Muslim scholar: Killing civilians OK
Head of Islamic center in London responds to attack
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Posted: July 12, 2005
1:00 a.m. Eastern
Responding to questions about the terrorist attack on London, a Muslim scholar in the British capital asserted Islam makes no distinction between civilians and military targets.
"The term 'civilians' does not exist in Islamic religious law," said Hani Al-Siba'i, head of the Al-Maqreze Centre for Historical Studies in London.
Al-Siba'i, in an interview with the Arab news channel al-Jazeera, elaborated, "There is no such term as 'civilians' in the modern Western sense. People are either of Dar Al-Harb or not."
Dar Al-Harb refers to the Muslim concept of the world being divided into two "houses," the House of Islam and the remaining territories, the House of War, or Dar Al-Harb.
Al-Siba'i speculated that a Western nation could have been responsible for the attack, but he acknowledged it could have been carried out by Osama bin Laden's terrorist organization, according to a transcript provided by the Middle East Media Research Institute, or MEMRI.
"If al-Qaida indeed carried out this act, it is a great victory for it," he said. "It rubbed the noses of the world's eight most powerful countries in the mud." |
