Daniel Pipes Weblog
Finally – the Voice of Moderate, Anti-Islamist Muslims Is Heard
October 30, 2004
Finally – the Voice of Moderate, Anti-Islamist Muslims Is Heard In a stunning, unprecedented, and very hopeful sign, reports the Saudi newspaper Arab News, over 2,500 Muslim intellectuals from 23 countries sent a petition to United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan, and the chairman and members of the Security Council. The organizers hope to have tens of thousands of signatories shortly. Most of the signatories are from Saudi Arabia, the Persian Gulf states, Iraq, Jordan and the Palestinian Authority.
In the petition, they call for an international treaty banning the use of religion for incitement to violence. The addressee and the goal are both unlikely, but the sentiments are critical. Shakir Al-Nablusi, a Jordanian academic and one of the signatories, notes that "There are individuals in the Muslim world who pose as clerics and issue death sentences against those they disagree with. These individuals give Islam a bad name and foster hatred among civilizations." The petition names names:
The signatories describe those who use religion for inciting violence as "the sheikhs of death". Among those mentioned by name is Yusuf Al-Qaradawi, an Egyptian preacher working in Qatar. The signatories accuse him of "providing a religious cover for terrorism." Last year Qaradawi raised a storm when he issued a fatwa allowing the killing of Israeli pregnant women and their unborn babies on the ground that the babies could grow up to join the Israeli Army. Last September, Qaradawi in a fatwa in response to a question from the Egyptian Union of Journalists said killing "all Americans, civilian or military" in Iraq was allowed.
"We cannot let such dangerous nonsense to pass as Islam," Nablusi says. The petition also names the late Egyptian preacher Muhammad Al-Ghazzali who, in 1992, issued a fatwa for the murder of Farag Foda, an anti-clerical writer in Cairo. Within weeks of the fatwa, zealots murdered Foda in his home. Other "sheikhs of death" mentioned include the Yemeni Abdul-Majid Al-Zendani, and the Saudis Ali bin Khudhair Al-Khudhair and Safar Al-Hawali. The two Saudis have described the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks against the United States as "retaliations", and thus justified under Islamic law."
Comment: Are the moderate, anti-Islamist voices in the Muslim world beginning to organize? If so, I cannot think of more cheering news. (October 30, 2004) |
