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Islamic
Responses to Terrorism
Sayyed Nadeem Kazmi
[continued...]
CONCLUSION
“The atrocity of September 11 is a violation
of Islamic law and ethics. Neither the people
who were killed or injured, nor the properties
that were destroyed, qualified as legitimate
targets in any system of law, especially Islamic
law”, according to the London-based Islamic
scholar and deputy of the Shaykh al-Azhar,
Shaykh Dr Zaki Badawi (45). Shaykh Badawi,
like other scholars, refers to the farewell
sermon of the Prophet Muhammad: “God has made
inviolable for you each others’ blood and
each others’ property until you meet your
Lord”, a reiteration of the Qur’anic decree
that to destroy the life of one individual
amounts to destroying the entire human race
(5:32).
Contemporary Muslim societies, however, have
been largely shaped by the more recent legacy
of their colonial subjugation. Their comparative
development has therefore been stifled so
that the social reality in these societies
is, in many cases, poverty, illiteracy or
lack of access to education, elitist maintenance
of the status quo through military muscle,
environmental degradation, lack of rule of
law and civil liberties. This has to be acknowledged
“if we are to gain insight into the grave
phenomena emerging in the Islamic world” (46).
The intensely intricate nature of the Islamic
socio-political situation marked by striking
contradictions and strong tensions is better
understood when viewed within the context
of the waves of Western imperialist expansion,
of the crises of the post-colonial state and
the reality of social deprivation, economic
dependence and decadent educational systems
unable to fill the vacuum generated by the
erosion of traditional learning centres, along
with the marginalization of the Muslim masses
from the political system.
islamic legal scholars, in responding to the
challenge of Islamism and terrorism, have
to help develop a progressive platform that
is uniquely Islamic within the framework of
political reformation and in relation to universally
shared values. Muslim political leadership
has to enlist the religious and spiritual
leadership in a constructive engagement towards
delegitimizing terrorism and terrorists, and
that involves to some extent creating an enabling
environment for the legislative deconstruction
of political Islamism when it seen to be contrary
to peace and stability (47).
The crisis of international terrorism is about
legitimacy: the legitimacy of terror; the
legitimacy of responding to terror. In the
latter context it is about the legitimacy
of the nature of response and engagement,
whether unilateral, bilateral or multilateral;
whether military, psychological or diplomatic.
It is also about the legitimacy of harbouring
terrorism; and about the legitimacy of anger,
frustration and despair against a growing
gap between the rich and the poor. The delegitimization
of terrorists and terrorism (48) within the
world of Islam involves a diplomatic process
that will gather Islamic religious and political
opinion from the widest spectrum and issue
a cohesive, authoritative Fatwa which, in
effect, denies terrorists who hijack Islam
any religious legitimacy.
Selected Sources
1. Text of Final Statement of Emergency
Conference of OIC Foreign Ministers, Doha,
10 October 2001, As reported in Quds Press
(international)
2. S Abd
al-Majid al-Khoei, secretary-general, Al-Khoei
Foundation, al-Hayyat newspaper, London,
4 October, 2001
3. Personal Interview with Professor
Akbar S Ahmed, Princeton, New Jersey, USA,
Winter, 2001
4. Dr S Parvez Manzoor, Islamic Legitimacy
without the Testimony of the Muslim Will?,
Islam 21, August 2001
5. Khaled Abou El-Fadl, Islam: Images,
Politics, Paradox, in Islam and the
Theology of Power, Middle East Report,
221, Winter 2001
6. Shaykh Fadhil Sahlani, director, Al-Khoei
Benevolent Center, Interview (based on his
khutba, or sermon), Queens, New York,
USA, 10 August, 2002
7. Home Secretary Meets Muslim Community
Leaders, Home Office Stat 035/2001, 21
September, <2001
8. Sayyed Nadeem Kazmi, Islamophobia after
September 11, Voluntary Voice
magazine, London, September 2002
9. BBC Online, UK, Summer, 2002
10. MacPherson Inquiry into Death of Stephen
Lawrence, UK, 1997 (?)
11. European Monitoring Centre on Racism and
Xenophobia, European Union Report, Islamophobia,
2002
12. Islamic Human Rights Commission Report,
UK, 2002
13. Report of the Runnymede Commission on
Islamophobia
14. Channel Four’s ‘British and Muslim
Season’:A Case Study of Islamophobia in the
Broadcast Media. A Discussion Paper from the
Forum Against Islamophobia and Racism (FAIR),
May 2002. Programmes covered in the study
were: The Hidden Jihad(Channel 4, aired
Friday 8 March, 2002); Culture Clash
(aired Saturday 9 March, 2002);
Mum, I’m a Muslim(Sunday 10 March,
2002); Trouble at the Mosque, Dispatches,
aired Thursday 14 March, 2002); Who Speaks
for Muslims? (aired Friday15 March,2002).
15. S Nadeem Kazmi, Muslim Responses to
the New Terrorism and its Aftermath, Speech
at Leicester University Students’ Union, Leicester,
UK, 12 November 2001
16. S Nadeem Kazmi, Workshop at Symposium
on Global Ethics organized by the Pacific
Rim Institute for Development Education (PRIDE),
University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA),
Los Angeles, California, USA, June, 2002
17. Daniel Pipes & Mimi Stillman, The
United States Government: Patron of Islam,
MERIA, 2002
18. R James Woolsey, The Iraq Connection:
Blood Ba’ath, The New Republic Online,
September 13, 2001
19. Dr Robert D Crane, Intellectual and
Spiritual Jihad: The Ultimate Power Against
Terrorism , paper presented to the roundtable
on The Role of Muslim Intellectuals in
the Wake of the Terrorist Attacks against
the United States, AMSS Conference on
Religion and Public Life in the Global Epoch,
Dearborn, Michigan, USA, October 28th,
2001
20. ‘Authorization for Use of Military Force’
Resolution of the United States Government,
2002
21. ‘Executive Order Blocking Property and
Prohibiting Transactions With Persons Who
Commit, Threaten to Commit, or Support Terrorism’,
US Government, 1999
22. Proclamation of President George W Bush,
Declaration of National Emergency by Reason
of Certain Terrorist Attacks, September
14, 2001
22. Washington Treaty, NATO (North Atlantic
Treaty Organization)
21. Frank Furedi, The New Ideology of Imperialism,
1994
22. Dr Robert D Crane, Challenging of Islam:
Rethinking America’s Mission, paper presented
to the Plenary Session of the AMSS (Association
of Muslim Social Scientists) Conference on
Religion and Public Life in the Global Epoch,
Dearborn, Michigan, USA, 27th October,
2001
23. Resolution 1373, adopted by the UN Security
Council at its 4385th meeting, 28 September,
2001
24. International Convention for the Suppression
of Terrorist Financing
25. Responsibility of States for Internationally
Wrongful Acts, Draft Report of the International
Law Commission, 2001
26. Frank J Cilluffo, Chairman, Committee
on Combating Chemical, Biological, Radiological
and Nuclear Terrorism, Homeland Defense Initiative
Center for Strategic and International Studies,
Testimony Before US Senate Committee on Foreign
Relations, 5 September 2001
27. The Hon. Richard Perle, Foreign Policy
Research Institute Dinner, Washington DC,
USA, 14 November, 2001
28. Frank Furedi, The New Ideology of Imperialism,
1994
29. Voice of Bahrain, Summer, 2002
30. Dr Robert D Crane, Intellectual and
SpiritualJihad: The Ultimate Power Against
Terrorism, paper presented to the roundtable
on The Role of Muslim Intellectuals in
the Wake of the Terrorist Attacks against
the United States, AMSS Conference on
Religion and Public Life in the Global Epoch,
Dearborn, Michigan, USA, October 28th,
2001
31. Statement of His Highness Shaykh al-Thani,
at the Emergency Conference of OIC Foreign
Ministers, Doha, Qatar, 10 October 2001
32. One Man’s Terrorist, Christian
Science Monitor, 2 October, 2001
33. Timothy Garton-Ash, The Guardian
newspaper (UK), 10 November, 2001
34. Kanan Makiyya, comments presented
to the international symposium, The Day
After: Planning for a Post-Saddam Iraq,
Washington DC, 12th October 2002
35. David Zeidan, Radical Islam in Egypt:
A Comparison of Two Groups, MERIA Journal,
Volume 3, Number 3, September, 1999
36. Dr S Parvez Manzoor, Islamic Legitimacy
without the Testimony of the Muslim Will?,
Islam 21, August 2001
37. Graham E Fuller, The Future of Political
Islam, Foreign Affairs, March-April 2002,
v81 i2 p48
38. Text of Osama bin Laden’s taped remarks,
aired on al-Jazeera satellite station,8
October, 2001
39. Benjamin Orbach, Usama bin Laden and
al-Qa’ida: Origins and Doctrines, MERIA,
2002
40. Khaled Abou El-Fadl, Islam: Images,
Politics, Paradox, in Islam and the
Theology of Power, Middle East Report,
221, Winter 2001Jean E Rosenfeld, The ‘Religion
of Usamah bin Ladin: Terror as the Hand of
God, UCLA Center for the Study of Religion,
Los Angeles, California, USA, 2002
41. David Zeidan, The Islamic Fundamentalist
View of Life as a Perennial Battle, MERIA,
2002
42. Dr Robert D Crane, personal conversations,
Virginia, USA, January, 2000, and miscellaneous
texts, speeches and notes
43. Ayatullah Sayyed Fadhil Milani, Speech
to the international conference, Islamic Responses
to Terrorism, Al-Khoei Foundation, London,
UK, October 2001
44. His Royal Highness Prince El-Hassan bin
Talal of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan,
various texts, speeches and writings
45. Shaykh Dr Zaki Badawi, Conversations following
his speech at the international conference,
Islamic Responses to Terrorism, Al-Khoei Foundation,
London, UK, October 2001
46. Soumaya Ghanoushi, The Origins of Extremism:
Theology or Reality?, Islam21, December
2001
47. President Parvez Musharaf, Speech, 12
November 2001, Islamabad, Pakistan
48. S Nadeem Kazmi, Only Muslim Leaders
can Delegitimize Usama bin Ladin, article
published in The Tablet, London, UK,
November 2001.
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