from questioning on the Judgment Day, they are just like us, and they can be wrong as well as be right. Moreover, even when we talk about consensus, it is relative. Religion has to evolve according to how life itself evolves. It is so wrong to foster certain outdated interpretations of the Holy Doctrine. After all, any interpretation should not be considered anything more than just a personal opinion of whoever wrote a book. They can call their publications anything they fancy, yet anything stated will fall under the category of opinions and will never assume the much-needed holiness to be indoctrinated.
We can send drones, we can tighten border control, we can enact and put in place any strict laws to counter terrorism, as long as we do not tackle the real cause of the problem and extract radicalism from its roots, the world will forever be in a constant war against those princes of darkness. We have to rage a war against those who deeply believe that they have a special mandate from the Deity to represent Him on Earth. It is important that many radical books to be confiscated and destroyed. The roots of radicalism is lie in books and not in mosques. We should liberate our societies from that obscurantist thinking. People should understand that there are no barriers between God and them; He is with them, inside them, around them and His Headquarters is not in certain city or place; God is everywhere. He emphasized on us to think in many verses of the Holy Koran. I wonder why Muslims have distanced themselves from thinking, and using their minds to distinguish between what is right and what is wrong? Islam has never been a dogmatic Doctrine; not at all, Islam encourages the use of commonsense to understand the concept of God before understanding the ritual. How many of us these days understand the concept of our Creator? Worshiping Him with a deeper understanding is much more effective and convincing than just follow His Doctrines blindly and naively.
Above all these, it is extremely important that we comprehend that religion remains a personal matter and the land unifies us all. We can all coexist and live together if we accept that each one of us can foster what he likes, believes in what he wants and worships a God of his choice. Our duty in life is not to judge one another, but rather assist one another in our short journey on Planet Earth. We will ultimately go, so let us die and leave behind us a good and decent legacy, rather than rubbles and total destruction of what we were entrusted with by God Himself.
Religion is For God and Homeland is For All.
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Dr.Mourad Beni-ich is a Political, Intelligence & Strategic Analyst based in Washington, DC. Mr.Beni-ich holds a BA in Law, a BA in Political Sciences, a MA in Security and Intelligence Analyses, a MA in Global Terrorism and a PhD in International Politics. His studies were pursued in England and the U.S. Mr.Beni-ich began his career as a lawyer working for the British Home Office (The Ministry of Interior) as well as The British Foreign Office. Mr.Beni-ich gave many lectures in the United States regarding the current affairs in the MENA region, both in universities and organizations. Mr. Beni-ich is currently based in Washington, DC where he lobbies for the Moroccan affairs and coordinates with many U.S. officials and Think-Tanks to promote Morocco’s interests, both in the United States and Morocco. You can follow him on Twitter at: @MonarchKnight[/symple_box]
