If there is any extraneous phenomena imported to Islam and the Muslim civilization, it would definitely be the wave of hate culture that has swept the minds of some of our illusioned youth who are driven to perform a vicious plan brewed overseas. Those illusioned youth were manipulated through a weakness point via education policies and output. I would not dwell longer on the issue of education in our Arab-Muslim world, as it would suffice to note that some educational curricula focus on historical accumulations of radicalism and extremism in our heritage, which resulted from misinterpretations of some Qur’anic texts and Prophetic Hadiths and statements of certain Imams. These misinterpretations involved classification of people based on creed for the least valid reasons. People who developed crooked understanding then adopted juristic and theological time-bound opinions developed under certain contingencies and claimed them as conclusive and definitive as the Qur’an and the Sunnah. For them, such contingent opinions have become the criteria for judging other Muslims’ faith, first dismissing them as innovators in religion, then deviant and finally deemed as apostates! Some of them even dared to recklessly and ignorantly denounce Muslim rulers as apostates and by corollary dismissing the Muslim subjects as apostates for accepting the authority of those allegedly apostate rulers. They also dismissed Muslim scholars as apostates for not claiming such rulers to be apostates. So, whoever rejected their call or refused to pledge allegiance to their Imam is stigmatized as apostate. They even considered all Islamic centuries, except for the first four, as eras of disbelief. There is no need here to dwell on the close link between Takfir (excommunication) ideologies and the culture of hate and rejection or contempt of the other.

The dissemination of hateful culture was increased when this misguided group exploited the tremendous technical progress in promoting their poisonous ideas among young people. They deliberately enticed their victims through appealing to their minds and emotions, before encouraging them to practically adopt their ways. It is inevitable to search for an unconventional way out of this crisis that has allowed others to impute the most heinous crimes to Islam and Muslims. I claim that the Takfiri ideologues’ misreading of Islam and the Muslims’ slowness in decisively condemning their approach have led to escalation of this plague and its spread among the youth. However, I still think there is much light at the end of the tunnel, and that there is hope that we redress this issue if our intentions are sincere, and if we become united in bringing about our common interest.