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Grand Sheikh of Al Azhar declares: “Islam doesn’t seek war, Muslims only fight back to defend themselves”

May 3, 2020 9:00 am By Christine Douglass-Williams

“Grand Imam of Al-Azhar Sheikh Ahmed El-Tayyeb has called for embracing morals as the sole way out of the world’s crises….Islam doesn’t seek war or bloodshed, and Muslims only fight back to defend themselves,” El-Tayyeb said.

Try telling that to persecuted Christians and other religious minorities.

In 2016, El-Tayyeb stated that “unrepentant apostates should be killed.” He explained:

If an apostate has left Islam out of hatred toward it, and with the purpose of acting against it – this is considered high treason, because this is a Muslim society, which has had Islam for 1,400 years and other religions for over 5,000 years. One does not have the right to… In this case, apostasy is a rebellion against society. It is a rebellion both against religion and what is held sacrosanct by society.

When asked specifically about the punishment for apostasy under Islamic law, El-Tayyeb answered:

The four schools of law all concur that apostasy is a crime, and that an apostate should be asked to repent, and that if he does not he should be killed….

“Abandoning religion” is described as “leaving the community.” All the early jurisprudents understood that this applies to someone who leaves his religion, regardless of whether he left and opposed his community or not. All the early jurisprudents said that such a person should be killed, regardless of whether it is a man or a woman – with the exception of the Hanafi School, which is said that a female apostate should not be killed.

When asked “why” the Hanafi school spares a female apostate, El-Tayyeb answered:

“Because it is inconceivable that a woman would rebel against her community. This underscores the fact that apostasy should be punished by death only if the apostate constitutes a danger to society.”

Now  El-Tayyeb has declared something quite different and unorthodox, and is  sure to be praised for it by willfully blind Westerners, without question. El-Tayyeb fancifully claimed: “Islam doesn’t seek war or bloodshed, and Muslims only fight back to defend themselves,”

Merely two and a half months ago, a story broke that showed up what El-Tayyeb really is about: Nashaat Zarraa, an Islamic scholar and Grand Imam at the Egyptian Ministry of Religious Endowments — and also a preacher at a mosque near Cairo — was demoted from his senior status and banned from lecturing and giving Friday sermons because he criticized the history of Islamic conquests. Zaraa stated:

The risk with sanctifying Islamic conquests in such an absolute way is implicitly condoning the approach by that terrorist organisations that use conquests as justification for jihad against all those who disagree with them in thought and belief, despite the fact that Islam restricts jihad to self-defence and does not justify the use of intimidation, killing and enslaving women to spread the faith.

Zarraa then “publicly called for a review of the history of Islamic conquests after al-Azhar Grand Imam Ahmed el-Tayeb glorified them.” So let’s ponder this for a moment: Zarraa is condemning the historic view of El-Tayyeb and of normative Islam, in which bloody conquest and martyrdom in the way of Allah are glorified. Furthermore, “in a speech, Tayeb said it was because of conquests that Muslims were able to set one foot in China and the other in Andalusia.”

Will the real El-Tayyeb please stand up? The same El-Tayyeb who advanced “glorification” of jihad in Islamic conquests, and endorsed the murder of apostates, is now preaching that “Islam doesn’t seek war or bloodshed, and Muslims only fight back to defend themselves,” just in time for Ramadan, taqiyya-style. His message also coordinates well with his world peace partner, the Pope. The Vatican has just released a “fervent” message of best wishes for a “fruitful month of Ramadan.”

“Azhar’s Grand Imam Says Islam Seeks No War,” Asharq Al-Awsat, May 1, 2020:

Grand Imam of Al-Azhar Sheikh Ahmed El-Tayyeb has called for embracing morals as the sole way out of the world’s crises.

“Islam doesn’t seek war or bloodshed, and Muslims only fight back to defend themselves,” he affirmed. In this case, Muslims are prohibited to kill peaceful individuals such as priests, women, farmers and the elderly.

In Thursday’s statement, the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar said that “mercy” is a key moral feature in Islam to guarantee a decent life. Its absence turns people’s lives into chaos, causes social and family breakdown, incites evil, peddles dominance over the country and people, and ignites wars.

In his program ‘El-Tayyeb’, he stressed that the term “mercy” and its derivatives were mentioned 199 times in Quran, the statement read. God has urged believers to be merciful in all aspects, the Sheikh added.

‘El-Tayyeb Program’ is broadcast during Ramadan on several channels in Egypt and the Arab world….

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Filed Under: Egypt, Featured, Taqiyya, War is deceit Tagged With: Ahmed el-Tayeb, Grand Sheikh of Al-Azhar, Religion of Peace


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Comments

  1. Jaladhi says

    May 3, 2020 at 9:03 am

    Liar, liar,.. pants on fire! These guys lie through their teeth without any shameI guess tlying is one of the tenets of this cult!1

    • Captnhook says

      May 3, 2020 at 9:32 am

      They lie? Their book tells them to!!! To all the non- believers. We must stop our complacency dealing with the murder cult

    • Ben says

      May 4, 2020 at 12:31 pm

      Lying is what they do and truth is far from them. Mohammedans brag that Allah is the greatest deceiver of all (Koran). The Holy Bible says Satan is the deceiver from the beginning. Who would be surprised that any Satan worshiper would lie, when the Holy Bible makes it clear that God is Truth and can not lie?

      • Jon wright says

        May 5, 2020 at 12:15 am

        Say ben it not ALLAH but muhhamad Is the greatest DECEIVER. Those are his words.HE also says that both the old and new testaments have been corrupted ergo no LONGER truthful and so not believable.

  2. Dude says

    May 3, 2020 at 9:05 am

    Giggle

  3. infidel says

    May 3, 2020 at 9:08 am

    I died laughing…. some great entertainment during this lock-down here in India.. I badly needed to laugh

  4. jca reid says

    May 3, 2020 at 9:13 am

    Time to sort this mess out once & for all. Either Islam goes or we go really down the crapper! To hell with business interests etc. Enough of this molly coddling. It has to be a Total War!

    • Michael Copeland says

      May 3, 2020 at 9:23 am

      “No peace can be made between us and kafirs.
      This what our holy book says. This what Allah says.”

      Yusuf al Qaradawi
      https://gatesofvienna.net/2020/02/islams-agenda-muslims-speak/

    • Donovan Nuera says

      May 3, 2020 at 12:17 pm

      This barbaric issue, the sanctified murder of apostates, of which islame is the ONLY religion that sanctions it, must be brought to the forefront of our protests and criticisms as even the most Christophobic western liberal islamophilic apologist or the ditziest kumbaya “coexister” (who still has NO CLUE about the cruel history of islam) just might realize that yes, this is EVIL and truly OPPRESSIVE! If we can finally put the ball in the islamicists’ court to DEFEND this evil, then Islam will crumble!!! This one goal should be our focus than the multiple various critiques that, although true and rational, are too widespread to actual grip the attention of our flaky , low-attention-span and poseuresque society of PC-addled wimps!! A recent example is how EVERYONE was talking about this Tiger King/Baskin crap within 24 hours and this inanity is still going 30 days later!!! Even that Koni Child Army protestor was the talk of the country and Congress for a month!!! It’s way past time to roll out a huge concerted 1-subject media blitz that won’t be ignored!!! Do it during Ramadan!!! Flood the zone and not be afraid!

  5. Phil Copson says

    May 3, 2020 at 9:28 am

    The fool Francis daren’t spell-out just what the fruits of Ramadan are: According to “Fahrenheit 211” the tally of deaths on Day Nine is 143 – what will it be by day 28 ?

    https://www.fahrenheit211.net/2020/05/03/day-nine-in-the-big-savage-house-ramadan-death-toll-continues-to-climb/

    ( “Fahrenheit 211” is a site run by a Jewish gentleman who logged the advance of Islam in his area of East London through dodgy planning applications, the pandering of pro-Islam Labour MPs, and the flouting of the law. He recently had his front door smashed in so that he could be dragged out in hand-cuffs by a goon-squad of British kapos – sorry, “policemen” – led by a muslim .

  6. Keys says

    May 3, 2020 at 10:42 am

    Grand Sheikh,
    Did the Muslim Brotherhood (Sunni Clan) abrogate the following ?

    “From the Archives of the Muslim Brotherhood in America: An Explanatory Memorandum”

    “The process of settlement is a ‘Civilization-Jihadist Process’ with all the word means. The Ikhwan [Muslim Brotherhood] must understand that their work in America is a kind of grand jihad in eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within and “sabotaging” its miserable house by their hands and the hands of the believers so that it is eliminated and God’s religion is made victorious over all other religions.”

    ***************

    Have the Iranians and their proxies (Shia clans) stopped chanting and praying “Death to America” in their mosques and government assemblies ?

    You better send them all a memo that you have invalidated and eliminated Dar al Harb from the Muslim faith and the teachings of the Prophet and Allah.
    OKh, Sheikh ?

    Please forthright send a similar memo on “Al Wala’ Wal Bara”.
    OKh, Sheikh ?

    Peace, and Happy Ramadaning after dark.

  7. Donovan Nuera says

    May 3, 2020 at 12:22 pm

    #ApostatesLivesMatter

  8. Rarely says

    May 3, 2020 at 12:53 pm

    It seems to be a matter of definitions…yet again.
    “self-defence” – The very existence of non-muslims and/or apostates is an attack on islam that must be defended.
    “mercy” “charity” and the like are terms used to define how to treat other muslims — not non-believers from whom islam must be defended.

    • mortimer says

      May 4, 2020 at 12:15 am

      Yes, ‘self-defense’ is not the main impulse for jihad. Sharia law says that Islamic expansionism is the reason for jihad … Ramadan is the month of Islamic EXPANSIONISM … especially the EXPANDING Muslims tummies:

      – “Jihad is a communal obligation,” meaning obligatory upon the Muslims each year. [Reliance of the Traveller, Book O9.1]

      Jihad is something Muslims must do against non-Muslims every year.

      – RoT – O9.0: Jihad : (O: Jihad means to war against non-Muslims, and is etymologically derived from the word mujahada signifying warfare to establish the religion.

      – RoT – O9.8: The Objectives of Jihad : The caliph (o25) makes war upon Jews, Christians, and Zoroastrians…

      – RoT – O9.9 : The caliph fights all other peoples until they become Muslim (O: because they are not a people with a Book …

      -The caliph (RoT – o25) makes war upon Jews, Christians, and Zoroastrians
      ◦Make war upon such of those to whom the Scriptures have been given (Jews and Christians and Zoroastrians) such as believe not in Allah. (K.9:29)

      • PRCS says

        May 4, 2020 at 5:54 am

        True, self-defense is not jihad’s primary purpose. The ‘faith’s’ expansion is.

        But note the subject of his assertion: Muslims (not Egypt, not Afghanistan, or Saudi Arabia or any sovereign, recognized nation) fight back.

        Would it be left to Christians alone to ‘fight back’ if the U.S. were attacked by Mexico–a ‘Christian nation'”

        Would Muslims ‘fight back’ if Egypt were attacked by Saudi Arabia?

        The half-assed issue he’s promoting: the umma.

        One for all and all for one: sorta.

        The order of the MUS.

  9. Terry Gain says

    May 3, 2020 at 4:37 pm

    Islamic history. Self defending itself all the way to Spain, to North Africa, to India to Malaysia, to Indonesia, to Asia Minor, to the Philippines etc, etc, etc.

    • gravenimage says

      May 4, 2020 at 1:56 am

      So true, Terry.

  10. Anjuli Pandavar says

    May 3, 2020 at 5:02 pm

    This is not taqiyya. El-Tayyib is not lying. He is speaking the truth in the fullness of his mediaeval conception of it: The Muslim “invites” the infidel to “return/revert” to Islam. Should the infidel spurn this “merciful” (the Muslim did not kill the infidel for being an infidel, as he rightly should have) generosity, he offends Islam as not worthy of him, thereby “attacking” the Muslim, and further “attacks” the Muslim by throwing his “mercy” back in his face. The Muslim is, therefore, entitled to “defend himself” against such infidel and wage war on him.

    i must stress that this is neither lying nor fanciful. It is the way a Muslim’s head works. The reason a contemporary Muslim who tries to embrace modernity and a civilised way of thinking is a creature racked by conflict is because he is basically going to have to deconstruct his entire being if he wants to be a “reformed Muslim”, i.e., cease to be Muslim. The very best he can hope for is to be a Muslim without an ummah, a Muslim without jihad, and this, as Sayyid Qutb correctly observed, reduces Islam to a religion of free choice.

    When people (such as Bill Warner) say that Islam is not just a religion, but is a “complete way of life,” this quotes Qutb accurately, but also misunderstands him. “Complete way of life,” is the closest concise description of Islam that a modern person might understand. But looked at from a mediaeval standpoint, Qutb’s standpoint, what does “complete way of life,” actually mean?

    Consider a scenario in which science is barely distinguishable from alchemy, in which astrology bears more weight than science, in which the supernatural world (the “unseen world” of Islam) is as real as the table and chairs in your kitchen, in which you are culpable of crimes or sins you might commit in someone else’s dreams, in which your wrongdoing is also the wrongdoing of all your blood relations, in which it is inconceivable to disobey authority, i.e., anyone above you in the social hierarchy, in which Allah, quite literally wills *all* that happens and doesn’t happen, and therefore *must* be propitiated and his absolute power over you acknowledged *at all times*, lest he be displeased and sends down his wrath. Imagine all of this and much more is as real as the ground on which you walk. And in *this* context, what pleases Allah more than anything else a human being can do is jihad. Now construct a complete mediaeval social system exclusively geared towards this one unique end, everything else being but its enveloping support infrastructure and systems. *That* is Islam, and a Muslim’s mind, during the years of early childhood, is specifically hardwired to be another such support infrastructure for jihad.

    When Muslims insist that those who leave Islam must be killed, they do not say this because religion is a matter of personal choice, they say so because a *Muslim’s* rejection of Islam is the ultimate rejection of *everything*. It is an entirely *mediaeval* precept. El-Tayyib truly, genuinely and sincerely believes what he is saying. Pointing out that he has contradicted himself here or there is quite meaningless to the mediaeval mind as one proposition bears absolutely no relation to another, as one event bears no relation to another, Allah being free to will as he wills. Bill Warner is right about that much, the Muslim mind does not comprehend cause and effect. To do so would be blasphemous. Muslim speech might be staggeringly incoherent and catastrophically contradictory to the modern mind, but the Muslim mind is not modern, and is perfectly comfortable with its own thinking.

    I wrote more on this in The Muslim’s Inner Struggles, here on JW.

    • Michael Copeland says

      May 3, 2020 at 5:38 pm

      “Islam is the perfect system for all mankind”
      placard

    • gravenimage says

      May 4, 2020 at 1:57 am

      Fine analysis, Anjuli.

      • Anjuli Pandavar says

        May 4, 2020 at 2:41 pm

        Thank you, GI.

    • commonsense says

      May 4, 2020 at 11:53 am

      Excellent post.

      • Anjuli Pandavar says

        May 4, 2020 at 2:44 pm

        Thank you, CS.

        Correction: where I said, “a *Muslim’s* rejection of Islam is the ultimate rejection of *everything*,” I should have said, “a *Muslim’s* rejection of Islam is the ultimate NEGATION of *everything*.

  11. ntesdorf says

    May 3, 2020 at 7:07 pm

    Grand Sheikh of Al Azhar is cranking up his Taqqiyah output. His statements run in contrast to such Qur’anic gems as: *Fight those who believe not in God nor the Last Day, nor hold that forbidden which has been forbidden by God and His Apostle, nor acknowledge the religion of truth, even if they are] of the People of the Book, until they pay the jizyah with willing submission, and feel themselves subdued.* (At-Tawbah 9:29)

  12. mortimer says

    May 4, 2020 at 12:17 am

    The Government of Egypt has given Al Azhar University orders to BACK-PEDDLE on Islam’s backward, discriminatory, violent, terroristic Islamic teachings.

    We will eventually see if that is going to happen and whether the conservative mullahs call for jihad against the Egyptian government.

  13. mortimer says

    May 4, 2020 at 12:35 am

    Welcome to Islamic REVERSO-LAND and Islamic OPPOSITE-WORLD.

    The only thing that is consistent about Islam is frequent opportunistic changes in the doctrines.

    Whatever Mohammed said one week, he would cavalierly change the following week. This whimsical and OPPORTUNISTIC style of Islam is normative.

    The declarations of the mullahs change according to the circumstances … according to what is OPPORTUNE for Islamic supremacism. Confusing, isn’t it?

    Now you know … Muslims let the mullahs say any contradictory thing they like and the mullahs never tire of uttering these DIAMETRICALLY OPPOSITE MESSAGES.

  14. mortimer says

    May 4, 2020 at 12:42 am

    Another fine, superbly written article by Christine Douglass-Williams.

    She correctly observes that El-Tayyeb is making ‘FANCIFUL’ declarations of doctrine that are not traditional. El-Tayyeb is reformulating Islam under orders from President Sisi.

    The other mullahs know what he is doing.

  15. gravenimage says

    May 4, 2020 at 1:49 am

    Grand Sheikh of Al Azhar declares: “Islam doesn’t seek war, Muslims only fight back to defend themselves”
    ………………….

    Right. The problem is that Muslims consider murdering apostates and Infidels living in freedom to be “defense”.

  16. Iambob says

    May 4, 2020 at 11:58 am

    John 8:44 New International Version (NIV)
    44 You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.

  17. Richard Kruse says

    May 4, 2020 at 4:14 pm

    Yeah, I guess those twin towers really attacked you, didn’t they?

  18. OLD GUY says

    May 4, 2020 at 8:22 pm

    Grand lie from the grand sheikh. Muslims have been carrying out war against everyone and everything for a thousand years. So take your poor me attitude and shove it.

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