03-21-2006, 10:00 PM
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Needed, an army of reformists</b>
Pioneer.com
There is need for the ulema to go beyond fatwa and show the right path to misguided Muslims, says Bulbul Roy Mishra
Within a few days of the Varanasi blasts, the fatwa of Maulana Khalid Rashid of Dar-ul-Itfa Firangi Mahal, one of the most respected seminaries in the country, made an encouraging beginning by condemning the terrorists. The above condemnation came in response to a query, posted to the seminary on March 9 (two days after the blasts) by one Sajjid Umar, a 32-year- old businessman, as to Islam's view on attacks on religious places killing several innocents.
The Maulana's signed fatwa displayed at the seminary quoted <b>from Ayats 32 and 107 of the holy Quran to denounce terrorism, categorically stating that there was "absolutely no room for terrorism in Islam and the murder of one innocent person amounted to the murder of the entire humanity". </b>
Several Muslim religious organisations from Hyderabad and Mumbai and Muslim activists from all over India have since hailed the Maulana's fatwa. They have also asked the terrorist outfits to drop holy words that represent the Prophet or His attributes from the names of their organisations such as Lashkar-e-Qahar (Army of the Subduer) that owned the blasts, or for that matter Jaish-e-Mohammed (Army of Mohammed), Lashkar-e-Toiba (Army of Righteous), etc. The last two organisations are known to be active in Jammu & Kashmir.
<b>Notable among the Indian clerics who joined the Maulana in condemning terrorists were Maulana Mufti Mohammad Mastan Ali, head of Jamiat-ul-Mominath, Moulana Syed Shah Badruddin Qadri Al-Jeelani, President of Jamiat-ul Mashaiq al-Hind and All India Sunni Ulema Board, Abdur Rahim Qureshi, Secretary of All-India Muslim Personal Law Board and the head of Tameer-e-Millat.</b>
The fatwa of the above clerics after the Varanasi blasts, however, was by no means the first of its kind in the world. The Fiqh Council of North America issued a similar fatwa on July 28, 2005, in the light of the teachings of the Quran and Sunnah, emphatically laying down the following three mandates:
<b>First, all acts of terrorism targeting civilians are haram (forbidden) in Islam.</b>
<b>Second, it is haram for a Muslim to cooperate with any individual or group that is involved in any act of terrorism or violence. And third, it is the civic and religious duty of Muslims to cooperate with law enforcement authorities to protect the lives of all civilians.</b>
The above fatwa has since been endorsed by 145 Muslim organisations, mosques and imams in the US. It is the second injunction that is most important in Indian context. While there is no doubt about the noble intention underlying those fatwas, let us examine their efficacy from terrorists' perspective.
A fatwa is taken as a legal pronouncement in Islam issued by a religious scholar known as mufti. Since Islam has no centralised priestly hierarchy, the binding nature of a fatwa is considerably diluted. It may thus be taken as a mere opinion of a religious scholar in response to a query, which may or may not be accepted by others, like it has been in the case of Maulana Khalid Rashid in India. Fatwa may also work as a decree like the death sentence to Salman Rushdie issued by Ayatollah Khomeini in 1989 or the fatwa of Osama bin Laden declaring war against the US.
<b>It goes without saying, the fatwa issued by Indian clerics was not of the same tenor or accent as the fatwas of Ayatollah and Laden,</b> or even those issued by Indian clerics urging Muslims to vote for a certain political party. Therefore, it is doubtful whether said fatwa will have any impact whatsoever on terrorists. As a matter of fact, <b>the fatwa of July 28, 2005, of the US clerics had no impact on Islamic terrorists</b>, as is evident from numerous responses on the website with contra-citations from Quran.
To be precise, Ayat 5:33 from Quran has been cited: "The punishment for those who wage war against Allah and his Prophet and make mischief in the land is to murder them, crucify them, or cut off a hand and foot on opposite sides... their doom is dreadful." Ayat 3:56 states, "As for those disbelieving infidels, I will punish them with a terrible agony in this world and the next." On the strength of the above mandates from the Quran quoted out of context, terrorists have sought to justify 9/11 and other killings of innocents, purportedly to punish the infidels for their mischiefs.
In the given backdrop of unabated terrorism in India, it is not enough for muftis or clerics to merely give their opinions in response to queries. It is time they issued decree to all followers of Islam not to cooperate with any individual or group involved in terrorism or violence, failing which the defiant individual may be threatened with ostracism.
A fatwa of this type shall not be incongruous with what the clerics have been doing all along, that is, directing followers to vote for a particular party. If so done, it is bound to have salutary effect on Islamic masses, particularly the youth in Jammu & Kashmir and other places in India.
Islam's message to the world is equality and brotherhood. Carrying this message to its logical end, we ought to perceive universal brotherhood that is also the central theme of Vedanta. <b>In the words of Swami Vivekanand, "When a man has reached the highest, when he sees neither man nor woman, neither sect nor creed, nor colour, nor birth, nor any of these differentiations, but goes beyond and find that divinity which is the real man behind every human being - then alone he has reached the universal brotherhood." </b>There is no dearth of Islamic saints who had seen the reality behind every human being. Will not they show the correct path to misguided youth dubbed as terrorists?
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Pioneer.com
There is need for the ulema to go beyond fatwa and show the right path to misguided Muslims, says Bulbul Roy Mishra
Within a few days of the Varanasi blasts, the fatwa of Maulana Khalid Rashid of Dar-ul-Itfa Firangi Mahal, one of the most respected seminaries in the country, made an encouraging beginning by condemning the terrorists. The above condemnation came in response to a query, posted to the seminary on March 9 (two days after the blasts) by one Sajjid Umar, a 32-year- old businessman, as to Islam's view on attacks on religious places killing several innocents.
The Maulana's signed fatwa displayed at the seminary quoted <b>from Ayats 32 and 107 of the holy Quran to denounce terrorism, categorically stating that there was "absolutely no room for terrorism in Islam and the murder of one innocent person amounted to the murder of the entire humanity". </b>
Several Muslim religious organisations from Hyderabad and Mumbai and Muslim activists from all over India have since hailed the Maulana's fatwa. They have also asked the terrorist outfits to drop holy words that represent the Prophet or His attributes from the names of their organisations such as Lashkar-e-Qahar (Army of the Subduer) that owned the blasts, or for that matter Jaish-e-Mohammed (Army of Mohammed), Lashkar-e-Toiba (Army of Righteous), etc. The last two organisations are known to be active in Jammu & Kashmir.
<b>Notable among the Indian clerics who joined the Maulana in condemning terrorists were Maulana Mufti Mohammad Mastan Ali, head of Jamiat-ul-Mominath, Moulana Syed Shah Badruddin Qadri Al-Jeelani, President of Jamiat-ul Mashaiq al-Hind and All India Sunni Ulema Board, Abdur Rahim Qureshi, Secretary of All-India Muslim Personal Law Board and the head of Tameer-e-Millat.</b>
The fatwa of the above clerics after the Varanasi blasts, however, was by no means the first of its kind in the world. The Fiqh Council of North America issued a similar fatwa on July 28, 2005, in the light of the teachings of the Quran and Sunnah, emphatically laying down the following three mandates:
<b>First, all acts of terrorism targeting civilians are haram (forbidden) in Islam.</b>
<b>Second, it is haram for a Muslim to cooperate with any individual or group that is involved in any act of terrorism or violence. And third, it is the civic and religious duty of Muslims to cooperate with law enforcement authorities to protect the lives of all civilians.</b>
The above fatwa has since been endorsed by 145 Muslim organisations, mosques and imams in the US. It is the second injunction that is most important in Indian context. While there is no doubt about the noble intention underlying those fatwas, let us examine their efficacy from terrorists' perspective.
A fatwa is taken as a legal pronouncement in Islam issued by a religious scholar known as mufti. Since Islam has no centralised priestly hierarchy, the binding nature of a fatwa is considerably diluted. It may thus be taken as a mere opinion of a religious scholar in response to a query, which may or may not be accepted by others, like it has been in the case of Maulana Khalid Rashid in India. Fatwa may also work as a decree like the death sentence to Salman Rushdie issued by Ayatollah Khomeini in 1989 or the fatwa of Osama bin Laden declaring war against the US.
<b>It goes without saying, the fatwa issued by Indian clerics was not of the same tenor or accent as the fatwas of Ayatollah and Laden,</b> or even those issued by Indian clerics urging Muslims to vote for a certain political party. Therefore, it is doubtful whether said fatwa will have any impact whatsoever on terrorists. As a matter of fact, <b>the fatwa of July 28, 2005, of the US clerics had no impact on Islamic terrorists</b>, as is evident from numerous responses on the website with contra-citations from Quran.
To be precise, Ayat 5:33 from Quran has been cited: "The punishment for those who wage war against Allah and his Prophet and make mischief in the land is to murder them, crucify them, or cut off a hand and foot on opposite sides... their doom is dreadful." Ayat 3:56 states, "As for those disbelieving infidels, I will punish them with a terrible agony in this world and the next." On the strength of the above mandates from the Quran quoted out of context, terrorists have sought to justify 9/11 and other killings of innocents, purportedly to punish the infidels for their mischiefs.
In the given backdrop of unabated terrorism in India, it is not enough for muftis or clerics to merely give their opinions in response to queries. It is time they issued decree to all followers of Islam not to cooperate with any individual or group involved in terrorism or violence, failing which the defiant individual may be threatened with ostracism.
A fatwa of this type shall not be incongruous with what the clerics have been doing all along, that is, directing followers to vote for a particular party. If so done, it is bound to have salutary effect on Islamic masses, particularly the youth in Jammu & Kashmir and other places in India.
Islam's message to the world is equality and brotherhood. Carrying this message to its logical end, we ought to perceive universal brotherhood that is also the central theme of Vedanta. <b>In the words of Swami Vivekanand, "When a man has reached the highest, when he sees neither man nor woman, neither sect nor creed, nor colour, nor birth, nor any of these differentiations, but goes beyond and find that divinity which is the real man behind every human being - then alone he has reached the universal brotherhood." </b>There is no dearth of Islamic saints who had seen the reality behind every human being. Will not they show the correct path to misguided youth dubbed as terrorists?
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->