By Jaclyn Anderson
The Justice of the Supreme Court of Jordan emphatically declared that extremism is not a teaching of Islam and proposed a solution to peacefully end terrorism in a speech at the Kennedy Center, Friday, Sept. 29, 2006.
The Islamic religion denounces extremists as deviants from the Islamic faith, which promotes peace and mercy, Abdul Karim M. Pharaon said.
'The religion itself means peace,' he said. 'Islam honors every human being without distinction of color, race or religion.'
Muslims who commit violent acts in the name of the Islamic religion do not understand the teachings of Islam, Pharaon said.
In each religion, it is common to find some vague phrases that deal with subjects in a general way, he said, and people will interpret those statements to serve their own purposes.
The Holy Koran would never call for violence except as a defense, Pharaon said.
'Islam upholds human life,' he said. 'There is to be no fighting against non-fighters, nor servant civilians and their property, on children on their mothers'' laps, on students in the schools, on older men and women.'
Terrorists are difficult to fight because they are spread throughout the world and don''t have a central head, Pharaon said, but fixing the root causes of terrorism - which are poverty and a lack of education - is the way to fight terrorism. Contributing money to build schools, universities, factories and finding jobs for the unemployed could help to solve the problem, he said.
'If you have a stomach full of food and a brain full of knowledge, then you will not think about ,' Pharaon said.
He said terrorists can be from any religion or nationality but the media focus on the Muslim and Arab world. He cited the Oklahoma City bomber, Timothy McVeigh, as an example of an American terrorist.