In A.D. 632, one man’s death changed the face of the world. Muhammad’s death sparked the rapid spread of Islam. War after war, the followers of Muhammad spread Islam across the face of the earth.

Fourteen years ago, I was 7 years old and caught in the middle of that war that started more than a thousand years ago. The Muslims in the town where I lived decided that they would burn down the houses of everyone who was not Muslim and kill everyone who defied them. It was either conversion to Islam or death.

Today, amid suicide bombings, terrorist attacks, kidnappings and executions, I am forced to ask myself this important question: Is Islam a religion of peace?

Is a religion that was spread by the sword peaceful? Is a religion that preaches that you should cut off hands of people who steal, stone to death those who commit adultery and wage holy wars really peaceful?

Definitely, Islam is not entirely peaceful. Just like Christianity, Islam has its violent origins. Many of the violent events that are taking place in the world today are founded in those origins. After all, isn’t there a tendency for the concept of the jihad (or holy war) to be interpreted by many Muslims in violent terms?

The term jihad is founded in the battles Muhammad faced in spreading Islam. An example of one such battle is the battle for Medina in A.D. 627. Many Islamic extremists today see themselves as fighting similar battles in which the reward would be an eternal life in paradise.

How about the concept of the Shariah, the Islamic law, which is practiced in many Third World countries? On Aug. 19, 2002, an Islamic court in Nigeria found Amina Lawal, a 30-year-old woman, guilty of committing adultery. She was sentenced to death by stoning — a fate that involved being buried up to her neck in sand and having rocks thrown at her head.

The majority of the Muslims in the world are peaceful people, but we cannot ignore certain facts about the practice of Islam around the world. The whole war against terrorism is centered on how we view the concept of Islamic fundamentalism. Therefore, the whole war against terrorism would only be waged properly if we interpret this concept correctly.

If you believe that there is nothing wrong with certain fundamentals of Islam, then you believe that we can deal better with terrorism by bombing terrorist camps, since acts of terror are isolated cases.

I believe that terrorism is part of a more deeply rooted problem. Terrorism is part of the problem of lack of education and poverty. Education and the right environment for education are the tools needed to fight extreme interpretations of Islam. It is not a coincidence that American Muslims are less radical than Muslims in Third World countries.

More than $200 billion have been spent on the war in Iraq, yet terrorism has been more rampant in Iraq and around the world. Terror attacks have risen dramatically around the world since Sept. 11, 2001. Bombings in Moscow, executions in Iraq and deaths in Spain and the Philippines only highlight the growing threat of Islamic fundamentalism. What is being done to counter this threat?

The whole concept of fighting terrorism by bombs alone can be compared to fighting malaria around the world by killing all the mosquitoes. It just plays to people’s fantasies and hopes, but it is impossible. If $100 billion was spent on fighting poverty and investing in Third World countries it would be a more effective tool against terror.

How long are we going to keep fighting the symptoms of terrorism while ignoring the cure? In the short term, bombs can crush terrorist camps, but, in the long run, they cannot crush the growing threat of Islamic fundamentalism. The war against terrorism is also a war of ideals and therefore should not be fought with bombs alone. It is a war of good versus evil, love versus hatred and understanding versus fear.

So far, the terrorists are winning.