Senior Palestinian judge praises suicide bombers
Khaled Abu Toameh
Oct. 2, 2002
Sheikh Hamed Bitawi, one of the Palestinian Authority's senior religious judges, has given his authorization for the
participation of women and children in suicide attacks.
He also praised all those who have already fulfilled the "commandment of Jihad."
Sheikh Bitawi was appointed head of the appellate courts in Nablus at the establishment of the PA in 1995 and has been on Israel's wanted list since the beginning of the intifada.
He is considered an authority on religious edicts for Hamas in the Nablus area. During the past two years, he has encouraged Hamas activists to go the way of Jihad and carry out of suicide attacks against Israel.
Bitawi told the Islam Online Website that "according to a religious edict and [relying on] the words of Allah: Youths and adults, Make haste. Fight the war of Jihad using your money and [sacrificing] your souls for the way of Allah."
He said, in a special forum dedicated to religious sages and edicts, that religious sages have pointed out that men, women and children alike, should all follow this route [of Jihad].
"In the era of Muhammad the prophet, the participation of children [in Jihad] was a well-known fact; now we live in this reality in Palestine," he explained.
"We hold a great deal of love towards Jihad and for the sacrifice of one's self in honor of Allah. This situation has brought many children to compete amongst themselves regarding the carrying out of the operations of Jihad and acts of suicide.
"However, many of these acts and operations were unsuccessful, and especially due to the anticipation and forecasting abilities of the enemy. Therefore, the Islamic movement was forced to ask these children to wait patiently and not carry out the suicide acts until they've completed their studies, trained and learned to act diligently and with caution."
Asked about the religious ruling regarding the participation of women in suicide attacks, Sheikh Bitawi, who is on the PA's payroll, said:
"The sages have said that when the enemy occupies and conquers a land belonging to Muslims, the Jihad becomes a commandment that must be fulfilled by every Muslim man or woman. A woman can carry out Jihad without her husband's permission. The women in the era of Muhammad the prophet used to take part in Jihad. Women throughout Palestine can participate in a form of Jihad, including suicide terror attacks."
He said several "blessed women" have already fulfilled their tasks. But he added that women should be patient "because there is a very long queue of men willing to carry out suicide attacks."
He noted that the Palestinian women have shown great examples of willingness to participate in Jihad, following the tradition of the Islamic heroine H'ansa, who sent her four sons to the battle of Kadisiya in the era of Muhammad.
"The public has seen on their television screens how a mother sends her son to carry out Jihad, bids him farewell and encourages him," Bitawi said.
"Many mothers and women, after hearing their son was killed, cry out exclamations of happiness and joy. We raise our heads up high in honor of these women." |
