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UK Muslims will take fatwa against terrorism seriously
Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri's edict bans all attacks on civilians and comes from a popular Islamic movement
The fatwa against Islamic terrorists issued by a London-based Muslim organisation on Tuesday has been hailed as a significant step forward in the fight against fundamentalism, and one that will have repercussions in the UK and beyond.
The 600-page edict from Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri, founder of the influential Sufi movement Minhaj-ul-Quran, mounts a "direct challenge to al-Qaeda's violent ideology" and declares "suicide bombings and attacks against civilian targets are not only condemned by Islam, but render the perpetrators totally out of the fold of Islam, in other words, to be unbelievers".
"They can't claim that their suicide bombings are martyrdom operations and that they become the heroes of the Muslim Umma [community], no, they become heroes of hellfire, and they are heading towards hellfire," he said.
Pakistan-born ul-Qadri, a former associate of Benazir Bhutto, proclaimed the fatwa at a news conference in London, where his popular Minhaj-ul-Quran organisation is based.
He says his edict, which is aimed at persuading young Muslims to turn their backs on extremism, goes further than any previous denunciation. "This is the first, most comprehensive fatwa on the subject of terrorism ever written," said ul-Qadri, who has authored more than 350 books on Islamic scholarship.
His Minhaj-ul-Quran organisation is growing in popularity and advises the Government on how to combat radicalisation among Muslim youth. It has followers around the globe and is said to be particularly popular among the Pakistani diaspora.
The bulk of Britain's Muslims have connections to Pakistan and nearly all major terrorism plots since 2001, including the 2005 London bombings which killed 52 people, have a Pakistani connection.
Communities Minister Shahid Malik, whose Dewsbury constituency was home to the 7/7 bomber Mohammad Siddique Khan, said: "It is incumbent on Muslims to stand up for their faith – when 7/7 occurred those four evil young men killed themselves and over 50 innocent people because they followed a twisted and perverted interpretation of Islam which told them by doing so they would go to heaven."
A spokesman for the counter-extremist think tank Quilliam said: "This fatwa has the potential to be a highly significant step towards eradicating Islamist terrorism.
"Groups such as al-Qaeda continue to justify their mass killings with self-serving readings of religious scripture. Fatwas that demolish and expose such theological innovations will consign Islamist terrorism to the dustbin of history."
Tim Winter, an Islamic studies lecturer at Cambridge University told Sky News: "Those who are already hardliners will pay no attention at all but 'swing voters' - poorly-educated and angry Muslims who respect mainstream scholars - will probably take note."
Douglas Murray, Director of the Centre for Social Cohesion also described it as "significant" saying it removed "any religious justification for attacks".
"His ruling has the possibility of being respected by a far wider range of people than any of those individual non-scholarly Muslim voices who have also condemned terrorism without caveat," he added. ·
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This is nothing new. MANY scholars have said basically the same thing since 9/11 and before. Anyone who has had an honest look into Islam knows that the killing of non-combatants is condemned by allah in the qur'an. Just because you don't hear about it does not mean it's not happening. Perhaps the powers that be don't like it when a scholar includes the bombing of innocent civilians from billion dollar jets as terrorism. just a thought, I don't really know.
@ michael jose~ dude, you have one twisted version of history. Perhaps you choose to ignore all the evidence which goes contrary to your thinking. I mean really, "peaceful christian Spain"? PAAALEEEZE!!
michael jose.
A most excellent post Michael.How very true.
Oh well, there we are then we are all safe. Just before an election too and with both the Conservatives and Labour as good as neck and neck, crawling and scraping for the Muslim vote whilst desperately trying to persuade people that the BNP isn't the only party to actually tackle immigration with the positive hands on approach that the public expect and have been waiting for all these years.
Of course this leaves little changed. If prominent clerics had stood up unbidden and spoken out immediately at the time of the London Underground and bus bombing then it would have been seen as sincere. But if the fight goes against them, then a period of seeming increased reasonableness is a wise approach. The Islamic doctrine of the ever-expanding Umma - the nation of Islam that is spiritual and global - is absolutely inviolable. The non-muslim kafir, the jahiliya (the 'ignorant' - that is us non-muslims) is to be conquered and subjugated by order of all the other clerics, down through the ages. It is a battle both physical and spiritual to them, and has been for 1,400 years. The muslims who inform me in wounded tones that they were driven out of Spain in 1492 are instantly transformed into angry persons when I point out that they invaded a peaceful Christian Spain in the late seventh century - and got turned back in France at the Battle of Tours in AD732 by the Frankish king Charles Martell. So, not much changes over the centuries, does it?
Much as I welcome this Fatwa,it infers that attacks on our Armed Forces are allowed.This would include armed police?