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that a
plane power a series of B attacks killed
more than 50 people an Indonesia state
that three Islamic militants convicted
their roles as a deadly valid
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visual controversially he found some of
them guilty controversial because from
old reiterating what we're now
Scot markets around the city the pain
and Tra of what happened on Saturday has
filled Deli residents with
Terror what I'm seeing is a lot of very
very frightened people as you know a
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hey
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in the year 610 ad on a Rocky Mountain
overlooking Mecca a 40-year-old man
named Muhammad was reflecting on the
purpose of
life after years of deep thinking and
meditation he began to receive divine
revelation
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the revelations that he received is
called Quran a Divine book which came
from the same source as the Torah sent
to Moses and the gospel which was given
to Jesus Christ the relationship between
the Quran and the previous Revelations
is that of a clarifier and explainer the
Quran comes from the same source as is
Illustrated in the Quran and even in
those previous Revelations that prophesy
the coming of Muhammad and the Quran
itself to this day the Quran continues
to be the key source of guidance for
billions of followers people from all
walks of life adopt the way of the Quran
through the example of
Muhammad because of the profound and
holistic nature of the quranic text
Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him had
the task of explaining it to his
followers and his companions and these
explanations of prophet Muhammad are
compiled in what's known as the Sunnah
the relationship between the Quran and
Sunnah is a relationship of paints to a
brush the Quran brings Universal General
colors which are painted in the lives
and hearts of people by the Sunnah of
the Prophet peace be upon him so the
Quran orders us to pray it orders us to
fast it orders us to pray charity and
the Quran even mentions fighting in the
cause of God all of those are depicted
and illustrated by the Sunnah which
paints those General universals into the
lives of people
the sunna provides guidelines needed by
Humanity for any issues that one may
face from fine aspects of life like
basic daily activities such as matters
of health and hygiene to the forming and
running of a
government what became the most
controversial of all these teachings is
a concept known as
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Jihad in today's world people from a
wide range of cultur have different
understandings about the term
Jihad the word Jihad comes from the
Arabic root J which means doing extra
effort so linguistically the word Jihad
we can say that it means striving and
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struggling the word Jihad in the Muslim
World actually carries with it a very
positive connotation I have a number of
friends uh in egyp eypt as well as other
countries their names are Jihad I even
know some small beautiful girls with
apple apple Rosy Apple cheeks their
names are Jihad and even when you go to
take an exam for example here and you're
struggling they'll tell you make Jihad
so the word Jihad actually for the the
majority of Muslims carries with it the
sense of struggle and strife against
oneself in order to improve their lot
and and draw nearer to God islamically
it has three meanings or levels the
first one is spiritual jihad inner
struggle against evil
inclinations and the pursuit of self-
purification and life of virtue you
struggle against your own ego against
your inclinations your evil inclinations
and your desires to live a better life
and to attain sincerity it encompasses
every aspect of the person's life from
being good to one's wife or husband
being good to one's children kind to
one's neighbor speaking the truth in
front of the oppressor waking up and
praying in the middle of the night all
of this is encompassed under that
internal drive that hard drive that
pushes the Muslim which is called
spiritual jihad one of the aspects of
Islam is Charity when Muslims give
charity they're supposed to keep this
between them and their creator and not
to tell anybody this is to stop them
from showing off it's very difficult not
to tell anybody for this you need
Jihad Prophet Muhammad promised Paradise
for the the person who spends in charity
with the right hand while the left hand
is unaware of it which is a metaphor for
spending in charity secretly with
sincerity in order to protect the
Integrity of one's
intention the poor people of Medina were
receiving supplies to their doors at the
darkness of the night and they did not
discover who was bringing them until he
passed away and that was IM Ali the
Great grandson of prophet Muhammad until
this day many Muslims are following the
footsteps of those great early Muslims
so profound is that experience that we
find countless examples of American
Muslims and Western Muslims and Muslims
the world over engaged in sacrifice such
selfless sacrifice to help others in
America during the Katrina hurricane I
remember when I went to Houston Texas
before the government had agreed to
subsidize people a Muslim man had
donated his his hotel free rooms for
victims of the hurricane uh Katrina that
all falls under that massive mechanism
known as Jihad onfs or spiritual jihad
the second meaning of jihad is verbal
Jihad which is saying the truth even if
it's against one's interests in some
countries when people say the truth they
can end up in
jail in many countries around the world
saying the truth is a big risk to one's
freedom or even one's
life standing for justice and saying the
truth is considered verbal
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Jihad what is the position of Islam on
this point does Islam tell you to keep
quiet to be safe no Islam tells you to
stand up for the truth enjoying what's
good and forbid what is evil even if you
are risking your life because we all
have to die and it is better to die with
dignity so that future Generations will
benefit Civil Right activists who speak
against tyranny and oppression are
actually performing verbal
Jihad uh which actually has a big impact
on the reform of any society and this is
encouraged by Prophet Muhammad in many
statements he said the best form of
jihad is the word of Truth in the
presence of a tyrant throughout his
history the greatest instrument of
change has not been weapons nuclear
bombs guns murder harming people the
greatest weapon of change has been the
tongue throughout history how many
societies how many people's lives have
been impacted by someone who had the
courage and and The Willpower to rise up
and speak the truth for that reason
Islam considers speaking the truth as
one of the greatest forms of struggle
and it is in that light if we look at
our own history that we've seen without
the tongue there would have been no
change where would the Civil Rights
Movement be if Martin Luther King had
never stood up and said Let Freedom Ring
Let Freedom Ring in that same same pulse
the Muslims are encouraged to stand up
and say Let Freedom Ring let the truth
ring and speak to power and
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oppression however when the word Jihad
is mentioned in non-muslim societies it
is not the spiritual nor the verbal type
that comes to people's minds
it is the third meaning that causes
great
concern this is combative
Jihad combative Jihad is definitely the
type of jihad which has caused the
concept itself of jihad to be by far the
most misunderstood Islamic concept
that's why we have to focus a lot on
this type of jihad the combative Jihad
and explain the reality of it to both
Muslims and non-muslims combative J had
has to be the most misunderstood subject
within the Muslim world and and with
outside outside of the Muslim world and
I think that's due to a number of
reasons number one is that people failed
to realize that the majority of rulings
that surround combative Jihad came from
the works of legal Scholars and judges
throughout history the Quran and Sunnah
laid down universals for combat but
those universals were dictated
understood and defined over time so what
might have been fitting for a certain
age is not necessarily fitting for this
age number two two is the actions of
Muslims themselves those Muslims who
have taken upon themselves to act uh uh
without any regard for human life
without respecting those principles laid
down by the Quran and Sunnah and by
Islam itself and and have actually done
more to harm the religion and Muslims
than to help them number three is the
ignorance of the media and the ignorance
of the people in general about Islam uh
I have a very good friend who works for
CNN and I asked her one time do does the
media like hate Muslims does the media
have problems with Muslims she said no
they don't know Muslims Muslims are not
out there actively engaging them and
teaching them about their religion so I
think those are three very important
factors and the fourth would be a long
history of problems between the west and
the East that really really hasn't come
to boil uh since recently with the
explosion of communications the internet
and so on those four things have really
led to a misunder understanding of jihad
use of the word Jihad has changed
dramatically during the 1980s mainstream
media label the a Jihad or jihadists as
Freedom Fighters less than two decades
later media Outlets are distorting the
meaning of jihad to describe terrorists
on the 24th of December
1979 the first divisions of the Soviet
Armed Forces crossed the amudam river
invading Afghanistan this is a callous
violation of international law and the
United Nations
Charter it is a deliberate effort of a
powerful atheistic government to
subjugate an independent Islamic people
Jihad was now declared against the
Soviet
Union in kaha 4,500 mujahadin Wag war
against 11,000 Soviet and Afghan Army
troops because of the abuse of the word
Jihad by the media and by politicians
the word Jihad became very negative in
the west actually it scares people it
makes people panic to the extent that
some young people who were arrested for
having some engagement in violence were
indited and their indictments were that
they are planning to do Jihad and this
reflects a very poor understanding of
the word in fact not only the word Jihad
was misused many words were used
contrary to their meanings for example
the word Crusade the word Crusade means
struggle against public evil but because
it was used to describe waves of
destructors and bloody
wars now it has a very negative
connotation when people hear the word
Crusade the only thing that jumps to
their minds is greed
destruction uh occupation that's why it
is our role now to go out to whole to
the whole world and explain the reality
of the concept of jihad
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the definition of terrorism has been
contentious for many
years in September 2005 150 world
leaders met at the United Nations to
Define
terrorism but after 2 days the summit
ended without agreeing upon a
definition it is a different case in the
academic Community where many scholars
of political sciences and and professors
of international law have a clear
definition of
terrorism Robert Pape an American
Political Science professor at Chicago
university has written two books on
terrorism dying to win and bombing to
win terrorism from my point of view uh
is probably the ordinary uh use of the
word terrorism which is the uh killing
of Innocents for a political cause uh by
killing innocence I'm mean civilians or
off-duty policemen uh by a political
cause uh I mean getting U uh the
intention to get those people to change
their political Behavior Uh say uh
surrender a piece of territory that
they're holding on to uh or to otherwise
change their form of
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government Philipe Sans a professor of
international law at the University
College of London and also the author of
two important books Lawless world and
torture team I think my general
understanding of terrorism is that it is
an act which is intended to instill fear
in the population of civilians that's
the essential difference between a
lawful act and an unlawful act and
lawful act in times of armed conflict
basically says you can Target military
operations what you can never do is
Target civilians and once you start
intentionally targeting civilians you
cross a line into illegality into
criminality and in some cases depending
on the nature of the ACT its extent its
purpose uh its design you cross a line
from ordinary criminality uh into
terrorism but drawing those lines is
never easy so if targeting
non-combatants in order to force a
political agenda is the clear definition
of terrorism then why is it that the
United Nations Summit failed to Define
it as such whenever I hear that um
there's a discrepancy with how the UN or
another political body has defined
terrorism versus how Scholars tend to
Define terrorism what I think
immediately is that politics have come
into the issue that is that states are
essentially trying to defend what they
believe are their own national interests
and not wanting to uh agree to a
definition in which some one could claim
oh you violated the norm uh and so what
I think is happening is that we
shouldn't really be expecting a
political body such as the UN to come
together to have a clean definition of
terrorism gunar Westberg a Swedish
doctor and co-president of the Nobel
Peace Prize winning International
Physicians for the prevention of nuclear
war well everybody knows what terrorism
is but they know different things so
they couldn't agree uh some of the
countries wanted State repression
against political groups as terrorists
to be called terrorists others did not
want that so because of this
disagreement they couldn't sign any
document they did not fail to Define
terrorism but rather they did not want
to for this would be an indictment on
many of them governments have been
trying to Define terrorism for 50 years
and every time they get to a point where
there will be disagreement because one
person's act uh which might be
characterized in the eyes of some as an
act to uh stop oppression or colonialism
or aparte or discrimination and which is
an act in order to free that particular
person will be seen by another person as
a terrorist act and of course there is
also the question of whether or not acts
of war and wanton violence when large
numbers of people are killed uh by
attacks in various part of the world
using very sophisticated military means
have consequences which are in the eyes
of some analogous to terrorist acts so
States I think are never going to agree
what states can agree on if they can't
agree on what terrorism is is they can
agree and they have agreed that there
are certain things that no one can do in
any circumstances you can never Target
civilians that is the golden Central
rule once you cross that line once you
break that rule you expose yourself to
the risk of criminal responsibility
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throughout the past two decades there
has been a growing trend of connecting
Muslim people to
terrorism increasingly after an act of
terrorism the default reaction around
the world has been to suspect Muslim
people there is a number of erroneous
statements that are often made by people
in the media in the
west one is to say that not all Muslims
are terrorists we agree but all
terrorists are Muslims
uh this is a very misleading statement
and factually it is not
correct uh Muslims even those who devate
from Islam who committed acts of Terror
were not the first to do it nor the
majority of people who got involved in
this kind of operation not just Muslims
are terrorists uh there are Christian
terrorists there are secular terrorists
there are Jewish terrorists there are
Muslim terrorists there are Hindu
terrorists and of course there are many
many more of all of those people and all
sorts of other people who are not
terrorists it's a very uh simplistic
approach I suppose that I'm taking but
it would be quite wrong to ascribe the
category of terrorist to any particular
group at any point ever that would be
quite wrong terrorism has been there for
an enormously long time and I think it
will always be there and I don't even
see that Muslims are the main
perpetrators if we look at the world
Hindus are doing enormous amount of of
um terrorists for instance and uh in
Europe we had all kinds of political
groups who strongly influenced the
politics of the country through their
violent acts terrorism goes back since
time immemorial uh as defined as I've
defined it or as even the 1997
convention uh defines it we have uh
examples uh in Britain I grew up as a
child in London when my mother wouldn't
allow me to go shopping uh in the center
of town because a group known as the
Irish Republican Army the IRA uh who
happened to be Catholics uh were bombing
the center of London that those were
terrorist
acts we know that in the 1940s in
Palestine and what is now Israel uh
Jewish groups used terrorist uh methods
to instill fear uh in a local population
and against uh the British terrorism is
not a discriminatory concept um
terrorism doesn't look at a person's uh
ethnicity Identity or nationality well
it's absurd to think that only Muslim
people uh can be terrorists uh terrorism
is not uh gender it is not nationality
it is surely not religion uh there are
Christians who commit terrorist acts
there are Hindus who commit terrorist
acts uh there are Jews who commit
terrorist act uh terrorist
again it has uh its definition has
nothing to do with those kind of
things in 1994 barouch Goldstein killed
29 Muslims and injured more than 150
others while they were prostrating in
prayer at the ibraimi mosque in
Palestine Goldstein was a New York born
Jewish Israeli and a member of the
Jewish Defense League a militant Jewish
Oran organization founded by Rabbi Mayer
Kahana in 1995 Timothy McVey a member of
the Oklahoma based Christian group
Elohim City bombed an office complex in
downtown Oklahoma killing at least 168
Americans and injuring nearly
700 Elohim City established its Church
in the 1950s and was most frequented by
members of the Christian identity
a group that believe that non-caucasian
people have no souls and can therefore
never earn God's favor or be
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saved in 2001 a group of Muslims that
have come to be known as Al-Qaeda
claimed responsibility for hijacking
four planes and flying them into US
civilian and Military targets
an estimated 3,000 people were killed
most of them in the World Trade Center
in Manhattan New
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York what's the root cause of terrorism
I I have thought long and hard about
this and uh I think there are many
examples one can think of uh in which
one has
seen that the root cause of a terrorist
act has a political
objective which perhaps many people will
sympathize with uh and it's always a
very difficult issue separating out what
the
underlying rationale and purpose of the
ACT is and then how the struggle is
carried out the kind of terrorism that
we're seeing today I believe is often a
response to oppression people are
responding to feeling being oppressed
and one of the things people do when
they get oppressed is they feel closed
down at some point you get this
explosion is boiling over of anger
feelings of Injustice feeling of being
uh not part of the larger group and they
act out and and since they can't defeat
it by itself they often time use
terrorist Acts terrorism is a uh form of
violence much like cancer that it comes
in many many different forms and we know
we have lung cancers we have blood
cancers we have skin cancers uh and
they're not all caused by the same
things uh and uh they don't affect the
same individuals the same way so why
would we think if all cancer doesn't
have a single cause why would we think
terrorism has a single cause well I
don't and so I studied the most virent
form of terrorism ISM suicide terrorism
suicide terrorism kills more people than
any other form of terrorism uh much like
lung cancer kills more people than any
other form of cancer and suicide
terrorism also has a specific risk
factor associated with it uh much like
lung cancer in the case of lung cancer
it's smoking in the case of suicide
terrorism it's foreign occupation
foreign occupation more than religion
more than poverty more than any other
cause is the leading risk factor in
producing suicide
terrorism while politicians have
constantly promoted the notion that the
root causes of terrorism are mainly
ignorance and poverty Dr Robert Pape
wrote in his book dying to win that over
95% of suicide bombings throughout the
world had the same strategic objective
and that is to compel foreign Armed
Forces to with drawing from their
country the book is essential academic
research on suicide bombings Dr Pape
established that the probability of
having a suicide bomber amongst any
people increases 11 times over if their
country falls under foreign
occupation very often if you dig away at
the root causes of uh areas and parts of
the world world where violent conflict
has erupted where terrorist activity has
taken place and it goes back to time in
Memorial one sees at the heart of this
very often uh issues not just of poverty
most likely my view not of ignorance but
of a sense also of Injustice at some
wrong that has been done and that is
continuing over time that is not being
addressed in my opinion it's Injustice
humiliation oppression that is all the
most common causes of terrorism some
people claim that religion motivates
terrorists however the academic research
of Dr Robert Pape has proved the claim
to be
false uh what I did is I collected the
first complete database of every suicide
terrorist attack around the world since
1980 uh the first version of this
database uh was uh uh published uh a few
years ago and it went from 1980 to
2003 think of that as like the pre
database and then the second version
from
2004 uh on think of that as the data
that's happened since Iraq um and what
the data shows quite clearly is that uh
the principal cause of suicide terrorism
is foreign occupation in that period
from 1980 to 2003 there were
315 completed suicide terrorist attacks
by
462 suicide terrorists who actually
killed killed themselves I don't mean
attempts these are people who actually
killed themselves the world leader
during that 24-year period was not an
Islamic group at all there are the toml
Tigers in Sri Lanka the toml tigers are
a Marxist group a secular group a Hindu
group in fact over half of those 462
suicide attackers were purely secular
because you see many uh Muslim suicide
terrorist groups are also P purely
secular such as the pkk in Turkey the
pkk in Turkey which did uh numerous
suicide attacks in the 1990s uh is again
a Marxist read
anti-religious suicide terrorist group
because you see if Islam as a sort of a
radical religion or if it were just
radical Muslims uh doing this then what
you would expect is sort of this thin
veneer of suicide attack kind of
scattered all around around the world uh
you would expect that oh there's 1.4
billion Muslims you know there's this
teeny tiny Fringe of Muslims kind of
everywhere who'd be willing to do
suicide attack uh but that's not the way
the data looks it's really concentrated
and it's really concentrated in
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occupations if the definition of
terrorism is targeting innocent
civilians to force a political agenda
than then a close closer look at history
reveals the troubling fact that
governments have been engaging in
terrorism one of the reasons that states
have never been able to agree in the
context of United Nations negotiations
on the definition of terrorism is it's
never been possible to find a form of
Words which excludes the possibility
that states could in some way
participate in Terrorist Act in short of
course States can be engaged in
terrorism if a state places an explosive
or uses military force in a random way
harming civilians as part of a political
objective it may well meet the
definition of terrorism in that 1997
convention uh terrorism has been
practiced by both governments and
militants uh in fact before I did my
work on terrorism I spent 15 years
studying air power uh I wrote book
called bombing to win which looked at
all the uses of air Power by States from
World War I through uh the first Gulf
War over 40 cases uh major cases of air
power uh uh in all and in many of those
cases air power was used by states to
bomb civilians in the hope that bombing
those civilians would produce political
outcomes in fact that's often called
Terror bombing because it's a form of
terrorism as the second world war
continued to expand the deliberate
bombing of cities and civilian
populations by both the access and the
Allied Powers increased
significantly this was known as
strategic bombing and was used as a
psychological weapon to break the
enemy's will to fight to decrease its
industrial production and to push the
civilian populations to revolt against
their
regimes the Strategic aial bombardment
in the European theater claimed the
lives of over 60,000 British civilians
and over 300,000 German
civilians doubt about the effectiveness
of bombing civilians in a conflict comes
from the fact that despite the bombing
of German cities the country's
industrial production increased
throughout the
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war when you bomb civilians um it tends
uh to uh almost always uh congee feel
the support of the civilians against you
that is the civilians come to hate you
they come to see you as uh evil
incarnate um we may tell ourselves or
the British may tell themselves they're
they're the good ones here and Hitler is
the evil one but uh who's killing
300,000 German civilians here you see
what I mean uh so the uh German
civilians are very much hating the
British causing them to fight on and uh
make much greater sacrifices than they
otherwise would and in fact to support
Hitler in doing doing some of the
nastiest things Hitler was doing at the
time um so that what's What's Happening
Here is that this is backfiring in just
about every way
imaginable on Monday the 6th of August
1945 after 6 months of intense
firebombing of 67 Japanese cities a
atomic bomb dubbed little boy was
dropped on the city of Hiroshima
followed 3 Days Later by the detonation
of a second bomb named the fat man over
Nagasaki
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as many as 140,000 Japanese civilians
were killed as a result of the initial
blast and within weeks the death toll
increased to 250,00 as a result of
radiation
sickness within 5 years the death tll
exceeded half a million as resulting
cancer and other long-term effects took
hold these are to date the only attacks
with nuclear weapons in the history of
humanity during World War II the Nazi
regime committed a horrific genocide
killing civilians of non- Arian
ethnicities throughout
Europe millions of Jews polish
ukrainians belarusians Russians Gypsies
and trade unionists were prosecuted and
killed in 1948 50 years after Theodore
herel established the first Zionist
Congress the state of Israel came to
being imposed on the land of Palestine
from this declaration onwards using
weapons recognized internationally as
inhumane and illegal the Israeli troops
carried out systematic persecution
assassination and mass killing of
Palestines including
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children tens of thousands of innocent
Arabs were killed and more than 5
million became homeless most of them
became refugees in neighboring
countries this is called State terrorism
for me terrorism is when innocent
civilians are targeted no matter who
targeted them whether killed by
so-called militants or government
military forces it is a crime and an act
of
terrorism where's the case where where's
the case where bombing civilians with
conventional bombs has actually won a
war we don't have very many maybe one
maybe two out of 40 50 instances that's
not very much and even those are
probably uh apocryphal probably not true
when we look at these cases as I said 40
cases from World War I to 19 the 1991
Gulf War many involving air power
against civilians we find no instances
of that air power actually causing those
civilians to abandon control of
territory or to rise up and produce a
popular revolt against their own
government in other words it's not just
that bombing civilians is immoral it's
ineffective and that's a key message
because many people believe that in war
we should kind of put morality aside and
we should do what works well if bombing
civilians doesn't work
then what is the case for
[Applause]
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B after the call to Islam became public
Prophet Muhammad and his followers
endured 13 years of torture and
persecution simply because they were
inviting the idol worshipping tribes in
Arabia to worship God Alone
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the perseverance and passive resistance
displayed by the Muslims showed a great
level of self-control and Inner
Strength it was not only the weak
Companions and slaves who were subject
to attacks at the hands of the meccans
also companion of prophet Muhammad from
upper classes were not spared from one
form of persecution or another like Abu
Bakr who nearly died when he was beaten
badly one day it is worthy mentioning
that the very first martyr in Islam was
not a man at all but a woman lady Sumaya
who was jabbed with a spear by Abu Jah
one of the leaders of quray which proves
that even women were not spared from
persecution and killing to really
appreciate the suffering and sacrifice
of the early Muslims one would just
really need to look at some of the the
the historical narrations about what
happened in Mecca during those days we
talk about an embargo we're not only
talking about an economic embargo we're
talking about an embargo that had
affected family relations social
relations friends relatives affected the
economic situation of the Muslims
affected their religious freedoms and
political freedoms it was an embargo
that encompassed the entire community
and we look back at some of the reports
we find people saying that they ate
grass some of the Muslims like s ABI
wakas he actually ate grass to survive
he had no food we read the reports about
children who were crying and screaming
who had no food and Muslims would go to
to to their brothers markets fellow
non-muslims and be refused to be sold
food even though the food was right
there in front of them so this was not
only an economic uh embargo but also a
spiritual embargo a social embargo and
most importantly a mental embargo which
was designed to shake the Muslim
Community from their faith to avoid
getting captured by the meccans most
Muslims had to immigrate secretly under
the cover of the night leaving behind
all what they had of properties and
memories in Medina 14 years after the
beginning of the prophet's Mission a
revelation came from God permitting the
Muslims to fight
back permission was not given to them
for more than 14 years despite all of
the killing of victims and the suffering
they endured because their hearts were
not yet ready to perform Jihad the Quran
gave permission to the Muslims to engage
in combat with their persecutors for the
first
time the Quran says permission to fight
back is given to those who are being
fought because they have been wronged
and indeed God is all able to give them
Victory this verse is clear in defining
combative Jihad this combative Jihad is
in response to aggression and oppression
and seeks to establish justice
which is a supreme goal not only in
Islamic teachings but in every
civilization establishing Justice is a
supreme goal if you lose your Homeland
well Islam is encouraging Muslims to
fight back and regain their freedom a
lot of discussions and a lot of
differences over why Muslims fight what
justifies a Muslim to carry arms against
others as a convert to Islam definitely
um that was a question that I had in in
recent years due to the events that we
seen all over the world and the
tragedies and and and killing of the
Innocents I really had to do some soul
searching I was blessed to come and
study in lar University here in Egypt
and my fourth year of studies here uh we
actually studied an entire course on
Jihad and in that book it clearly
clearly states that the reason why
Muslims fight is not because they're
fighting people who don't believe in
Islam but that Muslims can fight even
Muslims if there is a situation where
Injustice is being perpetrated against
them so the main reason for fighting in
Islam according to that text which was
written by a number of Scholars as well
as the majority of classical Muslim
jurists is to repel
Injustice Muslim Scholars throughout
history explain the rulings of Comba of
jihad depending on the two primary
sources of Islamic legislation the Quran
and the
Sunnah the teachings of prophet Muhammad
mainly focused on two things
when it is allowed to go for combat and
if you go for combat the dos and don'ts
in combat according to the Quran
especially in chapter 22 in verses 39 to
40 one ground for Jihad is to protect
places of worship such as monasteries
synagogues churches and mosques the
Quran says for had God not decreed to
repel some people by means of others
demolition would certainly have come to
many monasteries churches synagogues and
mosques in which the name of God is much
mentioned in
Praise another reason for Jihad is
failure to establish justice through
peaceful means combative Jihad is
allowed
only if the establishment or restoration
of Justice through peaceful means has
failed
the Quran says yet if they incline to
peace then you should also incline to it
this is one of the main rulings in Islam
that Muslims cannot perform combative
Jihad if their enemy wants peace and of
course Peace doesn't mean just cease
fire peace means cease fire we are
returning back your rights so that was
crystal clear in the Quran and in the
Sunnah of prophet Muhammad peace be upon
him that Muslims should try try to
establish justice through all possible
peaceful means and if this happens then
Allah is opening no way for them to
fight the Quran says therefore if they
withdraw from you and fight not against
you and offer you peace then Allah
Accords you no lawful way to fight
against them peace always comes as the
first option in Islam one of the
chapters of the Quran is called Alat in
Arabic which means the Manifest Victory
and it starts like that surely we have
granted you a manifest Victory and guess
what this victory was not in any battle
this victory was a peace treaty called
alud peace treaty so what do you think
about a book that calls a peace treaty a
manifest Victory is this book promoting
peace or War amongst the prophet's
teachings was the direction not to Crave
conflict he he said oh people do not
look forward to meeting your enemies in
battle and ask Allah to spare you from
war but if you meet them in battle then
stand
firm the right of a people to resist
occupation by a foreign army is proving
to be a powerful Catalyst for many
contrasting arguments in today's
world one main Reon reason for combative
Jihad specifically called meaning
fighting is legitimate self-defense to
stop aggression another reason for Jihad
is to resist occupation one of the worst
crimes that can occur to an oppressed
people is the stealing and The Taking of
their land and property nearly in every
ideology the right of the oppressed
people to stand up for their rights and
fight the occupier is
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recognized Islam encourages Muslims to
resist occupation which is in fact
considered to be a form of enslavement
this is clearly unacceptable and
humiliating for the occupied
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people resisting occupation is
considered a duty and an essential human
right in many cultures
emilano Zapata a leading figure in the
Mexican Revolution said it is better to
die on your feet than live on your
knees one of the the groups of mujahid
were the founding fathers of the United
States of America who stood up against
oppression who resisted tyranny but no
one charged them with terrorism the same
can also be said about the French who
are great mujahedin in the face of
Hitler and the Nazis
among the founding fathers of the United
States of America and one of the most
prominent figures in the American
Revolution is Patrick Henry he said Give
me liberty or give me
death no one can blame the founding
fathers of the United States of America
in fighting and resisting for the sake
of freedom also no one can blame the
French for resisting and fighting the
Nazis it's common sense I think people
have the right to resist occupation in a
violent way under some circumstances uh
I think those circumstances held in the
case of the American Revolution um and
uh created the uh what became the United
States um I think that uh the
circumstances are where the uh foreign
government the foreign occupier are
abusing the population uh and where
there's a fairly broad consensus among
um the um uh the local population and
the leaders of the local population that
that is in fact
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occurring the United States was founded
on uh uh a revolution uh it was a right
of the people to uh uh overthrow an
abusive government um this was something
that was uh enshrined in our Declaration
of Independence uh uh this is what the
Declaration is all is all
about in occupied territories is plain
there are going to be a community of
individuals who are going to resist the
occupation uh whether you talk about
occupation during the second world war
or occupation in more recent times there
are going to be circumstances in which a
great number of people are going to
consider that some form of resistance is
lawful and legitimate and Justified the
question is what are the limits in law
on what you can do and it comes back
again to these very simple principles
that I keep saying it May well be
permissible to Target through Force
Through violence military objectives but
what you can't ever do is expose
civilian populations to the threat or to
the use of force once you do that even
in a situation of occupation or unlawful
domination you are crossing a line just
as a state crosses a line when it ever
uses violent Weaponry against civilian
targets
to serve their hidden agenda some people
wrongly present verses of the Quran in
order to deceive those who don't have
sufficient knowledge of
Islam take for example uh some people
say how come Muslims are having in their
book fight in the cause of Allah they
should have love in the cause of Allah
like other religions but again the same
immoral cut and paste game is played
against Muslims the verse actually says
fight in the cause of Allah those who
fight against you but they don't
continue the verse and they take the
words out of context playing this game
always against us the Quran says and
fight in the cause of God those who
fight against you but begin not
hostilities indeed God does not love
Those who commit aggression a major
problem within the Muslim Community is
as well as outside of it is what I call
drive-thru jurists or cutand paste
jurists those people whether they're
Muslims or not who take splice up verses
edit them you know add a little to or
maybe even give it a little you know a
cut and paste job here in there and
present verses and statements of the
Prophet peace be upon him either which
are not complete or out of context using
those verses using those statements of
the Prophet to justify EG's actions some
people say how how come Muslims are
having in their book kill them wherever
you find them as if the Quran is only
encouraging Muslims to kill non-muslims
as if Muslims should walk with two
machine guns to kill non-muslims
wherever they find them but they are
playing the same immoral cut and paste
game if you read the verse as a whole it
says kill them wherever you find them
and drive them out from where they drove
you out this verse is telling Muslims to
fight their occupiers and regain back
the freedom of their
Homeland one of the clearest proofs that
combative Jihad is only to establish
justice is that it is allowed for
Muslims to launch Jihad against Muslims
too if they are the transgressing party
and this is not my own opinion this is
the very words of the Quran it's very
clear in the Quran that if Muslims are
oppressors they can be fought against so
it doesn't matter who's Muslim and who's
not but what matters is who's an
oppressor and who's
oppressed and if two groups of the
Believers fight amongst themselves then
reconcile between them both but if one
of them Rebels against the other then
fight you all against the one that which
Rebels until it complies with the
command of Allah and if it complies then
make reconcil ation between them justly
a powerful verse which illustrates the
profound sense of justice in Islam and
it clearly expresses that Muslims are
not ordered to fight people of other
Faith simply because they share a
different faith in Muslims but it
illustrates that Muslims are ordered to
fight against oppression wherever it
comes from and
evil what's interesting historically
when when you look at the early Muslim
conquests as people like to call them I
mean even in prayer when we start our
prayer that's called a conquest so
Muslims are not looking at the conquest
in a sense of only a military Victory
but when they entered those countries
people greeted them and welcomed them
they did not rise up against them in
fact some of them even sent letters to
the Muslim leader saying come invade the
country we'll help you uh and help us to
relieve this yoke of Oppression from our
necks so it's very rare to find that
there was a wide resistance against the
occupying armies of the Muslims during
the seventh and the 8th century when
Muslims fought against the Roman
byzantines and the Persians they were
rarely faced by any civil resistance in
fact many civilians joined the Muslim
armies and fought against the Romans and
the Persians themselves John the bishop
of niku an Egyptian Coptic historian was
an eyewitness to the Muslim Army's
conquest of Egypt he wrote in his
Chronicles that the Egyptian Aryans
joined the Muslims in besieging the
Roman soldiers in the Babylon
Fortress the emerging Muslim Community
under the leadership of prophet Muhammad
was surrounded by two of the greatest
civilizations known in the history of
mankind the Roman byzantines and the
Persians despite histories of
achievement in the service of humanity
civilian populations were ravaged by War
and suffered Mass genocide at their
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hands innocent civilians were raped and
killed cities were looted plundered and
put Ablaze in Wars at that time at the
hands of the Romans and the Persians
like in salamis kage rhus and Sardis and
in many other places Islam did not allow
combat except after putting regulations
on it there is a code of combat in
Islam Prophet Muhammad taught his
followers to observe a strict code of
War he strongly emphasized the
protection of civilians and their
property as well as aiding them through
the difficult times after
conflict when we talk about the prophets
teaching in in in its relation
relationship to Jihad there are two
important points that we need to make
one we've already made when it is
allowable for a Muslim to fight that was
clarified earlier but secondly this is
not like some type of WWF Anarchist
approach towards fighting the prophet
peace be upon him as well as the Quran
uh laid out very specific examples and
rules for the one who's engaged in
combat because combat is one of the most
hated words in Islam in fact people
would come to the prophet and say that
the name their son wore and the prophet
would say change your son's name combat
is not something that's like by people
so definitely has to come with rules
because the ability for people to
oppress and harm others is great in
combat so number one the prophet forbid
us very clearly not to kill people from
other Faith religious leaders of other
faiths number one to harm the old
elderly people to harm those people who
unarmed to harm children to harm any
innocent civilian is clearly forbidden
in Islam in fact some of the prophetic
narrations about uh killing the innocent
and warning doing so have reached the
status of what's called which means so
many people narrated those statements of
the Prophet peace be upon him that
there's no room for doubt there's no
room for questioning them and the Muslim
is bound to act on them or he goes
outside of what's called war and becomes
known as what's known as a
terrorist the controversy over what to
account as legitimate Act of war or a
good act of jihad versus what must be
considered a vicious Act of terrorism
has created an atmosphere of confusion
which some have used to their
advantage there seemed to be a great
mixup between martyrdom in a sense of
self-sacrifice something which is
regarded as a Noel act by all armies all
over the world people who sacrificed
their life and are you know praised as
heroes or Freedom Fighters on one hand
even if that requires
self-sacrifice and between acts of
Terror with people who are misled to
believe that this is martydom in other
words there are acts that are
islamically acceptable as true martyrdom
that are called terrorist activities and
there are also acts that are basically
terroristic acts and violate the
teachings of Islam that some people call
it Jihad or martyrdom that confusion
must be
removed the rules of international law
on methods and means of warfare it's
known as International humanitarian law
it places very strict limits you
distinguish between combatants and
non-combatants combatants are a
legitimate Target
non-combatants are not a legitimate
Target and those rules are now codified
in a set of instruments that were
negotiated and concluded in 1949 the
Geneva conventions there are four Geneva
conventions supplemented by two
protocols in
1977 and the rules in Geneva to a very
large extent reflect what's called
custom International that's to say they
are binding on everyone on all states on
All actors on non-governmental entities
as well
among the teachings of Islam is that no
one can be fought except a combatant and
this is one of the main rulings of the
code of combat in Islam which is stated
clearly in various verses of the Quran
and the statements made by Prophet
Muhammad peace be upon
him the Quran says and fight in the
cause of God those who fight against you
but begin not
hostilities indeed God does not love
Those who commit
aggression by saying fight those who
fight you the verse is clearly putting a
limitation on fighting to be directed
only against combatants who took arms
against Muslims and started hostilities
violating the Islamic ethical code of
combat such as targeting non-combatant
or fighting an unjust War disqualifies
it as Jihad killing civilians on 9/11
cannot be justified in Islam what
happened 77 cannot be justified in Islam
bombing civilians in Hiroshima and
Nagasaki can also not be justified in
Islam innocent civilians are innocent
civilians we don't have something called
collateral damage in Islam collateral
damage could show up on the day of
judgment and speak against you a child
an innocent woman an innocent man an old
person so we have to really clarify this
point for people and and and have to
actively address Muslims who carry those
ideas too that the killing of Innocents
the killing of innocent civilians is an
issue of violating a treaty which is a
form of hypocrisy and lying which are
from some of the major sins uh in Islam
so by killing an innocent person not
only are you bringing upon yourself the
major sin of murder you're bringing on
yourself the major sin of hypocrisy as
well as forgery and lying
even though the Islamic rulings are
clear as to the prohibition of targeting
non-combatants some Muslim Fanatics who
fail to comprehend the rulings of jihad
have been involved in terrorism less
than two decades after the death of
prophet Muhammad fanaticism appeared
amongst a group of Muslims known as the
karage or kites
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shortly after the death of prophet
Muhammad peace be upon him a group
called theage surfaced and their primary
function was destruction killing and
Chaos disregarding the quranic
injunction that ordered people to
respect the sanctity of the Soul Prophet
Muhammad peace be upon Him foretold the
appearance of fanaticism amongst some
Muslims he spoke about their
characteristics
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Prophet Muhammad explained that the
problem was not that their intentions
were corrupt but rather it was their
understanding of the religion that was
not
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sound he said each of you would consider
his own prayers and fasting
insignificant compared to their prayers
and fasting they would recite the Quran
but it would not go any deeper than
their throats they would leave the
religion just as the arrow exits from
the other side of the
pray sins in Islam are of two types
major sins and minor sins killing is
among the major sins it's a major sin to
kill in Islam to the extent that killing
one innocent soul is equal to the
killing of all
mankind the Quran says whoever kills a
person except in punishment for the
killing of another person or for the
spreading of dire corruption in the
earth it shall be reckoned as though he
has killed all humankind and whoever
Saves a Life it shall be reckoned as
though he has saved the life of all
humankind Prophet Muhammad peace be upon
Him alluded to the graveness of the
crime of murder when he said a faithful
believer remains at Liberty regarding
his religion unless he kills somebody
unlawfully
because of the Prophet Muhammad's
teachings that murder is a major sin and
a vicious and evil crime violent
ideologies like that of alage never
found a good medium to propagate in the
Muslim world except in the past few
decades this is a phenomenon worthy of
studying the ideology of the karage
reemerged during the past few decades
similarly the Contemporary extremist
incorrectly interpret konic text to
justifying the killing of
civilians the birth of the kar uh really
provides an archetype for Muslims to
constantly compare uh those groups who
claim or take a stake in
authenticity and and when we look at the
kage we see a few common traits number
one is hyper literalism there is no con
concept of analogy no concern for
context of text the verse is what it is
the meanings of the words are as they
are and there's no deep uh investigation
into the reasons and objectives behind
religious text number two is a a fetish
for standing up against religious
scholarship discrediting the role of
Scholars the guidance of Scholars number
three is looking at Society in general
whether Muslim or non-muslim in a very
very negative way in apocalyptic fashion
and interestingly enough many of these
traits are shared amongst groups like Ka
as well as some of the more Fringe
neoconservative groups in North America
who for example have called for the
death of our President Obama uh some of
them are supplicating in churches asking
for his demise these type of traits
Muslims look at them and are reminded of
that devastating historical historical
epic that uh we encounter when we dealt
with the karage F Solan a Muslim who has
dedicated his life to educating
non-muslims on Islam and to Der
radicalizing Muslim youth who may have
fallen under the influence of
self-appointed leaders challenged their
ideology we have our own law the law of
God who says in his
book and if you punish let your
punishment be proportionate to the wrong
that has been done to you in fact they
debated with me saying according to this
verse in the Quran we are allowed to
kill their Innocents and their civilians
as they killed our Innocents and our
civilians in Iraq in Afghanistan in
Kashmir so he said but they did not only
kill our civilians they also raped our
women in Bosnia if you think that the
verse is actually allowing you to
respond to them in the same way you were
harmed why don't you go and rap their
women they said no we don't do that I
said why not don't you think that the
verse is allowing you to do this they
said no rape is an illegal sexual act I
said therefore the verse is not General
this verse is equal to the one in the
Old Testament an eye for an eye and a
tooth for a tooth which also exists in
the Quran which means that simply if
someone blew up one eye for you you
cannot blow up both his eyes if someone
damag one tooth for you you cannot go
and damage all his 32 teeth one eye and
one tooth do not trans scess your limits
but still you cannot rape women even if
your enemy did you cannot kill
non-combatant civilians even if your
enemy did or you would be exactly like
them the Old Testament says fracture for
fracture eye for eye tooth for tooth
whatever injury he has given a person
shall be given to
him the Quran says now in it we
prescribed for them a life for a life
and an eye for an eye and a nose for a
nose and an ear for an ear and a tooth
for a tooth and retribution for wounds
yet whoever would forego this out of
Charity then it will be taken as an
atonement for the one who has suffered
injury
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in the last few years incidents
involving the abuse torture and
dehumanizing of prisoners of War exposed
by leaked pictures and eyewitness
accounts have caused outrage around the
world some guilty officers and wardens
were tried and sentenced to jail whilst
the real criminals have not been brought
to
Justice and common article 3 basically
says that when you have detainee
irrespective of who they are
irrespective of whether they're a
prisoner of war a combatant or
non-combatant you have to treat them
with Humanity you cannot uh impose
outrages against their dignity you
cannot abuse them you cannot be cruel to
them you cannot torture them and that is
a bottom line rule that applies at all
times and in all circumstances and
reflects General international law that
is well established in what you've
called the code of uh combatants uh in
international law it's of often not
respected but it provides a benchmark
against which one decides whether or not
an act or a form of treatment is
legitimate and lawful or not the central
thing I think to focus on if we want to
limit these kind of violations is not
Tighter and Tighter Rules by
International lawyers to uh circumsised
States we've got to cut directly to the
reason why states are doing it they're
doing it because they believe they'll
get an advantage do they actually get an
advantage I'm thinking of studying
torture I don't believe torture provides
much of any real Advantage so what's the
case for
torture many practices that are contrary
to human rights are being increasingly
Justified as means to obtain important
intelligence and to fight the war on
terror in
general unsurprisingly this is resulted
in much International and domestic
debate over the effectiveness of these
methods
the Islamic perspective on this matter
however is Crystal
Clear Muslims are not allowed to torture
or dehumanize prisoners of War
irrespective of how they are designated
it is rule number two in the Islamic
code of combat prisoners of War are not
to be be killed or tortured this rule is
solidly established and it was clearly
observed during numerous incidents
during the prophet's
time after the Muslims were forced to
immigrate from Mecca to Medina an armed
conflict began between the Muslims and
the tribe of quray which lasted more
than 8 years known as the Battle of bet
this was the first in a field of battles
that took place between the Muslims and
their enemies
in the year 624 ad a small poorly
prepared Army of 3177 Muslims met a
heavily supplied Army of 1,000 meccan
idolators the night before the battle
took place an intelligent unit of three
Companions of the Prophet arrested two
men who were bringing water from the
army of Kash the prophet's wisdom shown
in his chosen method to extract
information from them it is a clear
display of the high standard of morality
to be implemented when dealing with
prisoners of
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War during one of the battles the
prophet Muhammad peace be upon Him
criticized his companions for beating
two prisoners of war in an attempt to
obtain some information this was an
immoral act and in torturing the
Prisoners the information was also
unreliable the the prophet peace be upon
him had a different approach to the
situation he simply asked the two
prisoners how many cam do you Slaughter
every day they said some days nine
camels some days 10
camels he looked at his companions and
he said then the Army is between 900 and
1,000 as one camel feeds 100 men the
prophet's technique in obtaining
information during war was far removed
from any violence or dehumanization of
prisoners of War Muslims are not allowed
to torture prisoners of War physically
or even psychologically the prophet
Muhammad peace be upon Him blame one of
his companions for walking some
prisoners of War along a path where they
saw their dead before the burial he said
oh Bal don't you have mercy in your
heart in fact Islamic teachings go even
further in encouraging good treatment
for prisoners of war the Quran describes
it as an expression of love for
God the Quran says and out of love for
Allah they feed the poor the orphan and
the prisoner of
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war in 630 ad the prophet Muhammad LED
an army of 10,000 Muslims till that day
it was the biggest army army ever to
march in Arabia they marched towards
Mecca which was to surrender to him
peacefully without a single blow of
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conflict for more than 20 years the
people of Mecca caused nothing but
hardship for the prophet they persecuted
him and his followers while they were in
Mecca and uh they waged Wars against
them after their migration to Medina
people usually accept you know peace
treaties when they're unable to sway
a battle in their favor the prophet
peace Pon when he comes into Mecca he
comes in now as the Dominator as the guy
in charge if he wants to be but how does
he come in with humility with
Tranquility with forgiveness with an
open heart it's almost unbelievable to
see someone that that that could act in
this fashion towards people who killed
his uncles who persecuted him who who
who embargoed him who treated him with
such such such evil uh uh
that he comes back and says what to
these prisoners of War he says whoever
wants to be safe let them go to the
house of Abu sufyan Abu sufyan was the
greatest enemy of the Prophet so this is
a historical moment which Muslims have
to reflect on from that time to the end
of time on how Muslims should treat
their adversaries in
war the meccans gathered and the prophet
mercifully asked them what do you think
I will do with you with fear in their
hearts and Tears in their eyes they said
you are a noble brother and a noble
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nephew Prophet Muhammad announced a
universal pardon he said no reproach
upon you this day may Allah forgive you
and their lives were spared and their
homes and properties remained in their
possession 500 years later Salah Al Dean
a Muslim leader would follow in the
footsteps of Prophet Muhammad in dealing
with prisoners of war after defeating
his enemies in one of the bloodiest
battles of all time
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some people claim that the goal behind
Jihad is something far more Sinister
than fighting against
oppression Islam is an antichrist
religion that intends through violence
to conquer the world Jihad was for 1,300
100 years a holy war led by the
caliphate the world Islamic State Islam
is a one party totalitarian
system it's a one party state that will
not allow you to
speak and it will kill anybody who
challenges or questions Islam is not a
religion Islam a very dangerous
political ideology uh to our society and
it's time we wake up this is not just a
nice religion it is a political movement
went bent on world domination through
the sword that's what Jihad is we have a
problem and all over the world with the
ideology of hatred which is called Islam
Jihad is not holy war and that's a
common confusion that's found in a lot
of dictionaries and even some
translations of Quran that the word
Jihad is translated as holy war actually
war is not holy life is Holy and the
reason that war is legislated Islam is
to protect life in the first place all
of that goes back to protecting the
sanctity of life and within War itself
there are so many rules and regulations
that the Muslim has to follow which are
designed to protect the innocent from
harm or even abuse unfortunately some
people claim that combative Jihad is a
holy war against non-muslims or a war to
spread Islam all over the world and to
prove their point they go as far as
using some verses from the Quran
manipulating them and taking them out of
context taking advantage of the lack of
knowledge of Their audience about the
Quran the expression holy war was
introduced to the world in the
literature of the Crusaders about 900
years after the death of prophet
Muhammad Pope Urban II was the first
pope to spread the idea of holy war or a
CR say to the European public as a term
for the recapture of Holy Land from the
Muslims he urged his Bishops to preach
to their communities taking advantage of
the Europeans passion for religion the
symbol chosen for the Crusades consisted
of five crosses symbolizing the Five
Wounds that they believed Jesus Christ
received during the
passion the pope and his legislators
promised forgiveness and eternal
happiness to the impoverished and famin
stricken Christian presence if they
would die in the Crusades for
Christ the Pope's famous words were God
himself will lead you for you will be
doing his work Theus vault which means
god wills
it the response to his speech was far
greater than even he expected history
was firmly marked when hundreds of
thousands marched towards the east
predominantly from France Germany and
Italy European histor never had any
consensus on the exact number of
Crusaders in the First Crusade but
Muslim historians claimed that they were
over 1 million men from different
European
countries some Crusaders were motivated
by their Christian piety and the will to
liberate the city of God While others
were driven by greed and the will to
establish New Faith strongholds in the
wealthy East
what no one can deny is the Looting
plundering abuse and pillaging that took
place at every opportunity the
undisciplined rabble marched eastwards
massacring Jews in the rain land and
even attacking and pillaging the
Christian villagers of Hungary and
Bulgaria after the fall of Jerusalem in
the hands of the Crusaders of the First
Crusade all 70,000 Muslim civilians of
Jerusalem were killed and slaughtered
men women and children historians
mentioned that their blood flowed like
rivers in the streets of Jerusalem
historically Saladin or salahudin the
Muslim commander who defeated the
Crusaders did not kill any civilians
after his Victorious entry into
Jerusalem his magnanimity stands out in
contrast to what the Crusaders did
nearly 90 years earlier killing nearly
70 th000
civilians therefore we see that to never
Target non-combatants and never torture
prisoners of War are two main rules of
combat in Islam however the Islamic code
of combat is far more extensive than
these two
rules the code of combat in Islam is
comprehensive and covers many social
economic as well as military aspects
related to wartime among its
instructions is is that Muslims must not
destroy infrastructures another of the
important instructions from Prophet
Muhammad was do not poison the wells
amongst the teachings of the Quran is
the protection of houses of worship the
Quran says for had God not decreed to
repel some people by means of others
demolition would certainly have come to
many monasteries churches synagogues and
mosques in which the name of God is much
mentioned in Praise
Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him said
don't destroy crops don't kill animals
don't even disturb birds in their
nests he did not allow the mutilation of
bodies whether Dead or Alive also among
his instructions was to bury all dead
even if the enemy fled the battlefield
leaving their dead behind them it is the
obligation of the Muslim Army to bury
their dead bodies like they buried their
own own dead if Muslims are ordered to
fight in order to repel oppression if by
fighting they themselves became the
oppressors that they sent out to fight
that will be the greatest act of
hypocrisy ever seen so for that reason
in Islamic law especially with regards
to fighting we find that the order not
to oppress runs the gamut Muslims are
ordered not to poison Wells to destroy
natural resources to harm animals to
harm places of worship in Egypt where I
live for six years I I I I would walk
around Cairo and still see churches that
existed before the time that Islam came
to Cairo left in in in actually
Immaculate condition Muslims will order
not to harm anything because if you're
setting out to repel oppression the
worst thing that you can do is become
the oppressor that you set out to fight
all these teachings bring us back to the
spiritual jihad as it is extremely
dangerous if a person seeks to defeat
his enemy before defeating his own ego
the is would be exchanging one Tyrant
for another reading the Islamic history
one has to be amazed at the level of
discipline of Muslim Warriors toward
their defeated enemies or their citizens
of the conquered
countries a few years after the death of
prophet Muhammad an army of only 8,500
Muslims defeated the Romans and took
over Egypt they were under the
leadership of AMR IB alas one of the
prophet's companions highly commended as
a military
genius Jean the bishop of niku a city in
Northern Egypt was a contemporary of the
Romans defeat at the hands of the
Muslims he wrote a Chronicle which is
considered by the Egyptian Christians to
be the most trusted source of the
history of the Coptic
Church Bishop John of niku described the
return of the Orthodox Pope with these
words an amb Benjamin the patriarch of
the Egyptians returned to the city of
Alexandria in the 13th year of his
flight from the Romans where he went to
the churches and inspected every one of
them he also described the way Muslims
ruled Egypt in another
passage and am became stronger every day
in all fields of his activity and he
collected the taxes which had been
agreed upon but he took none of the
property of the churches committed no
acts of desecration or plunder
and he preserved them throughout all of
his
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days in today's world defeating
terrorism has become the dream of people
all over the globe regardless of their
race gender nationality or
faith however a single Universal
approach to defeating terrorism could
never be sufficient this is due to the
fact that terrorism has many different
forms and people from different cultures
and backgrounds as well as States and
governments have been guilty of
it analysts and researchers have
proposed a spectrum of approaches to
tackle the problem
effectively terrorism will never be
eliminated unless we deal with the root
causes if we keep on treating the
symptom instead of the disease then we
should not expect any pro progress
therefore the disease has to be
diagnosed first in each case and the
root cause of every form of terrorism
has to be identified in order to combat
it what it takes to solve the issue is
greater public understanding of the true
causes of suicide terrorism uh right
after 911 uh we had a very unusual
circumstance we had a new threat suicide
terrorism we had almost no knowledge in
the academic community not just in the
public but in the academic community and
suddenly people had to have an
explanation well they came to an
explanation which is they were Muslims
who did 911 therefore it must be Islam
that's causing suicide terrorism turns
out that's just simply wrong it's a
false assumption and it's terribly
important to educate uh publ and leaders
about the true causes of suicide
terrorism does that mean that then
publics and leaders who simply give in
to terrorist demands give them whatever
they want no that doesn't mean that at
all and I'm not claiming that they
should what I am saying however is that
a better understanding of the true
causes of suicide terrorism will
encourage governments to come up with
alternative strategies in their own
interests to achieve their AIMS in
better ways the key point is that many
many terrorists are not mindless
irrational individuals they may engage
in Acts which we deplore they may use
violence against individuals which we
deplore and for which they should be
criminally punished but they are
motivated by in some senses some of them
some of the time a form of rationality
which points to some serious political
grievance uh the number one thing to do
is to take the circumstance away that is
producing suicide attack which is um uh
ending the use of ground forces is uh
threatening territory that terrorist
prize uh or another way to put it is
ending foreign occupations of Muslim
countries if acts of Injustice and
occupation are the major provoking
factors behind suicide terrorism then
why do so many governments fail to take
the appropriate action in dealing with
these causes one of the reasons why
governments have been failing in their
efforts to combat terrorism is the fact
that they did not gather significant
knowledge into its patterns and
causes before the Attacks of September
the 11th there wasn't a single database
of global patterns of suicide bombings
Robert Pape started to create the first
database of this nature which was not
published until
2003 after 9/11 uh there was a
tremendous amount of fear a tremendous
amount of hatred tremendous amount of
anger
and that emotional uh energy uh uh was
going to be uh uh very important uh in
leading governments to take actions but
if you marry that deep set of emotions
with an absence of knowledge that's the
worst Both Worlds that's the worst
situation so what we can do more than
anything else to combat this is actually
public education many vicious acts are
committed under the banner of jihad as
well as many
crimes are committed in the name of war
on terror but neither can the first be
considered as Jihad nor the second can
be considered as war on terror crossing
the red lines will turn both of them
into acts of terrorism
classically Muslims who lived under
non-muslim societies religiously were
bound to observe the laws of those
societies as long as they did not
contradict any major major pillar of
faith and secondly they were forbidden
to engage in acts of violence against
non-muslim societies and that covered
two scenarios number one is the citizen
of that society and number two is a
visitor to that country on a Visa so you
have a great classical legal jurist Imam
ibnu kud who in his book Al mugni says
very clearly that a Muslim who enters a
land of the non-muslims or a Muslim who
lives in the land of the non-muslims is
bound
by a treaty of peace and security as
long as his rights are unviolated and
the overwhelming majority of Muslims who
reside in non-muslim lands have that
understanding and articulate that
understanding from an Islamic
perspective ends do not justify means by
that we mean that there are two
important conditions to consider any
self-sacrifice of that nature acceptable
islamically one is the purpose
secondly are the means used to achieve
that purpose as we said earlier the
purpose of repelling aggression
resisting oppression and restoring peace
even if it requires self-sacrifice is
are acts of heroism like all armies in
all countries consider them to be so the
objective must be just it should not be
unjust War but that is not enough and I
repeat again ends or good ends do not
justify any means which mean that the
means of achieving that must be
legitimate and as mentioned
earlier civilians or non-combatants
should not be hurt you're so you're only
fighting against the aggressors people
in in uniform who are killing pillaging
and destroying you cannot violate any of
the ethical code of combative Jihad in
Islam as has been described earlier so
you need these two condition and that's
that's where the confusion Aris that
some people are driven by the perceived
sense of Injustice done to them or their
Brethren that they forget that you don't
have to have only a just cause but you
have to follow the ethical means also so
one would naturally ask how can these
misconceptions of Islamic ethics of War
be challenged and
corrected the root cause of terrorism
has been linked to a number of issues
economics uh politics social issues my
experience firsthand in dealing with
people who have been infected by that
virus is that this is a a disease which
is rooted in thoughts and the way that
you combat thoughts is with more
powerful thoughts and ideas and my
experience with with a few uh youngsters
who were initially influenced by that
that that strand of thought was to sit
down with them talk with them walk them
through the potential outcomes of those
choices that they were making in light
of what the prophet has taught us in
light of what Islam has taught us and
alhamdulillah all praise be to a god to
God Almighty I can attest that all of
them change their minds and change their
ideas the people who are affected the
most are the Innocents they are also the
weakest you see one of the problems we
have with States using terrorism is that
states are the strong actor s and
they're using the terrorism or the
violence against not just Innocents but
weak Innocents it's they're the weaker
side that are being uh typically harmed
or bombed in this case the Quan says and
what is the matter with you that you
fight not in the cause of God and for
the weak ill treated and oppressed among
men women and
children what did we say the weak are
suffering from terrorist
therefore according to this verse the
word Jihad does not equal terrorism but
rather war on terrorism Jihad means war
on terrorism the real
one combating terrorism committed by any
entity whether individual organization
or state is a form of jihad after giving
Jihad and Islam strong consideration and
and taking the time to invest in
understanding a religion like Islam and
and that's something that Muslims and
Christians as well as Jews Hindus people
of all faiths atheists have to take the
time to invest and cultivate an
understanding of each other after doing
that I would hope that someone would be
able to look at Jihad and Islam and see
it as a means of removing oppression uh
as a means of removing uh the plight of
the poor those who are exploited by
others and come to a conclusion
ultimately that we are going to shape
this world according to how we believe
our ideas and act on those ideas so it's
a challenge especially in recent years
for us to move Beyond these stereotypes
to work to assist each other live
together in an equal fashion and
respectable fashion and pray to God
dearly that he'll bless us to to live in
the footsteps of the prophets and the
great leaders and righteous people who
preceded Us in the words of Martin
Luther King Jr in just Justice anywhere
is a threat to Justice everywhere we are
caught in an inescapable network of
mutuality tied in a single Garment of
Destiny whatever affects one directly
affects all
indirectly surely Muslims were not are
not and cannot be angels for 14
centuries like all Faith communities
they had their own
shortcomings which is one aspect of
being a human meantime it has been the
testimony of many that Muslims as a
faith community fared quite well
historically and comparatively speaking
and contributed immensely to human
civilizations they did not stop at
tolerance but they were even more
accepting and acceptance is a concept
that is deeply rooted in the Quran and
the teachings of prophet Muhammad peace
be upon him these true undistorted
teaching teachings are precisely what
Humanity need
today let us join hands in pursuing what
we all need and aspire to peace Justice
equality and an all embracing sense of
human Brotherhood if we want an earth
restored without war and without the
threat of War we need to understand that
we are all humanely equal
one innocent
victim in London or New York is the same
as one innocent victim in Gaza and Kabul
the 21st century has led Humanity to a
new phase in its existence it is a time
when we are able to communicate
throughout the planet we are able to
share information we are able to cross
barriers of race ethnicity and politics
and so in a sense
we are one human family so if there is
Injustice in one part of the planet
there is Injustice all over the planet
if peace is established in one part of
the world then peace can be understood
and felt throughout this planet let us
work together as a human family this is
a great opportunity for Humanity or it
could be a terrible time of Calamity
since terrorism is a result of Injustice
and oppression if people come together
and a unified effort to end them then we
will definitely see the end of terrorism
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