Is it up to Muslims to solve Islamic terrorism?

It has become almost common to associate terrorism with Islam in view of the terrorist attacks launched by Islamists who see them as a form of legitimate jihad. But it's time for Muslims to promote a peaceful image of Islam by restructuring their religious field and cleaning it from those who have extreme views legitimizing random killing.

To solve Islamic terrorism has to go hand in hand with promoting justice for all Muslims and narrowing the great disparities between the rich and the poor. Despair and hatred are a gate to terrorism.

Also, the most fundamental way to eradicate Islamic terrorism is to endow Muslims, especially the young, with an education promoting tolerance and open-mindedness. As long as there are Islamic schools in countries like Pakistan and Saudi Arabia teaching archaic views about Islam and considering anyone who isn't Muslim as worthy of hell and fighting, terrorism will continue to have a breeding ground in Muslim countries and communities living in non-Muslim countries.

The problem with Islamic terrorism is that there are terrorists who live in inaccessible mountainous terrains as in the borders between Pakistan and Afghanistan. The US, despite its ultra-modern military equipments has so far failed to surround them and break their back. From their caves, these terrorists can spread their ideology and recruit potential terrorists thanks to the internet and other forms of communication.

Fighting terrorism isn't just the job of Muslim countries but that of the international community. In other words, there should be aggressive intelligence cooperation between all the countries concerned.

There are many outstanding issues like the Palestinian cause and the invasion of Iraq that are used as a pretext to wage terrorism. There should be a solution to these. At least, the terrorists will have little ground to manoeuvre and the support they can get will drop to extinction.