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| Iraq |
| Resisting Invaders Individual Duty: Qaradawi |
| 2003-03-08 |
| Renowned Islamic scholar Sheikh Youssef Al-Qaradawi warned Arab leaders that they risk being cursed by both history and their peoples if they side with the U.S. in its looming war on Iraq, urging the Muslim nation to stand united in the face of war. Delivering the sermon of Friday, March 7, at Omar Ibn Al-Kahttab mosque in the Qatari capital Doha, Al-Qaradawi issued a Fatwa (a religious edict) that it was not permissible for Arab and Muslim countries to let the United States use their airports, harbors and territories as a launching-pad for striking Iraq. âResisting the invaders is an individual duty on all Muslims. If the enemies invaded a Muslim country, the people of that country should resist and expel them from their territoriesâŠIt is an individual duty on all Muslims, men and women,â he stressed. "So go out there and get yourselves killed. I'll be right here, dropping blessings all over you..." âIf they succeeded in forcing the enemies out, it is alright⊠But if they did not, it is incumbent on their Muslim neighbor countries to defend them,â ruled the renowned scholar. Asked what does Islam say about participation in al-Jazeera Shield Force formed by the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries and whether it is permissible for such troops to be deployed in Kuwait, Sheikh Al-Qaradawai said it is only permissible for them to defend Kuwait should it come under attack, but it is absolutely Haram (impermissible) for them to take part in any attack on Iraq. This does illustrate a part of our problem, and the biggest part of the problem of the Muslim world. It's forbidden by this interpretation for any infidel, anywhere, to overthrow a Muslim potentate for any reason, to include grossly unjust rule. The Muslim state can do anything it damn well pleases to any neighboring infidel state, and all Muslim states are obligated to defend it, regardless of the justice of the infidel state's cause or the lack thereof of the Muslim state's. It makes Islam a closed system, in contact with the rest of the world only on its bloody border, with jihad incumbent on the Muslims, self-defense forbidden to the infidels. All regime change would have to come for inside, and one thing Islam does resist is regime change â it's never until the 20th century been a political affair, but was always a family affair. Even when it's been an internal political affair, once the government's established it's apparently there forever, by divine right, regardless of what it does, because the religious establishment becomes integrated into it. That seems to apply even to theoretically secular states like Sammy's Ba'athist Iraq. The function of the learned elder of Islam becomes to exhort the citizen to accept his crappy lot in life, even while blaming us infidels for the corruption of governments in the Muslim world in the abstract. Notice it's never a specific regime that's mentioned. It's a classic "us versus them" situation, that cuts out all room for compromise. |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |
| #4 --It is an individual duty on all Muslims, men and women,â he stressed.-- Oh, sure, Now women are equal. It's OK to be bantha poodoo. |
| Posted by: Anonymous 2003-03-09 01:00:35 |
| #3 John, bear in mind that neither the Pope nor the Archbishop of Canterbury speak for anything like all of Christendom. . . . |
| Posted by: Matt 2003-03-08 23:49:37 |
| #2 Fred, keep in mind that both the Pope and Anglican Church have also disavowed the war, albeit with less inflamtory language. So both Islam and Christendom would support tyrants and murderers. |
| Posted by: john 2003-03-08 22:19:55 |
| #1 Hummm... This brings to mind Orson Scott Card's postword in "Children of the Mind", regarding 'edge' cultures versus 'center' cultures. Center cultures absorb outsiders (like the Chinese did with the Mongols), while edge cultures try to hold them away (like Card's own Mormons). Increased communication and interaction tends to make center cultures stronger, whereas it eats away at edge cultures. In the long run, the free flow of ideas will slowly overrun the extremists. In the meantime, they're rather like a cornered animal and downright dangerous. |
| Posted by: Dishman 2003-03-08 19:21:41 |