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| IN THE NAME OF ISLAM | |
 August 2005 
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The July 2005 suicide bombings in London's transit system and attacks in a resort town in Egypt have stoked the debate within the Muslim community about why so many perpetrators of terrorist attacks are Muslims and what ordinary believers in Islam can do to keep people from killing in the name of their religion. Four Muslim thinkers answer your questions.
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Cal Astrin of Fairfax, Va. asks: Is there something within Islam that justifies the killing of innocents because of the "power differential" [between Palestinians and Israelis] to which one commentator referred to during the broadcast? Imam Shaker Elsayed responds: No, there is nothing in the teachings of Islam to justify the killing of any innocent civilians under any circumstances. In fact, the Prophet instructed his companions saying: "Don't kill any non-combatant," who happens to be in the battlefield. "Don't kill a woman, a child, an elderly person, or a monk in his monastery, etc." Furthermore, he said: "Don't kill an animal except for food, don't destroy a building." The essence of his teachings is that there must be life after war, and a room for future potential reconciliation, even between warring parties. These instructions were given to people heading toward the battlefield. Georgetown graduate student Shadi Hamid responds: It is deeply disturbing that there are still prominent Muslim leaders in this country who are still unwilling to condemn suicide bombings which target Israeli civilians. In the end, those who excuse such acts are not using religious justifications (because there are none). Rather, they are using political justifications and one commentator mentioned that the Israelis have apache helicopters, F-16s, etc., as if superior Israeli weaponry somehow would justify the killing of, say, a young 7-year-old Israeli child walking on his way to school. This is only emblematic of the moral depths to which so many Muslims have tragically sunk. In a fit of emotional rage, their objectivity has been clouded to the point where they cannot call murder for what it is. Islam has been hijacked not just by a band of murderers but also by a damaging culture of victimization, to the point where the victim feels he can do anything to redress his grievances -- the ends justify the means and inflicting pain on others becomes almost a cathartic means of self-realization. The Islamic tradition, it should be noted, leaves no room for moral ambiguity on the issue of Palestinian suicide bombing. For example in one Islamic Hadith (actions and sayings of the Prophet), which is not cited nearly as much as it should, a companion of Prophet Muhammad named Ibn Umar passed by some youths who were shooting arrows at a bird. Upon seeing that, Ibn Umar said, "Allah curses the one who does this. Verily, the Messenger of Allah cursed the one who takes something with a soul as a target." Here, Islam's deep, unflinching respect for the sanctity of life comes across clearly. One can only imagine the Prophet's rage today at seeing how those who claim to speak in his name have perverted this lofty standard. In another Hadith, Prophet Muhammad upon dispatching troops in a battle said: "Do not kill a child, nor a woman, nor an old man, nor obliterate a stream, nor cut a tree." And let us also remember this was 1,400 years ago, before international human rights law, the Geneva conventions, etc. We are talking about a group of Arabs in the desert, but look at how Islam lifted them and made them the most civilized of people, imbued with a sense of such moral clarity. It is this moral clarity that we as Muslims must rediscover in our rich, but unfortunately neglected tradition. Professor
Salim Mansur responds: None. But people will seek legitimacy to their most grotesque behavior, including murder, regardless of how they twist the reading and meaning of the Quran. Author
Asra Nomani responds: By now, many people have heard Muslim leaders stand up against terrorism by noting that the Quran states that to kill an innocent human being is to kill all of mankind. Well, the full verse (Chapter 5, Verse 31) reads as following: "Whoever kills a human being, unless it be for murder or corruption on earth, it is as though he had killed all mankind, and whoever saves a life it is as though he had saved the life of all mankind." For political ends, some Muslims use the clause "unless it be for murder or corruption on earth" as the rationalization to kill innocents. They consider them combatants and co-conspirators in "corruption on earth." I believe the vast majority of Muslims reject this interpretation, but it only takes a band of hooded militants to define Islam with hatred and violence against even innocents. This is unacceptable and must be rejected -- without condition.
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