Pakistani Muslim clerics declare suicide bombings un-Islamic

[PsychoDad]

Pakistani Muslim clerics declare suicide bombings un-Islamic

Yahoo news.

KARACHI (AFP) - More than 50 senior Pakistani Muslim clerics have publicly declared that suicide bombings and attacks on ordinary citizens and places of worship are un-Islamic, a senior cleric said.

"The decree was issued against the killing of innocent people through bomb blasts or suicide bombing, which have killed thousands of people in Pakistan in the past few years," prominent Sunni cleric Muneebur Rehman told AFP on Wednesday.
...
The decree has been signed by clerics of all the major Muslims sects including Sunni and Shiite, he added.
...
"The killing of innocent people in public places in Iraq or in Israel or anywhere else is against Islamic teaching," he said.

More here:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20050519/wl_sthasia_afp/pakistanreligionislam_050519035604

[Swamp Rat]

1. Too bad the American Taliban won't do the same.

[The Magistrate]

2. Thank You For Posting This, Sir

It seems a useful marker, at the least. You will be much better able than me to expound on the doctrinal aptness of the pronouncement, but it seems to me this is the clearest reading of the teachings on warfare in the Koran. There are explicit statements against harm to non-combatants there. Nor does it seem to me, at any rate, that the martyr's death in battle for the faith is meant to be a thing deliberately courted, but more as, if you can forgive the expression, a sort of insurance backing courage against the imponderables of battle.

It is, unfortunately, unlikely this will have much direct effect on those who urge the thing as a holy thing, for they will follow their own authorities who endorse the course, but it might well have some effect on the mass of people such organizations must depend on for moral and monetary support, and on their capacity to recruit new adherents.

[PsychoDad]

5. As you point out.

The Quran is clear in it's stand on the issue. Although, as in many other religions, you have those who twist the religion and the teachings for their own goals.

Hopefuly the pronouncement of the scholars, who by no means can be considered liberal, will have some impact on both sides of the aisle, both to curb the aid to and acts of the terrorists and to show non-Muslims what the true doctrine of Islam is on this issue.

Martyrdom, as with Jihad, is much misunderstood not only in the west, but also by much of the Islamic world. According to the Prophet(pbuh), any who died in the faith, of any hardship, would be considered a marytr and welcomed into paradise. These included childbirth and disease, along with accidental death.

[The Magistrate]

7. Indeed, Sir

Let us hope more prominent clerics will follow this example. It could, as you say, provide a wide benefit.

[ET Awful]

3. While I can appreciate the declaration, it is one of those that can

easily be twisted to fit the mindset of whoever is reading it.

In the minds of those who carry out the attacks, there are no innocents really.

This may sway some, but I wouldn't count on it having any lasting effect.

If they had made a more direct statement such as "The killing of unarmed persons in so-called martyrdom actions is contrary to the will of Allah and contrary to the teachins of the Qu'ran," it might carry more weight.

As is, it doesn't make any real effort to tell those who carry out attacks what constitutes "innocent people."

[PsychoDad]

4. About the definition of Innocents.

I understand, that what you are saying is that one person's innocent may not be another's.

Unfortunately, for the terrorists, the Quran does clearly define who an innocent is during a time of war. In fact the Quran gives very detailed rules of engagement.

Thus, to a Muslim, the will of God, Masha Allah, has already been defined.

Innocents, those who are not to be harmed during war, according to the Quran are:

Any who seek peace instead of war.
Children.
Women.
Old people.
Priests, Rabbis, and any seeking refuge in a place of worship.
Animals.
Crops.

As you see, the list is fairly concise and not open to much interpretation. One may justify a woman serving in a modern military as a combatant, but a child or housewife or elderly man can in no way ever be justified.

Thus, any act of war that kills indiscriminatly, is against the will of God. It seems from the view of the Quran and the Prophet (pbuh) that God does not condone "colateral damage".

And the Quran also states that God is never on the side of an aggressor.

Evil men will justify the evil they do, and when they can no longer justify it, they will do it anyway.

[ET Awful]

6. Yes, I know that the Quran defines it as such, but like other religious

texts, the radicals will interpret and rationalize their motives differently.

If you tell someone like Usama bin Laden that the occupants of the World Trade Center were innocents, he will not agree and will not believe that the Quran defines them as such.

In order for a proclamation like this to be effective in any way, it must be very specific so that it hinders the ability of the radical elements to recruit more people to their cause.

[The Magistrate]

8. It Has Another Potential Effect, Sir

This sort of thing can help clarafy, for non-Moslems as well as Moslems, what the actual teachings are, and so reduce confusioj of the religion with those who distort to a lisence for atrocity. these, for all their self=proclaimed holiness, do tremendous harm to the creed they profess to honor....