On Saturday night seven people died due to a terrorist attack on London Bridge and nearby Borough Market. Three perpetrators have been said to be yelling, "This is for Allah!"
It did not take long for the polar opposite groups to come out on social media and express how they feel as they usually do after every attack. The first group consists of people that want Muslims to apologise for the incident, to condemn violence and do something about 'Islamist terrorism'. They want all 1.6 billion Muslims to be made accountable for what a handful of men did, and believe that the responsibility lies with them to take action within their own community. The second group consists of Muslims (and non-Muslims) that argue that Islam does not condone acts of violence against innocent people and those of the Islamic faith should not be blamed; that they too are humans and are saddened by the loss of lives i.e. stating the absolute and utter obvious.
People have created a "them and us" narrative. The media has painted a picture in everybody's heads of desert people thirsty for the blood of 'infidels'. This is despite the fact that the vast majority of ISIS', and other related groups, victims are Muslim which is conveniently forgotten by many.
In the last ten days of Ramadan alone, dozens have died in Muslim countries due to terrorism. On the same day as the London Bridge attacks, at least 20 people were killed from a bomb blast during a funeral in Afghanistan. Iraq too saw bloodshed less than a week ago when a car bomb went off in an ice-cream parlour killing 14 people.
Dozens of Muslims have died in a week and a half alone because of these terror groups, yet they are being made to apologise for their own oppressor's actions.
Governments seem to believe that terrorism will stop terrorism. So they drop bombs on Muslim countries where these violent groups operate. Not only are Muslims being ruthlessly killed by ISIS but also western powers. ISIS members strap bombs to their bodies and blow themselves up in public places whilst the west drops drones knowing that there will be immense collateral damage.
Those in Muslim countries are being terrorised by all sides on a regular basis. The outrage is gone and their suffering has become the norm; people have become desensitised to seeing a brown man covered in blood and a brown woman screaming over her dead children's bodies.
Muslims across the globe are living in fear because of what a few men that happened to be Muslims have done. How can these acts of terror be labelled as 'Islamist' or 'Islamic' terrorism when almost all of the perpetrators had been known to drink and engage in other haraam (forbidden) acts, and never attended their local mosques or had been banned from them entirely
Simply mentioning God's name in Arabic does not make a terrorist act Islamic. By referring to these people as 'Islamists' and 'jihadists', people like Therese May are choosing to ignore the root of these problems.
Foreign policy.
Since 1980, western wars have killed over 4 million Muslims; over 1 million alone during the invasion of Iraq in 2001.
Many reports have shown that the war in Iraq in particular has caused an increase in terrorism. The British government is currently bombing Iraq and Syria, and their weapons are being used in Yemen by the Saudis. How can we not expect there to be consequences?
Jeremy Corbyn was not wrong when he said, "Many experts, including professionals in our intelligence and security services have pointed to the connections between wars our government has supported or fought in other countries, such as Libya, and terrorism here at home." Muslim communities across the world have been making the same argument for years.
After the Manchester attacks, ISIS declared that the bombings were, "...in response to their [non-Muslims] transgressions against the lands of the Muslims." The British government has to start facing cold hard facts. These political acts of terror are being coated in religion and people are being made to believe that these attacks are happening out of the blue. The government needs to reform its foreign policy.
Yesterday we were bombing and destabilising Muslim countries because of AlQaeda, today it is because of ISIS, which group will it be tomorrow?