My fatwa on the
fanatics
BY ZIAUDDIN SARDAR
Observer, London
September 23, 2001
The magnitude of the terrorist attack on America
has forced Muslims to take a critical look at themselves. Why have
we repeatedly turned a blind eye to the evil within our societies?
Why have we allowed the sacred terms of Islam, such as fatwa
and jihad, to be hijacked by obscurantist, fanatic
extremists?
Muslims are quick to note the double standards of America -- its
support for despotic regimes, its partiality towards Israel, and
the covert operations that have undermined democratic movements in
the Muslim world. But we seldom question our own double standards.
For example, Muslims are proud that Islam is the fastest growing
religion in the West. Evangelical Muslims, from Saudi Arabia to
Pakistan, happily spread their constricted interpretations of
Islam. But Christian missionaries in Muslim countries are another
matter. They have to be banned or imprisoned. Those who burn
effigies of President Bush will be first in the queue for an
American visa.
The
psychotic young men, members of such extremist organisations as
Al-Muhajiroun and 'Supporters of Sharia', shouting fascist
obscenities outside the Pakistan embassy, are enjoying the fruits
of Western freedom of expression. Their declared aim is to
establish 'Islamic states'. But in any self-proclaimed Islamic
state, they would be ruthlessly silenced.
This
is not the first time concerned Muslims have raised such
questions. But we have been forced to ignore them for two main
reasons. In a world where it is always open season for prejudice
and discrimination on Muslims and Islam, our main task has seemed
to be to defend Islam.
The
other reason concerns ummah, the global Muslim community.
We have to highlight, the argument goes, the despair and suffering
of the Muslim people -- their poverty and plight as refugees and
the horror of war-torn societies.
So,
all good and concerned Muslims are implicated in the unchecked
rise of fanaticism in Muslim societies. We have given free reign
to fascism within our midst, and failed to denounce fanatics who
distort the most sacred concepts of our faith. We have been silent
as they proclaim themselves martyrs, mangling beyond recognition
the most sacred meaning of what it is to be a Muslim.
But
the events of September 11 have freed us from any further
obligation to this misapplied conscience. The insistence by the
Muslim Council of Britain that the Islamic cause is best served by
the Taliban handing over Osama bin Laden, is indicative of this
shift.
The
devotion with which so many Muslims, young and old, in Europe and
America, are organising meetings and conferences to discuss how to
unleash the best intentions, the essential values of Islam, from
the rhetoric of jihad, hatred and insularity, is another.
But we
have to go further. Muslims are in the best position to take the
lead in the common cause against terrorism. The terrorists are
among us, the Muslim communities of the world. They are part of
our body politic. And it is our duty to stand up against them.
We
must also reclaim a more balanced view of Islamic terms like
fatwa. A fatwa is simply a legal opinion based on
religious reasoning. It is the opinion of one individual and is
binding on only the person who gives it. But, since the Rushdie
affair, it has come to be associated in the West solely with a
death sentence. Now that Islam has become beset with the fatwa
culture, it becomes necessary for moderate voices to issue their
own fatwas.
So,
let me take the first step. To Muslims everywhere I issue this
fatwa: any Muslim involved in the planning, financing, training,
recruiting, support or harbouring of those who commit acts of
indiscriminate violence against persons or the apparatus or
infrastructure of states is guilty of terror and no part of the
ummah. It is the duty of every Muslim to spare no effort in
hunting down, apprehending and bringing such criminals to justice.
If
you see something reprehensible, said the Prophet Muhammad, then
change it with your hand; if you are not capable of that then use
your tongue (speak out against it); and if you are not capable of
that then detest it in your heart.
The
silent Muslim majority must now become vocal. The rest of the
world could help by adopting a more balanced tone. The rhetoric
that paints America as a personification of innocence and
goodness, a god-like power that can do no wrong, not only
undermines the new shift but threatens to foreclose all our
futures.
(Ziauddin
Sardar is a leading Muslim writer based in the UK)
(This
article first published in The Observer, London -- Sunday,
September 23, 2001 -- has since been posted on a number of
websites and has been e-mailed across the globe by several NGO
networks).