Melanie Phillips writes in her diary, with thanks to Looney Tunes.
We have heard much from Muslim leaders about how Islam is a religion of peace, that it specifically rules against the taking of innocent life, that the word “˜jihad” is a media invention, that imams preach only sweetness and light and that the terrorists who bombed London last week were acting so much against the tenets of the faith that they weren’t really Muslims at all. Well, here’s the text of a sermon delivered in March last year at the Grand Mosque in Leeds, the area from where three of those bombers came:
“˜We learnt, from last Friday”s speech, how the rulings of Islam are based on great considerations and objectives, and we mentioned that they are represented in the preservation of the deen (religion), preservation of life, preservation of intellect, preservation of lineage, and preservation of wealth. The speech last week was about preserving the deen and preserving life, and we learnt how Islam commands its followers to fulfil their obligations towards preserving their deen, adhering to it, and establishing its rites, by performing the acts of worship, fulfilling the obligations, leaving what is prohibited, calling people altogether to the great shade of this deen with its wide space, its abundant justice and its great tolerance. If the forces of evil stop and intervene between the people and them entering this deen as Allah, exalted is He, loves for them, it is legislated for those who call, when they face these oppressive forces, to fight Jihad in the path of Allah, and it is legislated for them to sacrifice themselves for the sake of this deen and for the sake of making the da’wah of Islam reach every heart. (my emphasis)
“˜The preservation of the deen comes before the preservation of life because if the deen goes and imaan is absent, obedience is abandoned and tawhid of the All-Merciful is not found, and the worshippers of the Shaytan appear, great corruption spreads in the earth, which Allah made a resting place for His servants who He created to worship Him alone and it is upon them to care for it, cultivate it, and bring forth its bounties. You learnt, O beloved brothers and sisters, how Islam forbids the killing of the self, and destroying it and damaging it without right, for whoever kills for other than manslaughter or corruption in the earth (my emphasis) it is as if he has killed all of mankind, and whoever gives a self life it is as if he has given life to all of mankind. And you learnt how Islam forbids transgression and prohibits the killing of the weak, from the women and children, and non-combatants, in the battlefields.”
Now, my reading of this is that the preacher was saying that it was expressly permitted for Muslims to kill in order to prevent “˜corruption in the earth”, which itself includes any (unspecified) obstacle to Islam.
He then went on to link this to the Israeli killing of the Hamas “˜spiritual” leader Sheikh Yassin, and used this to justify the killing of Israelis — employing the most vile and hysterical libels against Israel and the Jews:…
This sermon is on the Mosque’s website. Do our police or security services actually read open websites? If so, why wasn’t this preacher arrested and prosecuted for racial hatred and incitement to violence? Why isn’t anyone raising this now, after three local men committed their unspeakable acts in pursuit of the very objectives laid out in this sermon? How many other imams are saying similar things or worse? When will the mainstream media wake up from their “˜Islamophobic” trance and start investigating what is happening here?