Update [2005-7-28 16:38:30 by susanhu]: “CAIR Founded by ‘Islamic Terrorists’?” — Daniel Pipes
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) added its support “for a fatwa, or Islamic religious ruling, against terrorism and extremism issued by the Fiqh Council of North America [and] more than 120 U.S. Muslim groups, leaders and institutions. (The term “fiqh” refers to Islamic jurisprudence.)” The fatwa [was] released today at the Nat’l Press Club. Today’s stories:
WaPo: “U.S. Muslim Scholars to Forbid Terrorism”
NYT: “From Muslims in America, a New Fatwa on Terrorism” … “‘Fatwa’ seems to be one of those hot-button terms,” said Ibrahim Hooper [CAIR spokesman]. “Maybe now they’ll listen.”
More from the NYT story:
“Young people might not have had the opportunity to understand the teaching of Islam in depth,” said Jamal Badawi, chairman of the Islamic Information Foundation in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and a member of the council issuing the fatwa. “We are trying to be proactive, not wait until something happens.”
The fatwa cites the Koran and other Islamic texts, and says that making innocent people targets is forbidden – “haram” – and that those who commit such violence are “criminals” and not “martyrs,” as supporters of suicide bombers have often claimed.
The edict is signed by 18 Islamic scholars who serve on the Fiqh Council of North America, an association of Muslim jurists who interpret Islamic law, and is endorsed by more than 100 Muslim organizations, mosques and leaders. The text is embargoed until its release at a morning news conference today in Washington organized by the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a Muslim advocacy organization.
The fatwa reiterates previous antiterrorism statements that many American Muslim leaders and organizations have repeatedly issued in recent years in response to terrorist attacks. But Muslim leaders said they hoped that by calling it a “fatwa” this time, they would convince Americans that Islam does not condone violence.
” ‘Fatwa’ seems to be one of those hot-button terms,” said Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations. “Maybe now they’ll listen.”
right in this country will condemn the war crimes of George W. Bush?
Yeah. Good luck with that. Those who believe that Islamic extremist terrorists represent mainstream Muslim teachings will not be swayed by the issuance of a fatwa that was proclaimed after massive political pressure. Will this cause would be terrorists to have some moment of enlightenment? Absolutely not. Let’s get real here…
It’s a PR thing … I feel badly for the vast majority of Muslims. They feel they have to constantly prove that they’re okay. CAIR’s Web site is replete with this sentiment.
P.S. Catnip, I was just listening to Peter Warren on AM 980 … is he filling in on the weekdays for a while? You know that my daughter and I call him “crabby guy.” He’s a good interviewer.
As far as I know, Warren has a local daily radio show. I catch his national broadcast on the weekends through their sister station here. He’s definitely good and his “get on with it” has become a standard part of my vocabulary.
I feel badly for Muslims as well. So many non-Muslims just don’t seem to get it and Bushco sure doesn’t help in the education process.
I don’t think people can listen to Warren’s audio .. too bad. They’d get a kick out of him. Talk about a no shit kinda guy…. but not obnoxiously so.
Muslims: I get kind of sad when I visit CAIR’s site. They stand on their heads trying to prove that they’re as American as the rest of us.
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A fatwa ruling can only be pronounced by the highest leading scholars and teachers of the Islam. The ruling by attending a congress is perhaps a moral declaration, but by no means any validity of a fatwa. IMO a false statement which deceives the non-Muslim but doesn’t convince the religious Muslim believer.
Washington July 28, 2005 — Imam Hendi said he has seen a growing number of Muslim judicial groups issuing denunciations of terrorism in the last few months. He said he recently spoke at conferences in Morocco, Uzbekistan and Jordan where scholars had already issued or were discussing similar fatwas.
However, Islamic judicial councils have no authority to enforce a fatwa, Mr. Badawi said. The only authority a group of jurists like the Fiqh council has, he said, is “a moral authority.
Shaykh Usamah Bin-Muhammad Bin-Ladin
Ayman al-Zawahiri, amir of the Jihad Group in Egypt
Abu-Yasir Rifa’i Ahmad Taha, Egyptian Islamic Group
Shaykh Mir Hamzah, secretary of the Jamiat-ul-Ulema-e-Pakistan
Fazlul Rahman, amir of the Jihad Movement in Bangladesh
PETRA Jordan June 7, 2005 — The statement’s terms of reference included religious edicts issued by ten of the most preeminent members of the global Islamic clergy ahead of the conference, which condemned the doctrine of takfir, among other things.
The edicts were issued by:
Their Eminences Grand Imam Sheikh Al Azhar Sheikh Mohamed Sayyed Tantawi
Grand Ayatollah Al Sayyid Ali Al Sistani
Grand Mufti of Egypt Ali Jumaa, a compendium of Shi’i clerics (both Ja’fari and Zeidi)
Grand Mufti of the Sultanate of Oman Ahmad Bin Hamad Al Khalili
Islamic Fiqh Academy in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
Grand Council for Religious Affairs, Turkey
Grand Mufti of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan Sheikh Izzeddine Al Khateeb Al Tamimi and the members of its National Fatwa Committee
Sheikh Dr. Yusuf Al Qaradawi
His Majesty King Abdullah II, King of Jordan said that divisions within the global Islamic community, acts of violence and terrorism, accusations of apostasy and the killing of Muslims in the name of Islam, violate the spirit of Islam and generate global turmoil. They give justification to non-Muslims to judge Islam according to acts that Islam disavows, and subsequently interfere in Muslims’ affairs.
LAHORE May 19, 2005 — didn’t seem relevant to the four suicide bombers on July 7 in London!
MADRID Spain March 14, 2005 — What did grab attention was an unprecedented fatwa that Spain’s own Islamic Commission issued against Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda. The fatwa is unlikely to have much global impact, but in Spain – where Muslims, Jews, and Christians coexisted peacefully for centuries – the move by the country’s largest Muslim organization is seen as a welcome gesture.
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