Islam and the Bomb - Belfer Center for Science and International ...

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Reactions to the anti-WMD Fatwa Dr Ibrahim Negm highlighted the importance of issuing a counter-WMD ruling: “This fatwa is the first one we issued on this topic and comes in response to the wave of uninformed opinions from various groups.” 88 Dr. Taha Jabir al-Alwani, president of the Graduate School of Islamic and Social Sciences and the Fiqh Council, supported the anti-WMD fatwa because mass destruction does not distin- guish the innocent from the criminal and therefore is prohibited under Islam. 89 Sheikh Faysal Mawlawi, deputy chairman of the European Council for Fatwa and Research, noted a self-defense exception: “[I]n case these nuclear weapons are used against Muslims, it becomes permissible for Muslims to defend themselves using the same weapon.” 90 September 2009 Former militant cleric Salman Al-Odeh urged Al-Qaeda deputy leader Ayman Al-Zawahiri to stop killing Muslims, noting that Al-Qaeda had killed more Muslims than non-Muslims, and that the Muslim world was “being roasted on the flames of Al-Qaeda” and exposed to violent events and bombings. “Muslims are the only nation whose sons kill each other; there is no other nation in the world—not the Jews, not the Christians, not the Buddhists, not the pagans— whose sons do this... “How long will people cling to weapons as if they were the only means of achieving their goals?” 91 Al-Odeh added that people who had accepted Al-Qaeda’s ideology of takfir and bombings were motivated not by religious or rational conviction, but by emotional distress, frustration, and an inner sense of discrimination. “I have called on, and will continue to call on our loyal clerics and preachers to call things by their true name, and to remove the divine and holy epithet ‘jihad’ from the operations carried out by murderous organizations that kill innocent people and undermine security in Islamic countries, or other countries with which we have agreements... It is important to explicitly condemn the evil crimes perpetrated worldwide in the name of Islam or of jihad, and to remove the disguise that their names provide for them—whether that name is ‘Al-Qaeda,’ or ‘jihad organizations,’ or ‘military or combat organizations,’ or ‘the Islamic state. 48 Islam and the Bomb: Religious Justification For and Against Nuclear Weapons
“I command myself, and my fellow preachers, and the speakers and the writers, to condemn in the clearest possible terms this perversion, which includes bloodshed, destruction of society, corruption of the image of Islam, hindrance of growth, [dissemination] of and contempt for the essential foundations of Islamic law and of humanism, wickedness worldwide, and aggression against human life…” “I [re]iterate sincerely and loudly: Allah will not lend success to the deeds of the corrupt and the traitors... nor to those who kill Muslims in the name of Islam or in the name of implementing shari’a. They will never succeed; Allah’s punishment will overtake them and they will become an object of mockery for their fellows unless they repent.” 92 December 2009 Shaykh Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri issued the most detailed antiterrorist fatwa ever written, an exhaustive, 600 page theological and legal studies of the Islamic teachings on the use of force and armed resistance. His fatwa: terrorism is at all times, in all conditions, against Islam. The murders terrorists commit will send them, not to paradise in the company of virgins, as often claimed, but to hell. 93 “[Terrorists] are the heroes of hellfire.” 94 Drawing extensively on Islamic texts Qadri declared: “Islam does not permit, under any cir- cumstances, the massacre of innocent citizens, terrorist explosions and suicide bombings” which according to Islamic law are unacceptable violations of human rights and constitute kufr, (unbelief). 95 “This is an absolute, unconditional, unqualified condemnation of terrorism, without any kind of exception or excuse…No context; no discussion of foreign policy of a certain country, no occupation ... can create a pretext for the people to take up arms.” 96 The solution, said Qadri, is not violence, but democratic dissent, achieved through political channels, petitions, lawful activism and peaceful protest. 97 Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs | Harvard Kennedy School 49
Page 1: Islam Islam and the Bomb Religious
Page 4 and 5: Belfer Center for Science and Inter
Page 6 and 7: AUTHOR’S NOTE Threats cannot be f
Page 8 and 9: CONTENTS Foreword 9 Living in an Ag
Page 10 and 11: 8 Islam and the Bomb: Religious Jus
Page 12 and 13: 10 ing nuclear weapons? Has a decis
Page 14 and 15: NUCLEAR WEAPONS IN THE 21 ST CENTUR
Page 16 and 17: 14 The Allure of Nuclear Weapons Th
Page 18 and 19: 16 Islam. They claim to represent t
Page 20 and 21: 18 In applying this hierarchy of mo
Page 22 and 23: 20 The Court of Public Opinion “C
Page 24 and 25: THE QURAN AND WEAPONS OF MASS DESTR
Page 26 and 27: 24 The first Caliph (successor to t
Page 28 and 29: 26 both Saudi radical cleric Nasir
Page 30 and 31: AL-QAEDA’S RELIGIOUS JUSTIFICATIO
Page 32 and 33: 30 On that basis, and in compliance
Page 34 and 35: 32 ings of US and Saudi targets in
Page 36 and 37: 34 In November, 2007, Sayid Imam Ab
Page 38 and 39: 36 He offers a meticulously researc
Page 40 and 41: 38 Zawahiri’s Three Operational M
Page 42 and 43: 40 they have done good for their re
Page 44 and 45: 42 Because the document was written
Page 46 and 47: SUNNI VOICES REJECTION OF TERRORIST
Page 48 and 49: Chronology of Sunni Voices Against
Page 52 and 53: SHIA VOICES IRAN AND THE BOMB Follo
Page 54 and 55: 52 “The decree by Khamenei “pro
Page 56 and 57: 54 “From all I can see, it’s no
Page 58 and 59: president of the Kayhan chain of ne
Page 60 and 61: Ayatollah Mohammad Taghi Mesbah-Yaz
Page 62 and 63: you can do whatever you want to def
Page 64 and 65: Comment: For additional information
Page 66 and 67: APPENDICES Appendix A - Background
Page 68 and 69: 66 Early Muslim scholars developed
Page 70 and 71: 68 located in Yemen, Iraq, and part
Page 72 and 73: 70 Appendix B: Al-Qaeda Nuclear Pla
Page 74 and 75: Appendix C: Events from 2003-2010 -
Page 76 and 77: In his book “Cosmology and Human
Page 78 and 79: 76 and hidden matters, the conseque
Page 80 and 81: 78 pressed. Thus, this prohibition
Page 82 and 83: 80 Appendix E: Sunni Biographies Dr
Page 84 and 85: 82 despite our strong oppositions t
Page 86 and 87: 84 to the United Nations. He presen
Page 88 and 89: 86 losophy and in particular Sadra
Page 90 and 91: 88 nied him food and drink until he
Page 92 and 93: 90 Zawahiri: Page 5, 8, 25, 26, 50,
Page 94 and 95: 92 “As everyone knows, whoever at
Page 96 and 97: 94 fought with fire, and Khalid ibn
Page 98 and 99: 96 Sa’id reported to us that al-L
Page 100 and 101:
98 “The Prophet, may God bless hi
Page 102 and 103:
100 and to refrain from them if the
Page 104 and 105:
102 permissible, and one may setup
Page 106 and 107:
104 “Al-‘Ayni said in ‘Umdat
Page 108 and 109:
106 C. The third position on the is
Page 110 and 111:
108 the prophet (may God bless him
Page 112 and 113:
110 facilitate victory over them. T
Page 114 and 115:
112 “In this Hadith there is perm
Page 116 and 117:
114 The Imam al-Nawawi (may God hav
Page 118 and 119:
116 Referencing Al-Ayni Al-Fahd: Pa
Page 120 and 121:
118 board with them. Malik said tha
Page 122 and 123:
120 “They said that this is a gen
Page 124 and 125:
122 that a tradition from the proph
Page 126 and 127:
124 “Similarly, if an non-believe
Page 128 and 129:
126 The second aspect: Muslim leade
Page 130 and 131:
128 beginning of the verse, God giv
Page 132 and 133:
130 book “Consensus on Matters of
Page 134 and 135:
132 Ibn Qudamah also said: “Chapt
Page 136 and 137:
134 Referencing Muhammad Ibn Isma
Page 138 and 139:
136 in the Name of God and in God
Page 140 and 141:
138 Ibn Taymiyyah (may God have mer
Page 142 and 143:
140 a martyr. Anyone undeserving of
Page 144 and 145:
142 Zawahiri: Page 35, 80, 82, 83,
Page 146 and 147:
144 Similar to this is what Muhamma
Page 148 and 149:
146 ENDNOTES 1. Tzu, Sun. The Art o
Page 150 and 151:
148 Times. 29 May 2003. http://www.
Page 152 and 153:
150 115. Intelligence and Terrorism
Page 154 and 155:
152 163. Gomaa, Ali. “Biography.
Page 156 and 157:
154 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This report wo
Page 158:
156 Islam and the Bomb: Religious J
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