A number of clerics in the Arab world and elsewhere have been so active lately to issue religious opinions or fatwas on various issues concerning TV productions, singers violating Islam, womb leasing among other issue that are, all in all, irrelevant to the serious development in our part of the world.
At one time clerics focussed on the destruction of Buddha idols by the Taliban movement and then tackled other issues including the bloodshed of the Kuwaiti number one singer Abdullah Rwaished and the children cartoon series, Pokemon.
But when it came to the Muslim and Arab principal issue, Palestine, some of them, surprisingly enough, prohibited the so-called suicide operations carried out by Palestinian fighters in the context of their legitimate resistance against the Israeli occupation. The same applies, of course, to the attacks executed by the Lebanese Resistance movements against the Israeli occupation of south Lebanon, which has not completely ended as far as the Lebanese government and people are concerned.
The Saudi mufti, Sheikh Abdul Aziz bin Abdullah Al Sheikh, considers the suicidal operations as having no grounds of legitimacy in the Islamic law, or Sharia.
“Fighting the enemy and killing him is a duty but it might be
done by other means that do not violate the Islamic Sharia,” the mufti said.
The head of the top religious authority in the kingdom says, “ there is no evidence in Sharia “ Islamic Law” I know of to legitimize such operations. I am afraid that these attacks are more of a suicide than jihad, [or holy war].”
In less that 24 hours after the fatwa was published in a London-based Arabic daily, the Israeli occupation army announced that a Palestinian exploded himself in Kfar Saba area near Tel Aviv
killing one and injuring more than forty.
The fatwa also came shortly after the Islamic Resistance Movement “Hamas” announced that it had prepared 10 of its members to die in suicide bomb attacks as a welcome reception to the Israeli Premier Sharon I a bid to blast his dreams of security.
Commenting, a Hamas leader, Mahmoud Al Zahhar told Albawaba.com that the latest Israeli polls reveal that 86 percent of the Israelis do not feel secure due to such operations.
“To be more accurate,” said Zahhar, “we can say that the whole Israeli society feels insecure.” He indicated that the suicide operations target the essence of the Israeli individual’s security, making sure that “even 1000 Sharons will not be able to guarantee security for the Israelis.”
The Islamist leader is also happy with the mortar attacks, which have given the Israeli government an excuse for large scale operations, including reoccupying parts of Gaza and demolishing dozens of Palestinian security posts in the area.
“The Holy Quran teaches us that scaring the enemy is an important step in defeating him... Our prophet says, ‘with terrorizing my enemy, I achieved a victory that can be achieved only with a one-month-march of an army.’”
“Therefore any means that can terrify the enemy is a legitimate means,” Zahhar concluded.
Rejecting the Saudi fatwa, the Hamas official pointed out that there are studies and Ph.D. dissertations that deal with “martyr operations” and legitimize them provided that they achieve their objectives or when there are no other choices to fight the enemy and force him out of the occupied lands.
“We do not describe them as suicide attackers because committing suicide is a sin in Islam. Psychologists describe suicide as running away from a crisis to death but dying as a martyr is something different,” Zahhar added -- Albawaba.com
