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Pakistani Scholars Prohibit Attacks on Mosques, Innocents
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A
file photo of a damaged mosque after a bomb attack.
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By
Umer Farooq
, IOL Correspondent
ISLAMABAD
, May 19, 2005 (IslamOnline.net) – A cohort of fifty eight Pakistani
scholars from different sects have issued a fatwa (religious edict)
branding as haram (forbidden) suicide attacks against Muslims
and mosques across the Asian country.
The
fatwa, issued on Wednesday, May 18, holds that under Islam killing an
innocent human being is haram and carries death penalty, qisaas
(retaliation) and compensation.
“Killing
a fellow Muslim without Islamic and legal reasons is even a bigger
crime,” read the fatwa signed by a majority of Sunni scholars,
though it has some Shiites, from independent religious seminaries.
It
also made clear that “killing any non-Muslim citizen or foreigner
visiting the country is forbidden in Islam since those people are
under the protection of the
Pakistan
government”.
Westerners
and foreign embassies and interests in
Pakistan
have repeatedly been targeted by attacks, blamed on dissatisfaction
with policies regarding Islamic causes.
Most
of the signatories belong to Deobandi
School of Thought, which has its origins in the oldest
religious seminary in the sub-continent.
The
Deobandi school is connected to and named after the
University
of
Deoband
, Dar al-`Uloom, in
India
.
The
university was founded by a group of Indian scholars after the British
had put a stop to the Islamic revolution in
India
in 1857 CE with the aim of saving the Muslims from the dangers of the
materialistic western civilization.
Among
the signatories are Muhammad Khan Qadri, MMA MNA Maulana Abdul Maalik,
opposition parliament members belonging to politico-religious parties.
Specific
Fatwa
Some
scholars opposed the fatwa, saying they would not to take part in any
exercise which would help
America
’s continued occupation of Muslim lands.
This
prompted Mufti Munibur Rehman, the leader of the scholars group, to
quickly clarifies that the scope of their fatwa was limited to
Pakistan
.
“This
fatwa doesn’t apply to the situation in
Iraq
,
Palestine
and
Kashmir
as Muslims in these places are engaged in freedom movement” he
stressed.
Rehman
is currently Chairman of Tanzimul Madaris (organization of religious
seminaries), an independent body, and Chairman of Ruet-e-Hilal
Committee, a government-constituted body for sighting the moon to
define the beginning of lunar months.
The
fatwa is rather linked to sectarian attacks on Sunni and Shiite
mosques that have claimed the lives of thousands of Pakistanis.
Since
the beginning of the 2005, at least 78 people were killed incidents of
sectarian violence across
Pakistan
, according to local newspaper reports.
Suicide
bombings were also used in 2004 attempts on the lives of President
Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz.
In
the last quarter of 2004
Pakistan
urban centers were the scene of several attacks on mosques and places
of worship, which in most cases led to sectarian violence.
The
attacks took place mostly in the three cities of
Karachi
,
Lahore
and
Sialkot
.
Mixed
Reactions
Some
of the leading religious scholars in the country have distanced
themselves from the fatwa.
However,
other groups have welcomed the fatwa and hoped it would help curb
extremist’s tendencies in society.
“It's
something good, but how effective this decree can be is difficult to
predict,” said Ghafoor Ahmed of the coalition of six religious
parties, Mutihada Majalisa Amal (MMA).
Federal
Minister for State for Religious Affairs, Aamir Liaquat, told Agence
France-Presse (AFP) the fatwa “will help bring sanity at least in
Pakistan
, as it has jointly been signed by clerics who matter”.
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