Does the Administration realize they might be stirring up a hornets nest in The Middle East...?
Islamic scholars call for jihad to defend the faith
March 12 2003
Islamic scholars at Cairo's Al-Azhar University, the pre-eminent seat of Sunni Muslim learning in the Arab world, say a United States attack on Iraq would threaten all Arabs and Muslims and urged a "jihad" to defend their interests.
The statement, published in Egyptian newspapers on Monday, said the US military build-up in the Persian Gulf, from where an invasion is likely to be launched, is part of a new "crusade", a highly emotive word in the Arab world, where tales of the medieval Crusades still frame relations with the West.
"According to Islamic law, if the enemy steps on Muslims' land, jihad becomes a duty on every male and female Muslim," said the statement by the Islamic Research Academy, the centre of religious scholarship at the 1000-year-old university. It "calls upon Arabs and Muslims throughout the world to be ready to defend themselves and their faith".
Although commonly translated as "holy war", jihad has far broader meaning in Islamic law. It is also commonly used to invoke a more spiritual, inward-looking devotion. In that light, some scholars said the statement was not necessarily advocating violence.
"The meaning of jihad means a lot of things, not just fighting," said Abbas Ahmed, a spokesman for Al-Azhar in Cairo. "It's not necessarily war." But he added that any attack on Iraq would, in fact, "be a strike on Islam".
Whatever the interpretation, the statement seemed likely to reverberate across the Arab world given Al-Azhar's prestige as a source of spiritual guidance and Egypt's role as a US ally.
Fears have arisen throughout the region that an American invasion of Iraq may unleash tumult, and from North Africa to the Persian Gulf, the expected war is increasingly framed as targeting Islam itself. The statement by scholars at Al-Azhar joined a chorus of Islamic voices urging resistance to a US attack.
Washington Post
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