|
Fanatics and
terrorists misguided
"America's fight against terrorism is justified by the Quran", says
Imam Tammam Adi Ph.D, Director of the Islamic Cultural Center of Eugene, Oregon.
I will try to show that America's
fight against terrorism is justified by the Quran, and that fanatics and
terrorists misinterpret the Quran to justify their views.
Islam's prophet, Muhammad, is a
descendant of Abraham. His message, the Quran, confirms the Gospel and the
Torah. Its essence is that we should love God above everything and not play God
on this earth (Allahu akbar), and also that we should treat all humanity as
brothers and sisters.
According to Shatibi, a 14th
century Spanish-Muslim scholar, the Quran outlines a bill of rights. All verses
work together to define five rights in this order of priority: religious
liberty, right to life, freedom of the mind, social liberty, and, finally,
economic liberty.
In his famous four-volume work
"How Things Fit Together in the Roots of Legislation," Shatibi details
the proof. He says all religions protect these basic rights - see, for example,
the Ten Commandments.
We find in verses 2:190-193 that
the Quran values religious liberty even above the right to life: "...
attacking a religious group (fitnah) is more severe than a plain attack (qatl)."
These are the first verses revealed that tell Muslims to fight to defend
themselves.
"Jihad" is an Arabic
word that means "struggle." It is either military or nonviolent. The
verses prescribe when military jihad is allowed. In all other situations,
nonviolent jihad (personal and civic struggle) is the only legitimate way to
achieve change.
"Fight in the way of God
against those who are fighting you and do not start a fight; God surely dislikes
aggressors." Since the verb "fight" is in the plural form, jihad
is a collective action based on a political decision by "mutual
consultation" (Quran 42:38). No scholar, mullah or religious leader may
"declare jihad." The grammar also excludes non-collective military
actions such as assassination, sabotage and guerrilla warfare.
The "way of God" is then
defined: "And kill them only in combat clashes, and expel them only from
where they expelled you." This outlaws the killing of non-combatants
(terrorism), prisoners of war, retreating troops or surrendering soldiers. It
also prohibits overreaching into enemy territory in the course of liberating a
country.
"And fight them until there
are no more attacks against religious groups and all religious authority is
God's alone" (Quran 2:193).
Given this clarity in the Quranic
presentation of principles, religious fanatics have to use blatant
misinterpretations to justify their causes. For example, extremists misinterpret
Verse 2:193 to mean "Fight until there is no more polytheism and all submit
to the religion of Allah (Islam)." Fanatics replace "kill them only in
combat clashes" with "kill them wherever you find them."
The Arabic language and the
context of the verses do not allow this twisting by any stretch of imagination.
But in a dictatorship without freedom of speech, such state-sponsored
mistranslations can stand unchallenged, and will be confirmed by scholars
serving the despots.
You can recognize
misinterpretations by the fact that they contradict other verses or known
principles. For example, a common mistranslation of verse 5:51 is "O you
who believe, do not take the Jews and Christians as friends (awliya)... ."
The right translation is "protectors," not "friends," and it
refers to Muslims collaborating with enemies at a time when a specific war was
going on, as 5:52 explains.
Verse 60:8 makes the general
relationship between Muslims and others crystal clear: "God does not
prohibit you from treating with utmost friendship (birr) and fairness those who
have not attacked you because of your religion or expelled you from your homes.
God loves the fair ones." The concept of "birr" is the way one
should treat parents and relatives.
The old Romans and Persians
targeted Jews and Christians within their empires. Early Muslim armies fought
against them to protect targeted religious groups. Muslims did not convert
anybody. They remained in their nearby garrisons to assure local self-rule
according to the Torah or the Gospel. Muslim "conquests" were called
"fat-h," which means "opening" or liberation. Islam spread
peacefully. That early Islamic way of life included some cherished values:
self-rule, religious freedom and pluralism.
The Quran blessed this approach:
"... and if God did not cause people to defend each other, monasteries,
churches, synagogues and mosques would have been demolished in which God's name
is often remembered" (Quran 22:40). "There should be no coercion in
religion" (Quran 2:256).
Fourteen centuries later, the
picture is reversed. Terrorist states in the old world replace the Roman and
Persian empires in oppressing people. Governments of many nations with Muslim
populations sponsor fanatic organizations that target free-thinking Muslims and
call for terrorism against Jews, Christians and others.
The terrorism of September 11
brought the battle to the United States. We are now in a combat clash with
terrorists and the states sponsoring them. The Quran gives us the right to fight
"until there are no more attacks on religious groups" here or in any
allied countries.
America's fight against terrorism
is not only justified, it is jihad.
AUTHOR'S UPDATE
June 18, 2003:
I wrote the following article soon
after the 9/11 attacks. At the time, I argued that America's response might be
considered self defense or "jihad." The passage of time has proved me wrong,
given the excesses in Afghanistan and allegations of war crimes, the unprovoked
invasion of Iraq, and the unAmerican crackdown on Muslims in the US.
Tammam Adi Ph.D is the Director of
the Islamic Cultural Center of Eugene, Oregon, USA. Originally from Syria, he is
a computational linguist specializing in Arabic.
taadi@earthlink.net
Read other articles by Tammam Adi here.
|
