I recently had a commenter here insisting that sucide bombings were unIslamic and condemned byt islamic teaching. he even pointed to a British group for support. he insisted that this was the only legitimate interpretation of the Koran. Interestingly enough, though, this same poster (he called himself acrobat) could not bring himself to condemn death threats against another blogger who had shot-up and burned a couple of Korans as an act of political protest That made me a bit suspicious of his assertions.

Well, guess what -- while some groups seem to be unambiguously condemning suicide bombings as unIslamic, others are hedging their pronouncements.

Britain's largest Sunni Muslim group met in Birmingham on Sunday and issued a binding religious edict, or fatwa, condemning the suicide attacks that killed dozens on three London subway trains and a double-decker bus as the work of a "perverted ideology." The group's governing council said the Quran forbade suicide attacks and called such terrorism a sin that could send the perpetrators to hell.

Three days earlier at the London Central Mosque, 22 imams and scholars also condemned the July 7 attacks and said the four British Muslim suspects should not be considered martyrs because innocent civilians were killed. But the Muslim leaders stopped short of condemning all suicide bombings.

"There should be a clear distinction between the suicide bombing of those who are trying to defend themselves from occupiers, which is something different from those who kill civilians, which is a big crime," said Sayed Mohammed Musawi, the head of the World Islamic League in London.

Underlining the sensitivity of the issue, Musawi's contention that attacks are justified against "occupiers" came only after a spokesman for the leaders read a carefully worded statement condemning the London attacks. Even so, none of the other scholars and imams at the event expressed disagreement with his stance.

So, who do we believe -- those who say that such attacks are never justified, or those who say they are justified. And given that other Islamic leaders have rejected the notion that there is such a thing as a civilian as unIslamic, who are we to believe?

Posted by: Greg at 04:35 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 371 words, total size 3 kb.