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| Britain |
| London-based cleric issues anti-terror fatwa |
| 2010-03-04 |
| An influential Muslim scholar in Britain has issued a fatwa banning terror attacks and bombings, insisting that there is no justification for terror acts in the name of Islam. At a news conference attended by officers from London's Metropolitan Police, lawmakers, charitable organizations and think-tanks, Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri said that acts of terrorism cut people off as true followers of Islam. "They can't claim that their suicide bombings are martyrdom operations and that they become the heroes of the Muslim Ummah. No, they become heroes of hellfire, and they are leading towards the hellfire," he said. In his 600-page decree, the founder of the internationally popular Minhaj-ul-Quran movement said there was no place for martyrdom through acts of terror and that such acts had nothing to do with jihad. The scholar ruled out any excuses or pretexts for justifying acts of terror in supposed efforts to "convert an evil into good." "Terrorism is terrorism," Qadri insisted. "Violence is violence and it has no place in Islamic teaching and no justification can be provided for it, or any kind of excuses or ifs or buts." He reiterated that Islam is a religion of peace that promotes beauty, "betterment," goodness and "negates all form of mischief and strife." The fatwa is not the first by a senior Muslim scholar against extremism, but Qadri's is expected to carry more weight as it will be one of the few available in English and online. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #7 JFM, The Ahmadiya are another sect (nominally Sunni) that is generally non violent. They believe the 'no compulsion in religion' verse in the Koran (2:256) was not abrogated by the various jihad verses except for the conquests (in Mohammud's time and shortly after) in the Arabian peninsula. They are thriving in India but elsewhere (especially Pakistan) they are persecuted (and frequently robbed and murdered)by other Moslems. |
| Posted by: lord garth 2010-03-04 10:39 |
| #6 Wiki sez Qadri is Logical Sunni Hanafi Modern And as Garth says, he will be challenged with islamic religious text and won't be able to adequately respond in kind. |
| Posted by: ed 2010-03-04 08:51 |
| #5 Lord Garth, they don't look to be but do you know if they are Ahmedists? |
| Posted by: JFM 2010-03-04 08:31 |
| #4 The Minhaj-ul-Quran (means 'path of the Quran' in Urdu) have already published this in Urdu (probably they are working on an arabic version now). They are in many countries. The fellow who issued the Fatwa is a Sufi but claims followers in all the sects. He also claims fluency in a half dozen languages. They have a lot of money (from where who knows) and have a University in Pakistan, a few magazines and have various other endeavors going on. The crux of the argument here is that without a umma-wide authority for specific jihad action, personal jihad is un islamic. Let's see what happens with this. The anti Terrorism Fatwa will of course be attacked, the sources used in the Fatwa will be challenged, etc (or it might simply be ignored or the followers of MT ul-Qadri might be beaten up in lieu of scholarly argument). This (a scholarly challenge within the Islamic world view) is needed (actually it was needed fourteen hundred years ago). |
| Posted by: lord garth 2010-03-04 08:20 |
| #3 I will be impressed when he posts the same in Arabic. I'd think that, given Mr. Rahir-ul-Qadri's audience, English and Urdu are probably more appropriate, JFM. Very few of them will know more Arabic than necessary to recite the prayers and a few common verses of the Koran and Hadiths... which none of them will understand anyway. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2010-03-04 08:11 |
| #2 as it will be one of the few available in English and online. I will be impressed when he posts the same in Arabic. |
| Posted by: JFM 2010-03-04 05:11 |
| #1 Well, that should be it then, we can all sleep safely in our beds. |
| Posted by: Dave UK 2010-03-04 04:47 |