Following the assault on Charlie Hebdo magazine in France, Islam is once again targeted due to the actions of the so-called militant jihadists. Not only in France, but all around Europe, social gathering centers of Muslims and their houses are being targeted and streams of protests are being held against Islam. However, is it right to hold Islam responsible for these outrageous terrorist acts and how should the Muslims react amidst all this tension?

Needless to say, it is nothing short of sheer barbarism to hunt down and shoot defenseless people savagely for their beliefs. Those who commit murder under the guise of "Islam" and claiming that they are waging "jihad", are in fact murderers. However, whenever there is a terrorist act perpetrated by people with Muslim identity, certain media organs take it on themselves to use it to start a wide-scale campaign to boost prejudice against Islam and Muslims. Various mainstream media corporations direct a negative propaganda that results with an unfair generalization in the public opinion against Islam. Especially following 9/11 attacks, many Westerners were made to believe that a Muslim would equal to a potential terrorist. Yet, the statistics paint a different picture.

For instance, according to the 2013 report^[i] of Europol, the European Union's law enforcement agency, only 2 out of the 152 terror attacks in Europe is based on religious motivations. Similarly, the terrorist incidents with religious motivations again have a very low rate in the United States. In reference to University of North Carolina’s report[ii] issued last year, only 37 out of the 190,000 Americans killed between 9/11 and 2014 have lost their lives in terror acts linked supposedly with Muslims.

Yet, while most of the world seems oblivious to these terrorist attacks with no links to Muslims, almost everyone in the world has heard about the Charlie Hebdo attack in France. Have you heard of the simultaneous rocket attacks on police stations in two cities of France, carried out by France's terror organization FLNC that fights for an independent nation for the Island of Corsica? Most probably, not. Or has there been any Western broadcaster that used the word Christian terror while mentioning Anders Breivik who murdered 77 people as an expression of his ideas against Islam in Norway? Which European state had a change in their sentiments regarding Buddhism while the some Buddhists in Burma and Sri Lanka were continuously slaughtering Muslims? All these facts make it clear that the media should do is not to vilify the religion of the terrorists they claim to follow.

On the other hand, it is regrettably true that the terrorist attacks perpetrated in the name of Islam are rising tremendously in the Middle East. The fact that the majority of Muslims in the world are peaceful is not sufficient to paint a true picture of Islam and the Muslims in the eyes of the world. Therefore, it goes without saying that it is again the responsibility of Muslims to counter the bloody ideology of these movements that rise from the Muslim world. If reasonable and peaceful Muslims think that only denouncing radicalism is enough and then stand back, more troubles will surely follow. Even though the Western states take all sorts of measures to counter terrorism, they will not be able to eliminate the bigotry feeding the terrorism. Indeed, terrorism has a religious foundation, albeit a twisted and perverted version of the original faith. A radical does not necessarily have to resort to weapons for political purposes. If a Muslim doesn't kill, but is misogynist, and vehemently rejects art, music; then they also agree with the same foundations that give the radicals their so-called justifications.

In the aftermath of the terrorist attacks, many peaceful Muslims quickly gave speeches and dismissed those radical terrorists as 'not Muslims.' However the references that radicals use -be they individuals or organizations such as ISIS, al-Qaeda, al-Shabab, Boko Haram- are pretty much embedded in by the mainstream Islamic resources. Stating these radicals are not Muslims is simply ignoring the core of the problem because these terrorist groups use certain texts generally accepted by many in the Muslim world, to justify their violent acts. One of these resources is collection of fabricated hadiths that are falsely attributed to Prophet Mohammed. These fabricated hadiths have infiltrated the mainstream Islamic books even though they were written centuries after the Prophet lived. The problem of radicals or bigots is that, they do not practice the teachings of the Qur'an but blindly follow the superstitions, fabricated hadiths, false accounts, which contradict the Qur'an.

For these reasons it is essential that Muslims take it on themselves to approach these misguided Muslims by having the Qur'an as the sole reference. It should be shown that, all the so-called hadiths ISIS employs to justify terror, persecution and the armed struggle against non-Muslims contradict with the freedom of faith, pluralism and the spirit of unity advocated by the Qur'an. Unless we tackle with the underlying ideology, the problem of terror cannot be resolved by street protests, condemnations by world leaders merely saying, "Islam is the religion of peace."

Apart from these, allying with Christian and Jewish clergy will greatly help. Communities trust the views of their own religious leaders rather than statements of politicians. Thereby, stepping up the efforts to spread the truth with the help of religious leaders will surely deliver positive results. Especially if these religious leaders appear on TV, radio stations and explain the facts in a sincere and warm atmosphere, rather than the stoic and diplomatic tone that some politicians use, the people of the world would greatly benefit from that.

Apart from all these, it is evident that the ones who use Internet effectively will be the victors. Radical circles no longer use university campuses, mosques or Islamic centers to recruit members or teach their ideologies, they use social media and Internet. Radical groups' using religious references in a way that is appealing to the outraged and politicized youth for one reason or another, has been increasingly influential. There are no longer villages for training guerillas. Websites do that now. In response to this type of propaganda, Muslims must first counter the narratives of radicals and respond them ideologically with a wise and compelling tone via Internet and social media.

However, it can never be accepted to shed more blood, to use more powerful weapons and use the unacceptable pretense ‘collateral damage’ in the effort to eliminate terrorism. Such an attitude would only worsen the situation. We have witnessed that it never worked so far. It should be understood now that the only way to end terror is targeting its root causes, which are the twisted ideological beliefs in the Islamic world.

Adnan Oktar's piece on American Current See