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TODAY the whole world is in the grip of a menacing terrorism. Bangladesh, of late, has also been an unfortunate victim of growing terrorism. It has created an alarm for the government and a nightmare for people in general.
The main reason behind such terrorist activities is a gross misconception about and misinterpretation of Islam. Pope Francis of Vatican, of all people has come out with a statement that Islam does not approve of terrorism of any kind. Indeed, Islam is essentially a religion of peace and such acts of terrorism are being unleashed to disgrace Islam. These terrorists are outright enemies of Islam. They are doing exactly what enemies of Islam would like to do.
We cannot stop terrorism from spreading further by only arresting or punishing them. One of the key tasks involved with combating terrorism is to introduce religious teachings at all levels of education. Only knowledge by reading and understanding Islam is required to resist and weed out terrorism from our region. Moreover, religious teaching in our country is limited to school level only and should be imparted at levels beyond schools. In this way the terrorist organisations will not be able to misguide the young minds and carry out their obnoxious designs in the name of Islam.
The attackers at Gulshan and Sholakia recently were all young and they came from reputed universities and good family backgrounds. Due to lack of proper knowledge in Islam, they used to believe that they would go to heaven by killing people in the name of Islam.
All parents should therefore watch their children closely and monitor their activities. If they truly follow Islam, they will know that Islam strongly condemns killing in the name of religion. If all schools, colleges and universities arrange to provide proper religious education, hopefully it will greatly reduce the chances of radicalisation.
Abdullah Hasan Sakib
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