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 By
Laury Silvers-Alario, instructor of Islam, department of
religious studies;
and Rabia Nizamani '02 , president of MECCA
The following statement was issued by the
student group, MECCA (Muslim Endeavor to Create Cultural
Awareness) in
the wake of the Sept. 11 tragedy.
On behalf of the Muslim community at Holy Cross, MECCA
would like to express its deepest horror and sorrow at the
terrible events in New York and Washington, D.C.
Compounding this tragedy for Muslims and those who are sympathetic
to Islam is the violence done to Muslims and the image of
Islam by this terrible crime. The president of MECCA and
the instructor for Islam at Holy Cross would like to clarify
several points of importance concerning the perspective of
normative Islam on war and terrorism.
1. The meaning of jihad:
It is incorrect to understand the word jihad as "holy
war." The word for war in Arabic is harb, and jihad
is not used in that context. In Arabic, jihad means "to
struggle." Muhammad defined two forms of jihad: the
greater and the lesser jihad. The lesser jihad is a specific
and narrowly defined struggle against religious oppression.
Again, it is not the word used for war or warfare in Islam.
Muhammad defined the greater jihad as the struggle with the
soul's negative tendencies.
2. Legal opinions on suicide, war and terrorism:
First, it is important to understand that there is no central
authority in Islam and that there is enormous flexibility
and diversity in Islamic legal rulings. Nevertheless, there
is often great consensus among Muslim scholars on matters
large and small.
Scholars argue their various perspectives in legal opinions
called fatwas. Fatwas have no weight unless accepted by the
community of scholars. Consensus among scholars is recognized
by the broad acceptance of legal opinion.
We would like to present the consensus opinions among Muslim
scholars, meaning these are the accepted positions of the
vast majority of Muslims in the world.
a. Suicide: Suicide is understood by the majority of Muslims
scholars to condemn a soul beyond redemption. A smaller
but significant group of scholars says that there is still
some hope of forgiveness demanded by God's all-comprehensive
Mercy. There is no sense among the consensus of scholars
of a justifiable suicide.
b. Warfare: Muslims cherish the sanctity of all living
things. The majority rulings of warfare state that no civilians
or clergy of any religion may be put at risk in the fighting,
nor may buildings and crops be destroyed wantonly. Combatants
in war are not permitted to throw themselves into danger
or risk beyond what is normal in warfare. In other words,
along with the ruling on suicide, suicide attacks are expressly
forbidden.
c. Terrorism: So if all this is true, then how do the
very small number of Muslims who take part in terrorist
activities justify their actions? This returns us to the
discussion of the flexibility of Islamic law. A scholar
may write a fatwa justifying terrorist acts, and he may
be condemned by the consensus of Muslim scholars. But if
anyone wants to rely on that fatwa, it is acceptable to
do so. Osama bin Laden along with several others wrote
such a fatwa in 1998. But he is not considered by other
Islamic scholars to be qualified to issue a legal opinion.
It has been commented that writing this legal opinion justifying
terrorism required significant twisting of the entire consensus
legal tradition based on the Qur'an and the reports of
what Muhammad said and did. In other words, in order to
justify terrorism it was necessary to reject the traditional
Islamic positions on this issue, which went back to the
time of Muhammad. Even so, there are a small number of
individuals who choose to rely on his legal opinions even
though his fatwas are rejected by other Muslim scholars.
That ruling and earlier ones written by bin Laden caused
him to be condemned by Muslim scholars at large and ostracized
by all Islamic nations with the exception of Afghanistan.
In saying that, we must remember that the Taliban regime
in Afghanistan does not represent the Afghani people who
suffer under their oppression.
We hope this short explanation, despite its oversimplification
of complex issues, is helpful to the Holy Cross community
in understanding the perspective of normative Islam on the
terrible events of Sept. 11.
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