Sheikh Muhammad Sayyid Tantawi, the Grand Sheikh of Al-Azhar University in Cairo and one of the foremost authorities in Sunni Islam, has condemned the killings of Russian children by the Chechen jihadists. He said that the mujahedin were "criminals, not Muslims." From AlJazeera.net, with thanks to Uncle Jeff:
"What is the guilt of those children? Why should they be responsible for your conflict with the government," Tantawi said during a Friday sermon as he addressed the hostage-takers."You are taking Islam as cover and it is a deceptive cover, those who carry out the kidnappings are criminals, not Muslims," he said.
All this sounds great, until one realizes that for Tantawi it's all about context. From MEMRI:
Interviewer: "Will you issue a fatwa about the resistance and especially what is happening in Iraq?"Sheik Tantawi: "I was very clear: Anyone defending his right, his land, his money, and his religion and gets killed is a martyr. Anyone who blows himself up amongst the enemy that wants to kill him and he can find no means of defending himself except blowing himself up amongst these soldiers who are occupying his land and destroying his home, and so he blows himself up amongst these aggressive soldiers, is a Shahid, Shahid, Shahid."
Tantawi has also justified suicide bombings in Israel, with a caveat:
The actions of martyrdom undertaken by the Palestinians are in self-defence and are a sort of martyrdom as long as they are intended to kill fighters, not women and children.
Others, however, go farther -- and if they can do it regarding Israel, why not Russia?
Al-Ahram columnist Fahmi Howeidy goes even further. He sees every Israeli as a legitimate target. "Every Israeli in Palestine is usurping something, including the air they breathe," he told Al-Ahram Weekly. According to him, there are no civilians in Israel. "They are either conscripts waiting to be drafted, or reserve soldiers on vacation," he said.
Gee, Fahmi, even the little kids?
This is a widespread view. Samir Qantar, who murdered a four-year-old Israeli girl, her father, and a policeman in a notorious 1979 raid, has said: "In our opinion there are no civilians in Israel." In Onward Muslim Soldiers I quote Muammar Qaddafi's son, Seyf-al-Islam (that means Sword of Islam, jimmychang, wherever you are) Qaddafi, saying the same thing: "There are no civilians in Israel."
So if Tantawi really wants to condemn these Chechen jihadists definitively, and rule out their behavior as un-Islamic, he needs not just to say that their behavior falls outside Islamic norms, but specifically to condemn the justification used by Muslims who support this sort of thing: the idea that under certain circumstances, women and children can be considered combatants.
This idea, of course, is founded upon Islamic law, which prohibits the killing of women and children "unless they are fighting against the Muslims" ('Umdat al-Salik o9.10, cf. al-Mawardi, al-Akham as-Sultaniyyah, 4.2). Let's see Tantawi condemn Mawardi.
...and what did Tantawi have to say while the children in the Russian school were still alive?
...nothing.
What then is to be done about islam?
...also, as part of any final solution to the islamic question, restitution must be made to the victims for the actions of the islamists.
Restitution includes the attachment of all islamict assests, personal, public, and private property, real estate holdings where ever situatated, and other remedies.
The loophole for Muslims is to cite the verse about the Quran forbids the killing of the innocent. This is true but when I read further Allah has a list of the "Enemies of Islam" and it's the Jews and Christians along with unbelievers. I also read that Muslim that befriend the enemies are sinners in Allah's eyes and therefor must be killed by the Holy Muslims.
We in the west are hearing the passive toned down version of Islam and many Islamic websites give Mohummed's biography in Arabic-only.
Seems nobody is safe and the silence from the Arabs and Muslims just gets perceived as consent
for the terrorism to continue.
Murdering Gods children to please Allah is
sick and outright Evil,the sooner American Muslims realize they're following a false God the
better chance they will have at a real paradise
of peace in their heart and true love from God.
NO ISLAM - KNOW PEACE
'Condemnation', 'this is not Islam', 'these are not Muslims', inconsistency with what is said about Israel, slippery slopes...here we go again.
But there is a more general problem for Islam, and I do mean general, for any Muslim who takes the Koran seriously.
Forgive my rant, but this is how I remember the Koran...
The death of an Infidel, no matter who it is, is simply a matter of little or no moral consequence. Others surely know better, but I cannot remember a single passage that suggests that one should be troubled at the death of an Infidel. I remember about prohibitions against killing 'Infidels, too' (this, of course, does not apply in Jihad), but one prohibition does little to overcome the overpowering ethos of the Koran: Infidels just aren't worth much. And in Jihad, they are worth nothing; they are obstacles to the end of Jihad: the domination of Allah.
And besides all this. Death is simply not evil. It is something to be welcomed. That is a recurrent theme in the Koran. These kinds of ideas, I think, create problems of memory for Muslims, and memory is necessary for moral judgment, care, and moral consciousness. If death is not evil, if Infidels are not worth much, and worth nothing in Jihad, then who cases really? That is the underlying problem, I think, what Muslim really does care about the death of Infidels?
A Muslim might experience 'shock', 'condemn', maybe feel quite ashamed and very bad: but what does all that matter if that person cannot REMEMBER the what happened? And why should they? The event simply has little moral significance.
So what? Infidels bit the dust. Infidels are bad. And this idea, that Infidels are in fact the bad ones, is pregnant with all the rationalizations that we are familiar with: "it unfortunate, but God's will, the lashing out of suffering Muslims, caused by Infidels, caused by the Infidels, cause by American, caused by the Jews..."
I bet 50 bucks that within six months, if this event even exists in 'Muslim consciousness'...because Infidels can be forgotten...but if it is remembered by some mullah in a sermon, or in 'the Arab street' or whatever, it will be remembered it as a 'Zionist plot'.
more of the work of the "brave" islamic. such a brave and peaceful religion. if all religions were like this we would not have to worry as there would be no one left
Problem being that such conditional condemnations are all that get carried by the 'mainstream media' (without the conditions and context, of course).
Let laws be a 2-way street. Let the west declare that immigrants will be given as much respect under the law as they give others under their laws back home....
That should help put things in perspective. DOn't western women cover themselves up when (and if) visiting Saudi Arabia? If such respect for local customs and sensitivities can be observed by non-muslims in western lands, why can't moslems observe the same w.r.t hijab (in France), honor killings and forced marriages (in the UK for example), implementation of Shariat (In Canada, India etc) and so on?
First post on Jihadwatch. I have read all Mr. Spencer's books and have followed this site for awhile. After this catastrophe in Russia, I wanted to post here.
I agonized for years to understand why 9/11 happened and what drove them. Until I found this site and Mr. Spencers book, I did not have a definitive answer. Now I understand much better.
The West seems to be trying and trying to understand Islam better and try to get them to see that we have room for them in our society. Everyone seems so inward looking and asking what we can do to get this group to stop what it is doing. I was one of those people.
The issue is not can the West find a way to bring Islam into our society peacefully and co-exist, but can Islam co-exist with the West?
One puts the focus on us, the other on them. I am very quickly understanding that we have answered that question by simply observing history. Now it is Islam's time to come out in the open and answer the question on whether they can live in a society with other faiths...
The answer, unfortunately and omminously has been a NO.
Moose
I feel the blood raging in me every time I read the story about the mother that had to choose between her two kids.
What inhuman, inbred, goatfucker comes up with these ideas? I hope they quarter the captives on the Red Square and feed their bodies to the pigs. Tape it and send it to Al-Jazeera.
I hope Putin quickly succeeds in restructuring Russia's armed forces and then go after them. I could not even care if he would gas the Chechen resistance. If they are so eager to die, Russia should help them.
Come on Mother Russia!! Head up and start waking up from your slumber! The new facists are attacking your children, fight back! Sharpen your claws, rip the guts out of those who attack you. You did it once, you sure can do it again!
For more Islamic spin (or spew) on the topic, check out
http://www.as-sahwah.com
A few of these folks are upset at the notion that some of these children might have been Muslim. Lots of denials/justifications on this page.
KAFIRA
Have read your link and am AMAZED that Muslims believe these lies about their wonderful Muhajadeen who are always honourable warriors and
NEVER RAPE OR COMMIT ATROCITIES ON INNOCENTS...
Talk about being 'In Self Denial!'
I remember how the Islamic world felt when we got saddam?
The shame of the man they thought he was a strong man they had put their faith and money in ?
Not of the 300,000 Iraqi's who were killed by him or his goons?
Yes the Islamic world is trying to take over the west and Russia as well?
We ALL have been Fooled now is time to open our eyes to the truth?
Tabari VIII:30 “The Jews said, ‘We will never abandon the Torah or exchange it for the Qur’an.’ Asad said, ‘Since you reject this proposal, then kill your children and your wives and go out to Muhammad and his Companions as men who brandish swords, leaving behind no impediments to worry you. If you die, you shall have left nothing behind; if you win you shall find other women and children.’ The Jews replied, ‘Why would we kill these poor ones? What would be the good of living after them?’”
Ishaq:464 “The Jews were made to come down, and Allah’s Messenger imprisoned them. Then the Prophet went out into the marketplace of Medina (it is still its marketplace today), and he had trenches dug in it. He sent for the Jewish men and had them beheaded in those trenches. They were brought out to him in batches. They numbered 800 to 900 boys and men. As they were being taken in small groups to the Prophet, they said to one another, ‘What do you think will be done to us?’ Someone said, ‘Do you not understand. On each occasion do you not see that the summoner never stops? He does not discharge anyone. And that those who are taken away do not come back. By God, it is death!’ The affair continued until the Messenger of Allah had finished with them all.”
Yes they think if you do not sumit you are to be KILLED!
Qur’an 3:67 “Abraham was not a Jew nor yet a Christian; but he was a true Muslim, surrendered to Allah (which is Islam), and he joined not gods with Allah.”
Qur’an 59:14 “The Jews will not unite and fight against you except from behind walls. They hate themselves. You would think they were united, but their hearts are divided. That is because these [Jews] are a people devoid of sense. Like those who recently preceded them [the Meccans at Badr], they [the Jews who were just sent into the desert to die] have tasted the evil result of their conduct. And for them a grievous punishment.”
They think the world will not unite and fight them they are wrong!
Ishaq:243 “I heard the Apostle say: ‘Whoever wants to see Satan should look at Nabtal!’ He was a black man with long flowing hair, inflamed eyes, and dark ruddy cheeks…. Allah sent down concerning him: ‘To those who annoy the Prophet there is a painful doom.” [9:61] “Gabriel came to Muhammad and said, ‘If a black man comes to you his heart is more gross than a donkey’s.’”
So all the killing of black mulsums by arabs is normal? So why have Black American joined mulsums? They want to be killed by arabs?
Qur’an 5:17 “Verily they are disbelievers and infidels who say, ‘The Messiah, son of Mary, is God.’”
Qur’an 5:51 “Believers, take not Jews and Christians for your friends. They are but friends and protectors to each other.”
Qur’an 5:72 “They are surely infidels who blaspheme and say: ‘God is Christ, the Messiah, the son of Mary.’ But the Messiah only said: ‘O Children of Israel! Worship Allah, my Lord and your Lord.’
The reason they hate the Jews is that they know it is not the same god that the Islam's worship!!
Part of the American Tribe
Spider Killer
God Bless the USA and her Fighting Forces and All who Fight wirh her Open their Eyes to the Islamic Terrorist give them Strength,Wisdom and Courage to stay the course to Victory Amen
PS
Locust are eating the grains that the arabs depend Yes could this be God's Will?
Uh-huh. And what about Ma'alot, way back in 1974?
More public blah blah blah from muslims "denouncing" the evil that they have once again brought to the world...I am noticing they do this less and less...could it be that they are figuring out that no one believes them or maybe its just getting too hard to look sympathetic and not have their ugly faces break out into a giddy grin while speaking about more infidel deaths
i wish that the government would assasinate these leaders through the usage of Black Ops-being that they are not abiding by the international codes-why should we-u know damn well that if those camel jockeys had the oppurtunity to inflitrate and kill a leader here in the U.S. they would-if they are not already doing that-and given the CIA's capability and unlimited backing of money-why is this not being pursued -and if it is why are we not hearing about these small time clerics who could pose a potential threat being that they are next in line being killed??and these fools worship the son of satan-spit lies out of their mouths and brainwash their followers--these people used to be known as "witches"-so why are they not being burned at the stake?