Anti-Muslim extremists and Muslim extremists appear to be sworn enemies, yet both are reflections of the same delusion. They use the same verses and reports, twist the same texts, and misrepresent Islam in the same ways. They feed off each other’s incitement like parasites sharing the same host. Each validates the other’s existence, repeating the same message in different tones, that Islam and the West are destined for conflict. The truth is, both are wrong, and both thrive on ignorance.
This distortion has been around since the earliest days of Islam. The Prophet (Alayhissalaam) warned of a zealot faction that would emerge from within the Muslim community, a people of fierce words but corrupt hearts, who would leave Islam as an arrow leaves its target. These were the Khawarij, the original extremists, whose descendants still plague the Muslim world today.
Abu Sa’id al-Khudri (RadiAllahuAnhu) reported that the Prophet (Alayhissalam) said, “There will come a people from the east who will recite the Qur’an, but it will not go beyond their throats. They will go out of the religion just as the arrow goes through its prey, and they will not return to it as the arrow does not return to the bow.” (Bukhari, Muslim)
They claimed to fight for God, yet the Prophet described them as “the dogs of Hellfire.” The worst of creation, and killers of believers (Ibn Majah 173). Ibn Kathir (Rahimuhullah), one of Islam’s greatest historians, warned centuries ago that if the Khawarij ever gained power, they would “corrupt the entire land, Iraq and Syria, and not leave alive a boy or girl or man or woman, because in their view, everyone was corrupt and only execution could rectify them.” (Al-Bidayah wa’l-Nihayah 10/584) Today, we have seen that prophecy fulfilled in those same lands. Under ISIS rule, Muslims and Christians together were massacred in the thousands, ancient cities reduced to rubble, and human life treated as expendable. They murdered believers while claiming divine license to kill, just as their forebears did fourteen centuries ago.
Imam al-Ajurri (Rahimuhullah), writing in the 10th century, said: “If you see a group of people rebelling against the ruler, just or unjust, shedding Muslim blood without hesitation, do not doubt for a second that they are wretched deviants, no matter how beautiful their speech or how persistent their fasting.” (Kitab al-Shari’ah 1/345) Ibn al-Jawzi (Rahimuhullah) wrote of them in Talbis Iblis: “They tired themselves out with worship and raised their swords against the Muslims. Even Iblis (Satan) could not have imagined the extent of their evil.”
These descriptions are not metaphorical. They are historical diagnoses of the same disease. The Khawarij were young, angry, self-righteous, and ignorant, precisely the characteristics found in today’s extremists. They were masters of half-knowledge, obsessed with ritual but devoid of understanding. They believed that salvation lay in violence and that dissent was disbelief.
And yet, the modern world has bred a new kind of Khawarij: the anti-Muslim extremist. They too recite texts they do not understand, selecting verses from the Qur’an or hadith to justify collective blame. They too build movements on outrage and dehumanization. They too take religion out of context and make it the pretext for hate.
What few realize is how perfectly these two extremes complement one another. Every terror attack gives anti-Muslim activists the proof they crave, while every hate crime gives jihadist propagandists the proof they need. Each side’s fear feeds the other’s fury. The more one acts, the stronger the other becomes. Both are the same disease wearing different masks.
Foreign adversaries understand this game well. They weaponize these divisions, pushing disinformation and amplifying the extremes to destabilize societies. A post here, a video there, a fake account pushing both anti-Muslim and jihadist rhetoric simultaneously, this is how polarization is manufactured. The outrage is real, but the puppeteers are hidden.
It is important to ask: who represents Islam in this chaos? The militant fringe has no right to speak for a faith followed by nearly two billion people. Consider the Sufi order of the late Shaykh Nazim al-Naqshbandi, whose disciples numbered in the tens of millions across the world. He was so respected by the now-King of the United Kingdom that critics accused His Majesty of being a secret Muslim! The Pope visited him and they each shared presence with each other, modeling the way of the Believer. Terrorists put on a show in Islamic costume, and the cameras rush to film them instead. Why? Why are we giving terrorists, free airtime over and over?
Media amplifies the spectacle of savagery, rarely showing the vast majority of Muslims who live by the Prophet’s (Alayhissalaam) code of mercy and restraint. The Prophet (Alayhissalaam) prohibited killing women, children, the elderly, and non-combatants. He forbade torture, mutilation, and the use of fire as punishment. Rape (as “Hiraabah” as the term goes) is a capital offense in Islam, and desecrating bodies is among the gravest of sins. Literally no classical Islamic source disputes this, so why take the example of extremists and terrorists as scripture when it blatantly contradicts it?
The Prophet’s own uncle was mutilated in war, yet he forbade retaliation. This was an ethical revolution in a world that knew only vengeance. Eight centuries later, Imam al-Qurtubi al-Maliki would write: “It is not permissible for us to retaliate in the same manner, even if they kill our women and children and cause sorrow to befall us. It is not permissible for us to act likewise with the intention of making them feel grief and sorrow.” (Jami li Ahkam al-Qur’an, 6/73).
Who was Imam Qurtubi (Rahimuhullah)? The name means from Cordoba. In the 13th century, when the Islamic world, including Spain at the time, experienced political instability, like the decline of Cordoba and Mongol invasions in the East. He lived through the fall of Cordoba in 1236 after his father was killed in a Spanish attack in 1230. It prompted his dedication to preserving knowledge through his scholarly work, especially his comprehensive Quranic exegesis. He did not let his own personal experience of grief, allow him to skew the teachings of the religion and give license for mindless retaliation.
We Muslims must also confront our own shortcomings. We have failed to represent our faith as it deserves. We have allowed the noise of extremists to drown out the voice of moderation. Too many of us have remained silent or passive, reacting only when the damage is done. Condemnation is not enough. We must be proactive, visible, and sincere in rejecting those who misuse Islam. Not for public relations, but for truth. The headlines are dominated by an attacker of Muslim background, yelling Allahu Akbar before attacking or killing random people. It’s akin to saying Bismillah and eating pork! It can never be made lawful simply by claiming it is.
Behind the headlines, Muslim communities do take action. Families contact authorities when they fear a loved one is radicalizing, Mosques report suspicious people, Imams counsel the young, and scholars publish refutations. You don’t hear about it because no one reports it. Imams and others have been murdered by extremists for speaking up and shows us that this kind of extremism wants to end us all as a collective, not just in binary “Muslim” and “Non-Muslim” terms. That binary is what they want people to see, different groups as “others.” This is what drives such extremists to murder Christians in a horrific manner, to kill Jews as a form of blood lust, to go after anyone and everyone.
Intelligence officers, analysts, and undercover operatives of Muslim background quietly protect their nations and here in the West, from threats as well. They are the unsung heroes in this space. The real Martyrs, ready to give their life to protect the public, regardless of who they are and what faith they follow. They carry the double burden of being scrutinized by both sides, accused of betrayal by one and of double loyalty by another. Yet they continue to serve because they know the stakes. This latter part is exactly what motivated me to work as an undercover operative, infiltrating extremist and terrorist groups. It’s what led me to counter ISIS for almost 10 years straight, infiltrating their networks, training special operations forces and other professionals, teaching courses like “Islam 101” to folks who had never received such training. I found even so many years after 9/11, the West could still be in the dark over so many issues.
One of the biggest things to consider also in this perspective business. There are over 2 billion Muslims worldwide, including oil-rich nations, which bring a lot of money to the table. A lot. The Middle East is undergoing epic changes in an incredibly short period of time, and investments in various industries across the larger Muslim world must not be undermined because of anti-Islamic attitudes. It’s terrible for diplomacy too, and most of all, it goes against the spirit of the Abrahamic faiths. This really is what the Abraham Accords are at their root and rightfully aims to bring the peoples of the region closer together. If people engage in hateful narratives of any member of that Abrahamic family, it is an assault on all of them.
Understanding Islam is key to defeating those who misuse it. Islam teaches neither savagery nor cowardice and Salahuddin Al Ayyubi (a Sufi of the Qadiri Order) showed this by an example that inspired the very Christian Knights who fought him. A Jewish Rabbi (Maimonides), his trusted physician and confidante. The conflicts of their days were worse, I would argue. Yet, you find they were able to extract lessons learned. I think we should do the same now, no matter how bad it looks like things have gotten. This is the way!
