Author: Judea Pearl
Publication: Boston News
Date: July 18, 2005
URL: http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2005/07/18/islams_new_terrorism_stance/
The horrible bombing attacks in
London overshadowed an important conference in Amman, Jordan, where as
many as 170 Muslim scholars from 40 countries came to define ''The Reality
of Islam and its Role in the Contemporary Society."
Participants represented all segments
of Muslim society, and the conference aimed to shape a unified stance toward
the great challenges of contemporary society -- reforms, human rights,
minorities, women, and, of course, terrorism.
The first day of deliberation, July
4, revealed some of the difficult problems Muslims face in the post 9/11
era. Addressing the issue of terrorism, Jordan's King Abdullah stressed
that Muslims are obliged to correct the tarnished image of Islam, unite
in confronting extremism, and ''present to the world the true essence of
Islam."
''The acts of violence and terrorism
carried out by certain extremist groups in the name of Islam are utterly
contradictory to the principles and ideology of Islam," the king said.
''Such acts give non-Muslims excuses to attack Islam and interfere in the
affairs of Muslim peoples."
Paradoxically, participant Sheikh
Yusuf Al-Qaradawi, the influential Qatar cleric who has called for the
killing of American civilians in Iraq and women and children in Israel,
resorted to conspiratorial logic and blamed ''injustices done to Muslims
by the West" as a reason for the growth of Muslim extremism.
The historical roles of royalty
versus priesthood seem to have switched around in Amman, with the king
pressing for principled moral imperatives while the sheik is opting for
political excuses. Evidently, Qaradawi believes that the ''true and peaceful
image of Islam" will surface on its own, and that bin Laden's ideology
need not be censored by religious red lines, impervious to political grievances.
This noncommittal stance of Muslim
clerics toward terrorism has long been a major contributor to the tarnished
image of Islam, baffling Muslims and non-Muslims alike. In an article last
year, Sa'd Bin Tefla, a journalist and former Kuwaiti minister of information,
recalled the fatwa (religious edict) issued against Salman Rushdie for
his book ''Satanic Verses": ''Despite the fact that bin Laden murdered
thousands of innocents in the name of our religion and despite the damage
that he has caused to Muslims everywhere, . . . to this date not a single
fatwa has been issued calling for the killing of bin Laden."
Bin Tefla's observation is no longer
valid. On March 11, 2005, commemorating the first anniversary of the Madrid
train bombings, the Spanish Muslim Council issued a fatwa against bin Laden,
calling him an apostate and urging others of their faith to denounce the
Al Qaeda leader.
This unprecedented move has generated
expectations that those acting ''contrary to the principles and ideology
of Islam" (using the words of King Abdullah) would also be recognized as
apostates and sinners against God, and that using the Islamic instruments
of fatwa, apostasy, and fasad (corruption) Muslims would be able to disassociate
themselves from those who hijacked their religion.
Unfortunately, the realization of
these expectations will need to wait for a brave new leadership to emerge.
The final communique of the Amman conference, issued July 6, states explicitly:
''It is not possible to declare as apostates any group of Muslims who believes
in Allah the Mighty and Sublime and His Messenger (may Peace and Blessings
be upon him) and the pillars of faith, and respects the pillars of Islam
and does not deny any necessary article of religion."
In other words, belief in basic
tenets of faith provides an immutable protection from charges of apostasy;
anti-Islamic behavior, including the advocacy of mass murder in the name
of religion, cannot remove that protection. Bin Laden, Al Zarqawi, and
the murderers of Daniel Pearl and Nick Berg will remain bona fide members
of the Muslim faith, as long as they do not explicitly renounce it.
Moreover, issuing a fatwa will become
more regimented. ''No one may issue a fatwa without the requisite personal
qualifications which each school of jurisprudence defines. No one may issue
a fatwa without adhering to the methodology of the schools of jurisprudence,"
says the final communique.
True, this edict will prevent bin
Laden from issuing fatwas against the West, but it may also discourage
fatwas like the one issued by the Spanish Muslim Council which aim at discrediting
bin Laden and bringing him to justice.
Judea Pearl is president of the
Daniel Pearl Foundation, an organization promoting intercultural dialogue
named after his son, a Wall Street Journal reporter who was murdered in
Pakistan in 2002.
