Calling all moderate Muslims

What Muslims can learn from Ra’ad Ali Abdul-Aziz

By Sid Radhakrishnan
From the November 2006 Print Edition

We see it every day. We see it on the television, hear it on the radio and its seemingly ubiquitous presence is inescapable. The daunting images of Iraq are everywhere. And these paralyzing scenes of tortured bodies, roadside bombers and beheadings strike us at the very base of human emotions: fear. But amidst the horror, violence and death, there lay stories of courage in the face of evil.

Often untold and swept under sensationalistic violence, the praises of these oft-forgotten heroes must be sung so people everywhere may reaffirm their faith in the goodness of humanity, and find the courage within themselves to stand up to injustices, intolerance, and extremism perpetuated by violence.

The battleground of Iraq appears to be a desolate place of despair, uncertainty and confusion, as Iraqis live a life in unabated fear. Bodies turn up on the banks of the Tigris bound, gagged, and tortured. Words fail to capture the horrors experienced by the innocent. Yet despite the hotbed of sectarian violence, NGOs, humanitarian aid workers, and educated Iraqis are rebuilding Iraq from Baghdad to Basra.

Ra’ad Ali Abdul-Aziz, an Iraqi citizen who earned a Ph.D. in engineering from Baghdad University, began working for an Italian humanitarian organization called A Bridge to Baghdad in 2002. He told his story to the New York Times, which published his account in early October. Responsible for repairing schools, hospitals, and providing clean water to struggling Iraqis, Abdul-Aziz wanted to be part of the rebuilding process and help his brothers and sisters get clean water, splints for broken arms, and poetry for the frightened young minds. His work did not end when suicide bombers flooded cities. It did not end when his wife and children asked him to come home amidst rising violence. It certainly did not end when masked men with AK-47s in an entourage kidnapped him along with two Italian coworkers, Simona Pari and Simona Torretta.

Being an Iraqi affiliated with a Western cause did not sit well with his captors. The fact Abdul-Aziz had a Kurdish father and an Arabic mother should have pushed the Sunni extremists to the brink, but Abdul-Aziz had no fear during his ordeal. He stared into the evil and vile eyes of his captors and did not blink. A strange feeling arose within the depths of his soul assuring him that, "[he] would not die, that [he] had an unfinished task."

This overwhelming belief of virtue swelled up in his heart that no terror or violence could ever overcome. His belief surged that the religion of Islam cannot be divided along the lines of Sunni and Shi’a, that the perpetrators of violence in the name of Allah cannot be tolerated by moderate Muslims, and that a stand had to be taken even if it meant his death.

Bearers of light from Gandhi to Martin Luther King Jr. share this bond in their tryst with truth. Their moments of greatness, revealing their resolve and unwavering commitment against injustices, often emerge when their lives appear most perilous.

Consider Gandhi’s fast unto death to stop civil war from breaking out between Muslims and Hindus. Consider MLK’s letter from the paint thinning jail cell of Birmingham, or Abdul-Aziz’s trouble with Sunni Jihadists. There comes a moment in our lives where the moment is bigger than ourselves. A rush of resolve runs down our spines at our greatest moments of peril where thoughts of death dissipate, and focus shifts from ourselves to the fight against people who seek to strike terror in our hearts. We simply become a vessel for a greater cause. As Martin Luther said, "If man hasn’t discovered something that he will die for, he isn’t fit to live."

Abul-Aziz recently left Iraq with his wife and his four-year-old child. He wonders if his voice is louder than that of the Islamic fundamentalists. Is enough being done in the fight against violent fundamentalist Muslim ideology? When one sees a Sunni Muslim strapping himself with explosives and incinerating his fellow brothers and sisters during the holiest of months of Islam, Ramadan, it shakes us all at our core of sanity and everything we hold dear.

I find myself, like Abdul-Aziz, wondering if suicide bombers will truly spend all of eternity in heaven for their martyrdom, if they would be presented with 72 virgins and jewels extending unto the distance. Truthfully, "this cannot be God’s Way." The God I know and have experienced represents the twin ideals I heavily guard, love and truth. This cannot be God’s Way.

Do you hear me, Muslims everywhere? The violence perpetrated and passed off as proper interpretation of Islam is simply blasphemous and unacceptable. Moderate Muslims everywhere, does it not boil your blood? More than a billion Muslims worldwide are lovers of peace and family. And the religion of Islam itself is one of tolerance, compassion and beauty. But when I see Sunnis and Shiites slaughtering one another, or witness Jihadists killing fellow Muslims allied with Western powers to rebuild schools and hospitals, I am blind to the beauty, compassion and tolerance in Islam.

Your religion is being hijacked and you must act before Western perceptions of Islam become unalterable. Rise up, moderates. Become more visible. Let us hear the voices of reason and compassion because all the world is hearing are the deafening threats to kill more children, women, and young adults in the name of your prophet Muhammad. It is not enough any longer to be respectable citizens of your country but instead be visible in voicing your beliefs.

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