Muslim Religious Figures Must Challenge Al Qaeda

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The New York Sun

For the West to win the war of ideas, Muslim religious figures must openly challenge the ideology of Islamism and Al Qaeda.

One such figure is Sheik Abd Al-Muhsin Al-Abikan, a member of Saudi Arabia’s Shura Council and consultant for the Saudi Ministry of Justice. He is well-known for publicly battling against militant Islamist ideologies and for speaking out against Al Qaeda, jihad in Iraq, and suicide attacks.

On the one-year anniversary of the London bombings of July 7, 2005, Sheik Abikan was quoted in the London Arabic daily Al-Sharq Al-Awsat denouncing the attacks and calling those responsible “apostates” who committed “treason.”

He appeared on Saudi Channel 1 on July 22, 2005, and explained to the audience why Al Qaeda’s ideology and actions are against Islamic law: “Terrorism as defined today in the world is prohibited by the Shariah. This terrorism seeks to cast fear upon peaceful people, Muslim and non-Muslim, whom it is forbidden to kill according to the Shariah. … The distressing pictures and stories we see … of beheadings … arouse disgust.”

On many occasions, Sheik Abikan has expressed a willingness to publicly confront Osama bin Laden and his cronies. He told Al-Sharq Al-Awsat on May 24, 2005: “I say to those who believe in Al Qaeda and its ideology of Takfir that they are being superficial. … I have challenged such people. … I’ve even sat and debated with such sympathizers at my home and in the mosque. … I am even ready to debate with bin Laden himself!”

Sheik Abikan has a weekly religious program on the pan-Arab MBC channel. On April 30, 2004, he was asked about Mr. bin Laden, whom he had met years earlier. He replied, “Bin Laden [and his followers] must first turn to Allah in repentance for what they have engaged the Muslims in and for the civil strife, disasters, and tragedies caused by the instructions we hear from them through the media.”

On the death of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, he said: “The current sympathy shown by some Muslims to al-Zarqawi … is regrettable. Al-Zarqawi, who adopted Al Qaeda’s deviant ideology, only brought evil to Muslims. Those sympathizing with the barbaric and criminal acts committed by al-Zarqawi inside Iraq and elsewhere … chose to forget his heinous record.”

“What is happening in Iraq now is not jihad,” Sheik Abikan said on MBC on July 31, 2004. “Jihad does not mean harming Muslims who cooperated with non-Muslims, as claimed. … The problem with people is that they hear some muftis [and religious scholars] who quote from the jurisprudents things that are not relevant … to the current situation in Iraq.”

These muftis and religious scholars are dissenters who should stand trial for the damage they have caused to Iraq because of the fatwas they have issued, the sheik told the Saudi daily Al-Riyadh on May 27, 2005. “Can we implement in Iraq what the clerics have said?” he asked on his weekly show on August 28, 2004. “Certainly not. According to the clerics, people should adhere to their imam and wage jihad against an enemy who wants to take their property and kill them. Iraq, on the other hand, is under the control of Iraqis, no matter who they are.”

In the May 2005 interview with Al-Riyadh, Sheik Abikan said the fighters blowing themselves up with explosive belts or car bombs are carrying out suicide operations, not martyrdom operations. He also clarified that killing during these operations was not an act of war but an act of treachery.

At a counterterrorism conference of leading Islamic scholars in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheik on August 22, 2005, Sheik Abikan corrected the religious figures in attendance on their stance vis-a-vis martyrdom: “The suicide operations that are called ‘martyrdom operations’ are forbidden by Islamic law. Those who carry them out, committing suicide, cannot be called martyrs, and their actions cannot be called martyrdom.”

A former Saudi communications minister,Ali Bin Talal Al-Jihni, told Al-Hayat newspaper on June 7, 2005: “The Saudi religious scholar Al-Abikan is practically the only one among the Muslim scholars who raises his voice … to say that suicide and the killing of others in Iraq must not be defined as martyrdom. Al-Abikan is not the only one who knows that [such] suicide is a crime. … What prevents other scholars from raising their voices to support the honorable sheik? …Perhaps they lack his courage.”

Though Sheik Abikan’s views on women’s rights and reform within Islam could be considered pragmatic and not politically correct by Western standards, the West by all means should support his fight against Al Qaeda and radical Islamism.

Mr. Stalinsky is the executive director of the Middle East Media Research Institute.


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