Fate of fate: The tale of terror and defiance

‘Blood, blood everywhere. The feeling was nauseating, and yet no movement could be made’; prologue of a book written by 14-year-old Insha Jesani. Jesani, a Kenyan teenager of Asian extraction wrote this book about the dilemma the Muslim community faces when confronted with terrorism. Since the September 11, 2001 attack by terrorist in the US, a perception has been created that Islam and terrorism are same thing.

Insha Jesani in her book, though a work of fiction, attempts to show how Muslims have become victims of violence and bloodshed perpetrated by people who claim to be Muslims, but depict a character that defies Islamic behavior. All the twenty chapters of the book start with a verse from the Quran. The title of the 220-page novel, Fate of Faith says it all. Does one become guilty by virtue of the faith he is born to? In a paper entitled ‘Debate or Denial’, by Hussein Suroor, published in the Hindu Times of India 2007, the author challenges Muslims to Understand that terrorists are not simply “misguided” individuals acting on a whim but they are people who know what they are doing and are doing it deliberately in the name of Islam.