Horrified Muslims: Fatwas Denouncing Violence

Published in The Laconia Daily Sun 7-7-2016 http://www.laconiadailysun.com/opinion/letters/96246-james-veverka-7-7-510

To the Editor,

Russ Wiles wants to know why moderate Muslims aren't chiming in. They are. Recently, pathological liar and Himmler wannabe, Donald Trumpf said that Muslims don't report suspicious Muslims. On June 16, FBI Director James Comey countered Trump's rubbish in a press conference: "They do not want people committing violence, either in their community or in the name of their faith, and so some of our most productive relationships are with people who see things and tell us things who happen to be Muslim. It’s at the heart of the FBI’s effectiveness to have good relationships with these folks,” he added.

If Russ would turn off the lying and dying right wing world, he would know that since 9/11 there have been over 100 Fatwas issued condemning terror. Just Google "list of fatwas against violence". A Fatwa is a legal pronouncement and religious decree issued by clerics, scholars, and experts on Islamic law.

Due to limitations I can't list all of the important Fatwas and declarations against terrorism but I will present some examples. One of the latest major Fatwas was issued this Spring when almost 70,000 Muslim clerics came together to pass a Fatwa against global terrorist organizations including the Taliban, al-Qaida and ISIS. According to The Times of India, almost 1.5 million attendees signed a document protesting global terrorist activity at the annual gathering of South Asian Sunni Muslims. This year, the Islamic Supreme Council of Canada, along with 37 other Muslim leaders of various Muslim sects across Canada issued a Fatwa from Calgary condemning followers of ISIS as non-Muslims. Last year more than 120 Muslim scholars from around the world wrote an open letter to the "fighters and followers" of ISIS and denounced them as un-Islamic. On September 11, 2013, 165 Somali religious leaders concluded a five-day National Conference on Extremism in Mogadishu by issuing a fatwa condemning al-Shabaab.

In 2013, Muslim Scholars of the Sunni Ittehad Council in Pakistan issued a collective Fatwa against suicide bombings, the killing of innocents, bombings, and targeted killings declaring them as forbidden. In 2011, the 512 page "Fatwa on Terrorism and Suicide Bombings" was published by Minhaj-ul-Quran Publications declaring terrorism and suicide bombings are unjust and evil. In 2008, 6,000 Ulama Islamic scholars in India endorsed a Fatwa that declared that all forms of terrorism are against the spirit of Islam. In 2005. Spanish Muslims proclaimed a fatwa against Osama Bin Laden. Issued by Mansur Escudero Bedate, secretary general of the Islamic Commission of Spain, it decrees that Bin Laden and "his" al-Qaida had abandoned their religion and should thus be called "al-Qaida terrorists" without using the adjective "Islamic". Also in 2005, the Fiqh Council of North America, issued a Fatwa against providing support to "terrorist" groups that make up their own rules by unjustifiably referring to Islam.

The facts are not going to influence bigots and fools but most people realize that the ordinary Muslim is just as horrified as we are by the violence. They have suffered far far more than we have at the hands of terrorists. For a sampling, see  Part I - Fatwas & Statements by Muslim Scholars & Organization:http://theamericanmuslim.org/tam.php/features/articles/muslim_voices_against_extremism_and_terrorism_part_i_fatwas/0012209

James Veverka

Tilton