A sincere Islamic adviceFor God’s sake, let those Koreans go [Archives:2007/1078/Opinion]

By: Hassan Al-Haifi
This observer, along with millions of devout, faithful and sincere Moslems throughout the world, are somewhat puzzled and are often outraged by the tactics adopted by some of the self-declared Jihadists of the world. More than that, many knowledgeable Moslems are at a loss in finding jurisdictional, dogmatic and textual reference relied upon by the latter in Islamic literature, which reveal that such tactics emanate from or even fit in with conceptually. Furthermore, any true faithful Moslem would find many of the tactics employed by those who profess to be carrying the banner of Islam as actually being contrary to the interest of Islam or providing any hint of short-term or long-term support to any Islamic cause. In short, such tactics as senseless suicide bombings against non-Moslem civilians, not to mention the ones against members of the Islamic community, even if under sectarian pretexts; kidnappings of unarmed “foreigners”, who have entered Moslem countries legitimately or with good and peaceful intentions; hijackings of civilian aircraft, the projection of a crude or uncivilized image and the rejection of any Moslems, who may differ in the interpretation of dogma on minor secondary issues and matters of religious doctrine all tend to reflect a serious effort to corrupt the real civilized nature of Islam and to render it unattractive to any misinformed witness or observer in these modern times. When such actions emanate from misguided Moslems, who profess to work for the restoration of an “Islamic State”, which is actually viewed as having been a total failure, even if viewed outside of a Moslem context, is really problematic. Surely the failure of the Taliban regime could undoubtedly be attributed to its poor comprehension of the real essence of Islam as truly being a powerful social reform doctrine, with reason, logic and compatibility with human nature as essential elements of any application of Moslem dogma. On the other hand, any applications of Islamic dogma that fails to encompass, mercy, tolerance, respect for all people, who do not display any animosity towards Moslems is for all practical purposes absolutely incongruent with Islamic fundamental principles and render the followers of such incongruities as heretical to Moslem doctrine.

One would think that the Taliban would know all the foregoing without fail, being as they profess to be true Moslem “orthodox fundamentalists”. That they would undertake such violations of Islamic principles, when they were a “state” may be rationalized (but of course not justified) by a sense of arrogance. But nevertheless such misdeeds are unforgiveable in the Islamic context and surely do a great disservice to the proper reflection of true Islamic dogma. It goes without saying that the current methodology employed by self declared Jihadists, has no precedence in the actions of many generations of Moslems since the time of the Prophet Mohammed (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him), who, as the Holy\Quran states “was sent as a mercy for all the Universes1. In this context then, it would be viewed as being self-defeating, if improprieties such as the kidnapping of the 22 Korean hostages would be construed as being in service to their declared cause of liberating Afghanistan, not to mention such an act being totally incongruent with Moslem teachings.

As long as those who wish to carry the banner of Islam continue to fail to understand their own religion, then it is hard to believe that the Al-Mighty would ever think of supporting them or bringing them any closer to their goals. For sure, the overwhelming majority of Moslems find no rationale in Islam or any other dogma for the kidnapping of foreign hostages, even if they are of a different faith, and would hope that the Taliban and all these so called Salafi persuasions would go back to studying Islam it its true and fundamental teachings and learn from the ways that the true faithful Salaf (i.e., early Moslem predecessors) truly conducted themselves in war and in peace, if they want to convince the world if their genuine affiliation with Islam, and of the justice of their struggle.

Up to now, it is not easy to see any of this as being understood by the Taliban. Maybe they could facilitate this with the immediate release of all the remainder of the hostages and with a sincere apology to the Korean people, as well as to the Moslems of the world \for their horrific deviation from the faith Otherwise Islam would do much better without the Taliban and any of their like, who have become a great menace to Islam, not to mention their chronic failure at advancing the interests of Islam and of Moslems just about anywhere they operate in the world.

1 Interpreted also as “all the worlds”, but implying all the worlds created by God, as Islam is projected to be a universal creed meant for all creations of God Almighty.

Hassan Al-Haifi has been a Yemeni political economist and journalist for more than 20 years.
——
[archive-e:1078-v:15-y:2007-d:2007-08-20-p:opinion]