Given the enormity of the phenomenon, the perplexed coalition and our apathetic but pretentiously compassionate political figureheads responded with the usual filibuster, political rancour and yet another showcase of patricianism above the national interest.

Surprisingly and quite sadly, the only effective measure the coalition government could so far come up with to respond to this rise of militant Islam is to legally wiretap the private conversations of the citizens of this free country. This measure infringes on the very freedom that the extremists want to steal from us. When fear takes over freedom, the extremists win. Once again the coalition got it dead wrong.

In this piece I argue that militant Islam is not an end in itself. It is an unjustified means to achieve political Islam. To design an effective remedy we must first debate the recognition of political Islam and then argue whether fear of militancy or freedom of democracy is the justifiable means to achieve that end of political Islam.

I argued in this column before that Islam, by its very nature of being all-encompassing, is also very political. Islam without politics is an empty shell without much of its essence. In fact, historically Islam had flourished the most under the banner of an Islamic State in Madinaa during the time of the Prophet Muhammed (pbuh). Then one wonders can militancy be a justifiable means to achieve this political Islam?

The Arabic word "Islam" means "peace" which is the natural consequence of total submission to the will of Allah. And Allah commands in the Quran: O mankind! We created you from a male and female and made you into tribes, so you may know each other (49:13). The universality of the appeal of Islam is evident in its very name. It is not named after a person as in the case of Christianity which was named after Jesus Christ, Buddhism after Gotama Buddha, Confucianism after Confucius, and Marxism after Karl Marx. Nor was it named after a tribe like Judaism is named after the tribe of Judah and Hinduism after the Hindus. It is indeed a way of life based on peace, submission and universal brotherhood.

In essence, Islam and injustice are logical impossibility. As Allah says clearly in the Quran: Had your Lord willed, everyone on Earth would have believed. Do you then force everyone till they believed (10:99)?

It is not militancy but democracy which is the justifiable means to political Islam. It is the "freedom of the people" not the "fear of the people" that can enshrine the path of Islam as a system of life. It is justice not injustice that justifies the recognition of Islam as one of the dominant faiths in this world. It is the recognition of the conscious choice God Himself entrusted every individual with that should guide the political formation of the society.

Then one wonders why there is militancy in the name of Islam? Why this recent unjustified terror on innocent lives and the perpetrators are all happened to be Muslims? Why eight out of the world's top ten most terror inflicted regions have to do with Muslims?

The answer is simple yet powerful, most obvious yet not being critically discussed, common knowledge yet the so-called intelligentsia seem to be oblivious to it. It is the sense of injustice among the Muslims, the abduction of their freedom by their own governments and by external powers, the fear of losing their freedom of faith and the hope of reviving a sinking ship of Islam that pushes few Muslims to the brink of begetting injustice to others. It is this sense of a losing cause that shrouds the logical thinking process and induces them to hold on to the last straw of hope, be it extremism. But unfortunately, the first victim of that militancy in the name of Islam is, in fact, the Islam itself.

We as a part of the Islamic world cannot escape the pandemic of Islamic militancy even though we are blessed with a democratic political process. Although we have successfully accommodated political Islam in our system of political formation, the residuals of militancy will haunt us because there will always be religious bigots who will always take the wrong side of the battle between fear and freedom. But we must not give in to fear and thwart the progress of freedom. If so, we will in fact incept the seed that breeds the militant Islam and the consequent injustice in the first place.

With every act of injustice, fear silently takes over the freedom of logical thinking. During this hostile takeover, fear shrouds the aura of freedom and induces society to resort to unjustified means to thwart potential perpetrators of injustice and, in doing so, ensure justice for all. Unfortunately, between this fracas of fear and freedom, it is the very notion of justice that becomes the ultimate casualty of war. The coalition government must be guided by the spirit of freedom not the trauma of fear in combating the residual Islamic militancy in our country.

The author is a Selwyn Scholar and PhD Candidate in Financial Economics, University of Toronto.