Syrian Minister of Religious Endownment on Islam and Terrorism

The following are excerpts from an interview with Syrian minister of religious endownment Ziyyad Al-Din Al-Ayoubi

Ziyyad Al-Din Al-Ayoubi: If Islam was terrorism, people would leave Islam. Now I come to another issue… The Muslims in China. There are currently one hundred million Muslims in China. When the Islamic chaliphate was reduced in size, if Islam was about terrorism and coercion the Chinese would abandon it. If Islam was about terrorism, the people of Bosnia Herzegovina would abandon it. If Islam was about terrorism the people of Syria would abandon it. But…

Interviewer: They were the first to be burnt by the fire of terrorism.

Ziyyad Al-Din Al-Ayoubi: But what happened… Islam does not believe in terrorism. Secondly, Islam is the enemy of terrorism. Third, Islam ordered the Muslim to obtain deterring measures in order to make the enemy afraid. In addition, terrorism is a story that has become a laughingstock. Who is the terrorist today? Who slaughters people in Palestine morning, noon, and night? Who turned the land of Palestine today into… Uprooted olive trees, uprooted houses, killed children, expelled families? Who has turned the Arab homeland into a group of refugee camps today? Why is it that every time someone in the world takes action, he is accused of anti-Semitism? Whenever a free person in Europe says the Jews did this, that or the other to the Europeans he is accused of anti-Semitism? On the other hand, when an entire people is slaughtered… Who turned Somalia into such a country? Who helped to tear Afghanistan apart? Who sent weapons to Afghanistan in order to fight the Russians? Did we send weapons? Weren't they American weapons?