Mistake: Islam does not mean peace, As-salāmu as in " As-salāmu ʿalaykum" (the Muslim greeting) means peace!

George W. Bush said: " The face of terror is not the true faith of Islam. That's not what Islam is all about. Islam is peace. These terrorists don't represent peace. They represent evil and war."

---

Muslims and non Muslims alike have often reiterated the phrase Islam is "The Religion of Peace" which is the title of a book published in 1930 by Ishtiaq Husain Qureshi but there is no such phrase in the Quran. Islam does not mean peace, As-salāmu as in " As-salāmu ʿalaykum" (the Muslim greeting) means peace. In the past the epithet "religion of peace" was applied to Christianity. Many people seemed to be confused, and have a very difficult time reconciling the fact that a supposedly peaceful religions such as Christianity and Islam inspires so much violence.

Islām means "submission" or "surrender". Muslim, the word for an adherent of Islam, is the active participle of the same verb form, and means "one who submits" or "one who surrenders". This refers to the same type of "surrender" that Abraham had when attempting to sacrifice his son, he was at peace with the will of God, and God was commanding him to commit violence and he was at peace with that. This concept of is what allows some muslims to commit acts of extreme violence without displaying even the slighest reservation, because they believe it is the will of God.

Unless we talk honestly about violence in religion, when young minds are exposed to the truth of the words contained in their so called holy books, they are much more likely to become radicalized from a sense of betrayal of having the truth hidden from them and being lied to by trusted elders. It is better to be truthful about the nature of violence in religion rather than to try to deny the truth its existence for the sake of our children and their future.

Abraham and Isaac (oil on canvas), Rembrandt, 1634