In an interview with The Daily Star today, the Grand Sheikh Mohammad Rashid Qabbani (not some unknown jobless conspiracist blogger) rejected the widespread linkage of Islam to extremism, blaming foreign countries’ intelligence agencies for behind the militant terrorist Muslim organizations around the world:

This continuing extremism adopted by misled groups or fictitious organizations are all the work of foreign intelligence agencies and leading powers, which seek to strike Islam in its own countries and tarnish its image in various parts of the planet so that they can tamper with our countries’ security, control our economic systems and launch wars with a view to fully achieving their aims.

I wish we can take some blame here, and reduce this unbelievable self denial. Muslim or any religious scholars are responsible for moderating any extremism that shows within their communities. It helps too if they reduce their sectarianism too, when it comes to their ‘sect’s rights’. This is actually sillier than the theory that says that the Arab Spring is an American conspiracy to remove the dictators who protected its regional interests. Wait a minute, no…not like that?

Continue reading »