Iman Chairman's Statement on Paris Attacks

Image Credit: AP Photo/Peter Dejong

The events that happened in Paris last night are truly shocking. Having grown up in that beautiful city, the city of lights, I feel a special sense of loss and sadness in the wake of these atrocities. But my thoughts and prayers right now are of course with those who have lost loved ones in the attacks and with those who are still fighting for their lives in hospital.

Investigations by French police are still underway, but it appears that Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the attacks.

There is little reason to doubt the group’s claim, simply because they believe in killing all those who do not share their poisonous ideology. We believe in and stand firmly by our democratic values and not in an Islamic Caliphate State under Sharia Law.

Though Islamic State may have committed this terrible deed, it is only one brand of the same perverted and poisonous ideology which groups such as Al-Qaeda, Al-Nusra, the Muslim Brotherhood, Ahrar al-Sham and many others also share. It is necessary to recognise this frightening truth if we are to truly solve the problem of extremism in the long run. The fight will not end simply with the defeat of Islamic State, but by exhausting the underlying ideology that drives it.

Attacks like these have plagued many countries on an almost daily basis for many years. The attacks in Paris, however, represent a dangerous new escalation of violence. The attacks were carefully designed to suck Europe into the vortex of conflict by sowing division among Europe’s Muslim and non-Muslim citizens.

We must not allow this to happen.

This will require composure and a commitment to fairness from the broader societies of Europe, but it will also require Muslim communities to become much more active in rooting out the vicious ideology that is promoting these attacks. Clerics and others who incite sectarian and religious hatred must be brought to justice, wherever they are, and countries supporting them must be held to account.

Only a tiny minority of Muslims engage in terrorism; but the fact that these terrorists falsely claim to act in the name of Islam unfortunately requires clear and focused efforts from other Muslims to prove that they do not. It is not enough to simply repudiate terrorism; Muslims must shoulder the burden in acting decisively against these monsters to remove the tarnish with which they have smeared the good name of Islam.

Islam is a religion of peace; as the Quran says, “he who kills an innocent soul is as if he had killed all humankind and he who saves a life is as if he had saved the lives of all humankind.” This is the true essence of Islam and in these tragic circumstances, actions speak much louder than words. The acts of these terrorists prove that they do not speak the true language of Islam but negate it completely.

I pray that in the coming days those in France and around the world can unite and commit to a shared vision of inclusive democracy and pluralism in which extremism and hatred have no place. The international community must put aside their differences and come together to fight the cancer of Islamic extremism which is the biggest threat we all currently face.

Ribal Al-Assad

Chairman of the Iman Foundation