Here is what the world is tired of seeing "Terrorist attacks with the name of Allah or Islam". Here is what the world is tired of hearing "Islam is a peaceful religion" by everyone coming on TV from the Muslim community, explaining why some attack took place and how many Muslims are against it.
So before you disconnect with the post I wrote above, try to understand the point. We are what we do. If I am nice to a person, he or she'll see it with my behavior. If I am angry and abusive to someone, they'll see it black and white. In either situation, no one really cares about how good of a school I went to, or how great of a religion I followed or how great and civilized my parents were.
Similarly, people don't see Christians getting so upset if someone questioned their religion, to a point that someone will be killed. Similarly, the Buddhists or Atheists don't blow themselves up because they weren't getting their way, or Gays don't kill others because they were discriminated against.
The point is, the TEACHERS of Islam, the Imams and the Scholars in the past 3-4 decades historically have been illiterate, majority of the Muslims have read the Arabic Koran but they don't speak the actual language or understand it so having read the Koran in Arabic doesn't give them any meaning to actually understand it. So whoever translates it the way they want to, the followers understand and follow. Lower education doesn't allow people to question the religious authority.
So a guy who wants to run a terrorist shop, tells people whatever he wants to, with holding or reciting a Koran, the followers, not having any real knowledge about their own religion, go and follow God's commands and fulfill these extremist religious "teachers" agenda. The craziness and the intensity is highlighted and intensified with speeches against other Muslim sects, other religions and the brain washing continues till hatred is converted into terrorism.
But what do we hear from everyone else after an incident takes place? We hear that Islam is a peaceful religion.
If anyone lost their family in a safe Western society to some terrorist outfit, do you think that they'll actually listen to "Islam is a peaceful society"?
Bottom line is, the Islamic world needs to take some serious actions and I think it was needed many years ago. The citizens of the world don't expect 1.2 billion people to change their religion but to exercise restrain and patience, specially towards other countries, religions and cultures and people. That is the ONLY way to show a peaceful Islam. Talking alone doesn't help or create a better image than what's already on TV, with a few people shouting God's name with automatic weapons in their hands. A sentence that "Islam is peaceful" by a few on tv for 30 seconds each, DOESN'T overwrite constant feed of thousands of images of pain or sorrow caused by a few terrorists from Yemen or Afghanistan, etc.
No religion is someone's home grown product. Usually there is a God or some higher power you believe in. Let that higher power take account of someone doing wrong. When humans start doing it, it becomes terrorism and people and the news media remembers is for many, many years to come. In cases like NY, London, Paris, Bali, Peshawer or Karachi....these terrorism incidents become a part of the dark and painful human history.
At this time, I think a few changes are needed. First one being, the Islamic Clerics need to be educated. And I don't mean educated like have PHD in Islamic studies. But higher education from science and technology related schools and preferably some Western experience at a younger age. Not at age 40 or 50 when your brain has taken its roots and whatever belief or intensity you've built, becomes a part of who you are.
Then, there should be a code of conduct and a curriculum that should be taught to all scholars and Imams and all in every Muslim country. Every individual has the right to follow his or her own faith. But no one has the right to destroy others because their faith and believe system is different than yours. This one aspect should be put out more by Clerics so that people start to form a more tolerant society everywhere.
The moderate Muslims need to come out, openly question the intensity, rigidness in any cleric's teachings and expose him before someone's agenda produces dangerous and intolerant minds.
The Muslim countries and their governments have to put in processes in place so that people living in their culture can NOT be turned into extremists, similar to how the society in Malaysia or Indonesia or to some degree in Turkey works.
Clerics and teachings are fine, but spreading hatred should be punishable by the most severe form. Moderate Muslims need to write more books, material and participate with their Western or Eastern friends in showing solidarity and a community.
What happened in NY, London or Paris wasn't exactly a product of the Western culture, it was a product of different Muslim countries internal culture. And that has to change so there is no NY, London, Paris, Peshawer or Karachi incidents. All of these incidents target all races and religions equally. And it should stop.