Last week, Dear Gentle Reader(s), amidst all the brouhaha about Senator Clinton's campaign and Scott McClelland's book, there appeared a short 3 paragraph in a local (So Cal) newspaper which was uncredited and titled "Fatwa issued against terrorism.
Well, that should get a little more attention, shouldn't it? Indeed, it should. Here's a touch of what we might have learned.
It seems there is an ultraconservative Muslim seminary in India which held a conference which was attended by thousands and which ultimately issued a fatwa, an edict, against terrorism. A quick Google of the organization and its meeting leads to two links which are somewhat illuminating.
The Darul Uloom - Deoband, a large, conservative Muslim organization in India, issued a statement in February, 2003, which contains the following in the first paragraph:
"Islam has given so much importance to human beings that it regards the killing of a single person the of killing the entire humanity, without differentiation based on creed and caste. Its teaching of peace encompasses all humanity. Islam has taught its followers to treat all mankind with equality, mercy, tolerance, justice. Islam sternly condemns all kinds of oppression, violence and terrorism. It has regarded oppression, mischief, rioting and murdering among severest sins and crimes."
The second paragraph contains this: "And, today countless number of innocent Muslims are spending their lives behind the bars and are forced to bear many intolerable tortures. And, those spreading terror, attacking police stations, killing the police in broad daylight and showing illegal arms are roaming about freely with no effective and preventive steps being taken by the government to check their acts of terrorism and violence."
As a cautionary note, DGR(s), one must point out that the Darul Uloom-Deoband also vociferously condemns "the West"..."Their aggression, barbarism and state-sponsored terrorism not only in Palestine, Iraq and Afghanistan but also in Bosnia and various South American countries have surpassed all the records known to human history." So, the organization is not totally on "our side." It is, however, very much against the terrorists/thugs/murderers who act in the "name" of Islam.
The news article which caught this reader's eye led to a site for The Times of India with this story: "Deoband first: A fatwa against terror. This story discusses a meeting of the Deoband at which a specific fatwa was issued against terrorists, and this comment about using jehad as a word to identify terrorists: "...many people, especially in the West, [are] carrying out a propaganda that terrorism was synonymous with jehad...[and] that while terrorism is destructive, jehad is constructive. "Terrorism is the gravest crime as held by Quran and Islam. We are not prepared to tolerate terrorism in any form and we are ready to cooperate with all responsible people," said Darul-Uloom’s deputy rector Hazrat Maulana Qari Sayed Mohammed Usman.
Then, DGR(s), isn't it possible that we in the West are somehow abetting the terrorists by giving them a certain religious cachet when we fall into the use of jehad? Jehad is a personal, spiritual struggle. Terrorism is murder.
We have a lot to learn. We should've learned it prior to March 2003.
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