Islamabad, Pakistan (CNN) — A fatwa, or religious ruling, issued this week is roiling theological waters after it took aim at those notorious for targeting others: terrorists.
The anti-terrorism fatwa by renowned Muslim scholar Muhammad Tahir ul-Qadri pulled no punches, declaring that terrorism was “haraam,” or forbidden by the Quran, and that suicide bombers would be rewarded not by 72 virgins in heaven, as many terrorist recruiters promise, but with a suite in hell.
Qadri, the founder of the Minhaj-ul-Quran International, an Islamic movement with centers in 90 countries, told a news conference in London, England, on Tuesday that his decree categorically condemns terrorism and suicide bombings in the name of Islam.
“Until now, scholars who were condemning terrorism were conditional and qualified what they said,” Qadri said in a phone interview, noting that his 600-page ruling left no room for interpretation. “I didn’t leave a single, minor aspect that, in the mind of radicals or extremists, can take them to the direction of martyrdom.” . . .
Father Orthoduck was glad to see the action above. It should have a good effect among the non-jihadists, and make recruiting significantly harder for the terrorists. Please notice that this was issued by a leading scholar from Pakistan, a country full of jihadists. And, please do go and read the rest of the article on CNN. Father Orthoduck would like to echo another poster and say to the Iman:
To Muslim scholar Muhammad Tahir ul-Qadri: Assalamu Alilkum Wa Rahmatulah Wa Barakatuh (meaning peace, mercy, and blessings be upon from Allah) And thank you!
Frankly, the terrorists have done it to themselves and helped us to redeem a mistaken act. We had and have significant world support for the invasion of Afghanistan. At the time of that invasion, there was no general Islamic support for the Taliban or the Al Qaeda. But, when President Bush (son) decided to invade Iraq, we lost some significant support from the Arab world. And we did not just lose support from outside the USA. I have cited in other posts the strong opposition of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops to the invasion of Iraq. Both they and the Pope went on record saying that Iraq did not qualify as a just war. But that is not my point.
After the invasion of Iraq, Arab support was on the side of Al Qaeda. From terrorist in 2001, they quickly went to being almost heroes. Their opposition to what was unanimously seen in the Arab world as an illegal American invasion started looking like the underdog fighting an evil bully. Suicide bombing directed against USA troops was seen as a heroic self-sacrifice to permit the self-determination of an occupied people. IED’s were seen as the only way to fight an empire with overwhelming firepower. If you read the stories from back then, there were even places were Al Qaeda was providing food and infrastructure to villages in outer parts of Iraq. Had they kept on this course, the current situation in Iraq would be much more difficult.
But Al Qaeda made a major mistake. C.S. Lewis has pointed out that evil often makes the mistake of over-reaching itself, of getting greedy for more and more gain and power, thereby ruining their plans. Al Qaeda began to treat everyone who was not actively helping them as though they were enemies. They thoroughly applied the idea of, “he who is not with us is against us.” They began to suicide bomb fellow Muslims. It did not matter whether or not the persons killed had any involvement with the Americans. The idea was to sow such terror that the populace itself would rise up against the invader just to get relief from the bombers. But, it did not work that way. Instead, the people began to turn against Al Qaeda.
The fatwa above is a sign of what is slowly becoming a general rejection of Al Qaeda among your average Muslim. This is not to say that Muslims are now in agreement that the USA invasion was correct. You would be quite mistaken if you thought that was true. Rather, we are being seen more and more as the lesser of two evils. If we are fortunate, we may someday make it all the way to no longer being perceived as evil, but rather being perceived as good. Insha’Allah.
A welcome word. Thus far the silence from the Muslim leadership condemning terrorism has been deafening. Finally, someone stands up for what is right.
And as non-crazy Muslim leadership stayed silent, the crazies (like al-Qaeda) kept taking over.
My guess is a lot of the silence was due to tribal identity; in Middle-Eastern cultures you stick with your tribe against the Other no matter what, and Islam put a damper on Arab blood feuds by defining all Muslims as one tribe of Believers. (Unfortunately, this just redirected the hostility onto the new Other, non-Muslims.)
There was also a “Kill one, Silence a hundred” factor in play; the crazies have no hesitation about killing anyone outside their own clique as a Heretic or Apostate in a game of More-Devout-than-Thou One-Upmanship turned lethal.
If this fatwa is the first of many, it will herald a change from Jihad against the Other into an Islamic civil war — sane vs crazy for the soul of Islam instead of the usual Sunni vs Shia inheritance blood feud. And ups the chance that what future historians will call the Islamic Wars won’t end in an paroxysm of plutonium, lithium deuteride, tritium boosting, and Vlad the Impaler being cult-canonized.
I think some of the silence was due to the fact that there are still Arabs alive who lived under British and French mandates. America was, and still is, viewed as the new colonizer by many Arabs. Afghanistan they agreed was blood for blood, a very Middle Eastern concept. But, Iraq looked to them like the West trying to colonize them again.
If they look at our WWII foes and what we did in those countries after we conquered them, they might get the idea that we were not there to either punish OR colonize. Heck, we have enough trouble running the 50 states and PR–why would we want to colonize the middle east? Who would want that mess?
I don’t know why Arabs would think of us as new colonizers. Seems to me to be looking for trouble where there isn’t any. Where in the world do we stay and run it? We hand it over as soon as we can and if we stay it is to support the folks we are handing to over to. No one can say we run Germany or Japan and if we were going to run anyone, it would have been them.
We are not England or France or Germany or whoever. Sometimes I wish we could be like the old isolationists. Build a huge wall/great shield bubble around what is the USA and let the rest of the world fight it out!! Okay, okay, I am not really that naive, but I dislike being judged by folks who are not us. We have made enough mistakes since 1776 that WERE our fault, but being blamed and judged for stuff that other folks did makes me crazy. I have read things that blame us for the CRUSADES….and we weren’t even a country or even discovered by Europeans at that point in time.
I don’t think we should have to apologize for the rest of the world. They say they hate us, but in a time of tragedy or need, boy they sure take our assistance. It is not just European or Judeo-Christians we help in time of need. And I am not talking about government here, I am talking about the average American who reaches into his pocket to sent money to the Red Cross or whatever humanitarian group is helping when earthquakes, tsunamis, floods, etc etc happen. I am talking about the church and humanitarian groups that go dig wells and fund orphanages and schools and hospitals and send food and go themselves as Doctors and Nurses and people with rescue dogs….and on and on…..
If we were about just me and mine and only notice you when we want to get revenge on you and yours for hurting me and mine, we wouldn’t be in most of the places we are trying to keep peace in or bring peace to.
Alix
Good on him. I hope he has good security. Alix