Islam & Istanbul bombings [Archives:2003/687/Opinion]

Any action that involves the spilling of the blood of any human beings, especially when outside the realm of conditions of normal face to face combat, would render the perpetrators of such actions as violators of genuine Islamic ordinances. This is one of the important fundamental principles in Islam. Any violation thereto, for any reasons whatsoever, is a criminal act of the highest degree. Thus, any association of the careless and savage bombings in Istanbul last week with Islam must be viewed as both heresy and a clear disservice to Islam or to any Islamic cause. Any bona-fide faithful Moslem is bound to see it accordingly and will surely deplore the atrocious attacks and insist that the attack was instigated by clandestine elements that work under the directions of the enemies of Islam, who were behind these attacks with devious intentions, of which Islam is completely innocent. Those who carried out the attack have no right to call themselves Moslems or to suggest that they did it in the cause of Islam.
The position of Islam on the barbaric attacks in Istanbul is manifested by clear Islamic rulings and historical precedence that totally disassociate Islam from such heinous acts. Islam is well known for the high value placed on human life. Yet these sadists took it upon themselves to murder 19 innocent unarmed Moslems, who were most likely fasting and 5 Jews in their house of worship, during the Holy Month of Ramadhan – the Month of Peace, and want us to believe that this mad bloodshed is in service to Islam?
Nothing is further than the truth. First of all how could the killing of 19 innocent fasting Moslems be justified by the killing of five non-Moslems, who are under the obligatory protection of the Moslems and thus the perpetration of a double crime, by all Islamic terms? This is sheer insanity, especially when considering that there is no state of war existing between the Moslems and the non-Moslem victims of this abominable crime. Second of all, it is the ordained duty of Moslems to protect all non-Moslems living in their domain from all undue harm, even from non-Moslems and to assume the protection of the property and houses of worship of the latter.
In this context, the sadists behind this attack are in obvious debasement of clear Islamic laws and are to be regarded and dealt with as criminals, accountable to the Ummah (Nation) and to God by all counts. One is at a loss to see, how can Moslems (if they call themselves as such) condone such fundamental Islamic principles and allow themselves to become tools of the enemies of Islam and at the same time try to convince the rest of the faithful that they are pursuing the interests of Islam? What a horrendous corruption of genuine Islamic dogma. Isn't it enough the appalling situation the Moslem World is undergoing, no thanks to the activities of these evil intentioned nincompoops and their misguided representations of Islamic behavior and practice and the havoc that they have caused in every Moslem state.
With respect to precedence, we only have to look at the conduct of the Pious Caliph, Omar Ibn Al-Khattab (the Second ruling successor after the Prophet Mohammed, PAUH), when he visited Jerusalem after its liberation from Byzantine rule. When the head of the Christian Church of the Ascension invited Omar to enter the Church and pray inside if he liked, the conscientious Omar replied negative in all politeness, because he did not want to set a precedence for any future ruler, who might want to violate the sanctity of the houses of worship of followers of other religions that have chosen to remain under the just and tolerant rule of Islam. There is nothing that prevented Omar from accepting the invitation or from praying in a house of worship of the “People of the Book” (Jews and Christians) since they are all believers in the same God and Scriptures, but he wanted to set a clear precedence to ensure the maximum level of sanctity of the houses of Worship of non-Moslems living in Islamic domains.
As far as the Istanbul bombings go, many Moslems are quick to allude Zionist interests as being behind the heinous crimes. They first point out the obvious increase in opposition and criticism of the hostile policies of Ariel Sharon in the Holy Land, not just outside Israel, but even within the ruling establishment in Israel itself. In addition there is the voluntary undeclared one-sided truce by the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza (for two months now), whereas the Zionist thugs of Sharon continue their business as usual activities of incursions, tree uprooting and destruction of Palestinian homes and other violations of human rights (including banning Moslem worshippers from entering their houses of worship).
With little care given to the claims of “anti-Semitism” as continuously suggested by people like Thomas Friedman to the European and other opposition to Israeli policies, the Zionists, as some analysts suggest, were prone to revert to the theme of the “ends justify the means”, in order to scare Jews of the world and to rejuvenate the “anti-Semitism” theme to its prominent level as an excuse for Zionist crimes in the Holy Land. Accordingly, the international Zionist establishment was keen on instigating this crime. This is strongly supported by the fact that no Moslem in his right mind could ever condone such crimes, because in Islam it is absolute that the “ends never justify the means”, which is a theme far outside of Islamic dogma and practice.
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