Terrorism: Not in My (God's) Name!

It has been a while since I have last blogged. Perhaps, now in light of various events recently cropped up around us, I would better resume tapping again and sharing my views with others. One of the frequently asked questions is about the London bombings.

My religious standpoint on this matter is very simple: "there is NO Islamic justification whatsoever possible against such atrocities" and I am very much disgusted with such heinous crimes. My deepest sympathy and condolences to the victims and their families.

If those who committed such crimes against the humanity are Muslims then certainly they had not died as "martyrs" (shuhada') for their acts were not in conformity with the teachings of Islam, nor Christianity nor any other world religions for that matter. All religions advocate none other but peace and harmonious life as their raison d'être, more so with Islam where its very name means "Peace". Mas'ud Khan has beautifully said in this connection:

How is it that someone who considers his or herself Muslim will perpetrate such an act and initiate the invocation "In the Name of God, Most Gracious, Most Merciful", when what they are doing is the antithesis of graciousness and mercy? In fact, these people should use the invocation "In the Name of Al-Qa'ida (or any other such group), most disgraceful, most unmerciful".

Some people execrated the perpetrators of 7/7 bombings as "animals", which is to me not quite right for they are not "animals" but rather they are "worse than animals". This is the phrase usually used in the Qur'an. Perhaps the Qur'an tries to show that even animals have a certain degree of 'dignity', as it were, in spite of them not being given the intellectual capacity as that of human.

Immediately after the attacks, the non-Muslims brusquely clamour for condemnation from the Muslims in Britain and all over the world against the bombings. Some had gone one step further importunately demanding the Muslim scholars ('ulama) to come up with an edict (fatwa). Why? Why all of the sudden the Muslims are put in the dock for the crimes committed by their fellow people of the faith? Since when the crimes committed by a group of people of one faith then the whole community of the faith is to blame and put on trial? Criminals are criminals no matter which religion they belong to, and they would never represent their religion in the crimes they committed. Bear in mind that the massacres of the Bosnian Muslims by the Christian Serbs were nothing to do with the teachings of Christianity but rather because of the insanity and wickedness of people like Radovan Karadzic and Slobodan Milošević.

London Mayor, Ken Livingston, has surely spoken the truth when he said:

"We don't judge Christianity by the two or three mass murderers there were in Serbia. We shouldn't judge this great faith by a handful of fanatics. You don't judge one of the great world religions (Islam), which has been behind so much progress in human history, and is overwhelmingly dominated by people who look for peaceful co-operation, by a handful of fanatics."
[13 July 2005]

They then demanded us to issue a fatwa. But what could the fatwa make any difference for someone or some people who had already been 'possessed' and 'indoctrinated'? The scholars have for long given a fatwa that smoking is haram? How many people really stop smoking because of that fatwa? On the contrary, smokers and drug addicts are on the rise in any Muslim country. What about rulings that have been categorically prescribed in the Qur'an since more than one thousand years ago without needing any fatwa from any scholar, such as the prohibition of gambling, alcohol, and prostitution, to name but a few. Do all the Muslims abide by the rulings? Obviously not, sadly some Muslims even had gone abroad to gamble! If the words of God, the Creator the Sustainer, have little impact upon those obstinate, misguided and insane people, what do you expect from a fatwa of ordinary fellow men? There will always be the extremists and perverters in any religion.

Islam never condones such an act like that of 7/7 or 9/11, or in Iraq, Turkey, Egypt or any part of the globe. One may find abundant fatwas already issued condemning similars acts against innocent civilians anywhere in the world. Look at what some of the scholars have said about this: Imam Zaid Shakir, Shakyh Abdal Hakim Murad , Saudi 'ulama' fatwas, Fiqh Council of North America and British Muslim Forum.

Terrorism is not in God's name, please!