Bombings in China this week during the Olympics were yet another tragedy committed in the name of Islam with the toll reported to have been risen to eight dead and four injured as of this writing. Our prayers are with those who passed away and were injured – this is indeed a tragic incident.

JihadWatch.org and websites with similar ideologies would have you believe that this is indeed caused by Islam. However, I want to have you believe otherwise because, as I explain below, this is not true at all. Even though Muslims have committed these atrocities, Islam does not endorse any such bombings or violence. Quran advocates justice to Muslims in following words: “O believers! Be steadfast in the cause of God, bearing witness in equity; and let not a people's enmity incite you to act otherwise than with justice. Be always just. That is nearer to righteousness. And fear God. Surely, God is aware of what you do.” (Quran 5:8)

Turkistan Islamic Party (TIF), the group that has threatened attacks at China Olympics, is in fact a separatist movement. In their own words, they are fighting against repressive Chinese government for their rights. While their method is unjustified, the motivation for their attacks should still not be ignored to understand both whether Islam purports such a viewpoint and to find the real reason for their actions. Reuters reported that a video dated Aug 1 had its speaker describing “barbarism exhibited by China towards Muslims and East Turkistan, justifying the jihad that is declared against the communist regime.” In addition, the speaker also said that, “China ... rejects Islam and forces Muslims into atheism by capturing and killing Islamic teachers and destroying Islamic schools.”

Robert Pape, a scholar of political science at the University of Chicago, published an article in 2005 titled "Why the bombers are so angry at us" in which he summarized the results of his research on suicide bombings. He wrote, “what more than 95 per cent of all suicide terrorist attacks around the world have in common is not religion, but a specific political goal to compel modern democracies to withdraw military forces from the territory that the terrorists view as their homeland or prize greatly.” He further wrote, “Although terrorist leaders may harbour other goals, history shows that the presence of foreign combat forces is the principal recruiting tool used by terrorist leaders to mobilize suicide terrorists to kill us.”

Repression is what TIF is fighting for in these bombings and they probably see Olympics as an opportunity to build their identity, and have their demands met. The actions of these bombers are primarily politically motivated and use of religion, if any, is perhaps in order to justify their conscience or set a stage in front of the world. Jihadwatch.org and similar groups would go by the very words that are uttered by the bombers but would not attempt to find their real motivation. Bombers have some conscience too and they need to fight it one way or another, the easiest is to satisfy oneself religiously so the conscience does not prick as much. That frees one to achieve their end goal which, in this case, is two fold: Firstly, retaliation against the government because the group deems government to be unjust; and secondly, the fight for their separation.

Islam, however, is clear about the loss of life and strongly pushes to save it. Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) is reported to have forbidden killing of any civilian in battlefields so much so that he is reported to have even forbidden damage of civilian property.