An influential group of Muslim theologians at a prominent Islamic seminary in northern India have denounced terrorism, saying it is goes against the teachings of Islam.
The denouncement came during the All India Anti-Terrorism Conference in the state of Uttar Pradesh, home to the 150-year-old Darul Uloom Deoband Islamic seminary.
Opening the conference, the seminary’s vice chancellor, Maulana Margoobur Rahman, called terrorism a thoughtless act that is “un-Islamic” and prohibited by the Quran.
“Islam preaches the tenets of peace, justice and brotherhood. There is no place for terror and violence in Islam,” Rahamn said in his address, which was read by a deputy. “Allah will never have mercy on those elements who think they are serving the faith by perpetrating violence.”
We have asked Muslim leaders to denounce terrorism, and we should welcome those who do.
Will they now apologize for the jihadi invasion and conquest of North Africa, the Holy Land, Spain and southeast Europe?
/crickets
Deoband ‘Seminary’ is well known as the seedbed of modern jihadism.
If they are now repenting, good. But let us see the fruits of repentance, including reparation. Otherwise, this is just taqiyya.
(Yes, I know, call me ‘mean spirited’ etc.)
Notice also, that by their definition, Israelis, Jews and apostates don’t count as ‘innocents’.
“Will they now apologize for the jihadi invasion and conquest of North Africa, the Holy Land, Spain and southeast Europe?”
When Muslim leaders do what millions of us (including President Bush) have been asking them to do, we should encourage them. We shouldn’t immediately raise the bar and kick sand in their faces.
PS: The sort of questions posed in #2 are as inflammatory as asking Americans when we will repent and pay reparations for infecting American Indians with smallpox, taking their land, and herding them into miserable little reservations. Or for the trans-Atlantic slave trade, domestic slavery, and a century of post-emancipation peonage. Or even more controversially, for the fire-bombing and carpet-bombing of residential neighborhoods during World War II.
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“Call me ‘mean spirited'” —Gordian
I don’t know you. But your comments often evince a malicious smart-aleck tone that disserves Christ and His gospel.
They finally noticed that their graduates who went on to careers in suicide-bombing didn’t keep paying their alumni dues.
The last sentence of #4 came out more harshly than it should have.
But haughtiness and scorn ill-become a Christian, no matter how quick one’s wits or tongue.
I don’t think the Gordian knows much about Islam in India. Although it is not easy to be a Muslim in India (and there is still communal violence, occasionally), the fact that India is a democracy and Muslims have representation in congress makes Indian Islam a bit different. Compare it to Pakistan, which decided to create an alliance between its military and the fundamentalists against Soviet encroachment. We’re going to have to deal with our friends for a very long time. Even as it is, lots of Pakistanis find our continued support of Musharraf as an example that our belief in democracy is shallow.
Gordian – its kind of like asking the Irish to apologize for the crusades, or for everyone to apologize for slavery. It’s a cheap shot, and, yes, you named it: mean spirited. And, alas, it simply gives fodder to those Muslims who believe that yes – Christians are mean themselves, and should not be trusted as Christians because of their perpetual hostility toward Muslims. And personally, even if they did apologize, I don’t think it would make things much different. Preaching peace is the best for of apology we can ask for.
My point was that the randomized (or targeted) acts of jihadi terrorism criticized here are only the contemporary outcrop of a long history of violent Islamic colonialism that brought Islam to these lands in the first place – to India as well (thanks, JW!), on the back of the Mughal invaders, but before them, the Turks and the Arabs to Europe, the Middle East and Africa. The resilience of Hindu resistance and the blessings of British colonialism prevented Islam from finally overwhelming the subcontinent, but we did end up as a consequence with the ghastly state of Pakistan. The expansion of Islam (=’Submission”) has been through military conquest and force, with the partial exception of the East Indies, where a syncretistic Hindu-folk Islamic religion developed – one that Salafist jihadis are trying to purify, while moving against Christians.
Islam’s grip on its people has depended on social coercion, either legally or informally sanctioned violence (including death for apostasy and the jizya and other legal disabilities on non-Muslims). My further concern is for Christians and other minorites in Islamic-dominated lands, who live in many cases in fear and trembling. This is the kind of ‘reparation’ I was calling for – equal rights and freedoms for all their citizens and an end to coercion.
And yes, Americans have realized that they treated Native Americans and African Americans shamefully and have tried – albeit fitfully – to make some amends for these injustices.