Militant Islam Monitor > Satire > Terrorism is bad - Jihad is good: Chicago Muslims from Hamas endorse anti terror fatwa as "pre emptive strike"
Terrorism is bad - Jihad is good: Chicago Muslims from Hamas endorse anti terror fatwa as "pre emptive strike"
Terror is not mentioned in the Koran - but Jihad is
July 29, 2005
What better way to keep the propaganda ball rolling and to lull the gullible media and liberal members of the public into believing that Islam is a warm fuzzy religion by having known Hamas members and groups implicated in terrorist lawsuits in Chicago attest insist that the anti terror fatwa ;'doesn't go far enough' ! Now that the focus is off the terrorists the Hamas affiliated leaders and organisations mentioned in the article below are elbowing each other for the chance to deliver a soundbyte to the national media which conviently ignores their support for terrorism and the fact that members of their mosques and organisations are in jail and have been implicated in terrorist attacks, and terror funding.
Oussama Jammal of the Bridgeview Mosque is a known Hamas supporter who has denied that Muslims were behind 9/11.. Members of the mosque have been implicated in terrorism cases the spokesman of Bridgeview Mosque, Rafiq Jaber, is the head of the Islamic Association of Palestine - the American wing of Hamas.
For more on the Bridgeview Mosque and it's ties to terrorism see the link below.
Muslim leaders: Go beyond condemnation of terrorists
Chicago-area mosques to endorse ‘fatwa' today
By Dave Orrick Daily Herald Staff Writer Posted Friday, July 29, 2005
"I think it is the responsibility of the leaderships of mosques to be more connected to the congregations, to make communities safe on an individual basis, and to keep an eye out for people under stress and make sure they channel it in a nonviolent way."
Abdul Malik Mujahid, chairman of the Chicago-based Council on Islamic Relations
People who commit terrorism in the name of Islam are "criminals, not ‘martyrs,'ć" according to a powerful religious edict, called a fatwa, issued Thursday by leading American scholars of Islamic law.
Today in Chicago, Muslim leaders from throughout the city and suburbs will underscore that not only is violence against innocents forbidden, it's the duty of Muslim leaders to dissuade, speak out against and even report to police anyone in their community they suspect of inciting violence or preparing to commit violence.
"We go beyond condemnation," said Abdul Malik Mujahid, chairman of the Chicago-based Council on Islamic Relations, which will be leading this morning's endorsement of the fatwa by a host of local mosques and foundations, as well as the civil rights group Council on Islamic-American Relations.
"I think it is the responsibility of the leaderships of mosques to be more connected to the congregations, to make communities safe on an individual basis, and to keep an eye out for people under stress and make sure they channel it in a nonviolent way," Mujahid said Thursday. "It will be the responsibility of the Islamic leaders to recognize this, and it will be their duty to look for formal law enforcement."
He and others said the fatwa and its implications are twofold: First, it's an internal edict to Muslims, but it's also an external message to non-Muslims who may need to hear the strongest possible condemnation of terrorism from within Islam.
"For the non-Muslim community, it's important because I don't believe many Americans realize this is forbidden by Islam," said Arif Hussain, who leads Friday prayers at the Lake County Mosque in Waukegan. "They don't believe the Muslim community in America has spoken out loudly enough against these acts."
Many Muslim leaders overseas have issued similar condemnations in recent weeks, but some have left an opening for violence to be used. British Muslim leaders who denounced the July 7 attacks in London said suicide bombings could still be justified against an occupying power.
Local Muslim leaders say they were troubled by reports that some of the suspected British-raised bombers had drifted from their home mosque and attended talks by Islamic extremists.
"It was shocking to us," said Oussama Jamal, a board member and former president of the Bridgeview Mosque Foundation. "On Sept. 11, we knew it was no one in the community. But it is shocking to see someone who grew up in the UK to take part in acts like this."
Thus, Jamal said, in some ways the American fatwa was a "pre-emptive strike" in the battle for the hearts and minds of American Muslims.
The American fatwa was issued by the 18-member Fiqh Council of North America. The term "fiqh" refers to Islamic legal issues and understanding the faith's religious law.
"There is no justification in Islam for extremism or terrorism," the scholars wrote in a statement that quotes the Quran and accepted statements from the Islamic prophet Muhammad. "Targeting civilians' life and property through suicide bombings or any other method of attack is haram — or forbidden."
Unlike, say, the Roman Catholic church, Islam has no central authority, so voices of local Muslim leaders are crucial, said Habibuddin Ahmed, general secretary of the Forest Park-based Islamic Thought and Science Institute.
"Islamic Foundation in Villa Park has an audience of several thousand people," Ahmed said. "The National Fiqh Council does not have that large an audience, so the local groups must move forward."
Weblog - Militant Islam Monitor Bridgeview Mosque Foundation/ Hamas member Mohamed Saleh arrested with Howard U prof Abdelhaleem Ashqar on terrorism charges, August 21, 2004 ... www.militantislammonitor.org/docs?type=2 - 22k - Cached - Similar pages