By Muhammad Yunus, New Age Islam
(Co-author (Jointly with Ashfaque Ullah Syed), Essential Message of Islam, Amana Publications, USA, 2009)
21 February 2017
German Chancellor, Angela Merkel’s reference to Islam as a ‘peaceful religion’ in the just concluded Munich Security Conference (Feb 17-19) stands in sharp contrast to US President Donald Trump’s fear of Islam as a source of terrorism, that reflects glaringly in his speeches and recent travel ban. She said: “I expect from religious authorities of Islam to find strong language in order to delimitate peaceful Islam from terrorism committed in the name of Islam. We as non-Muslims cannot do this; it should be done by Islamic clergy and authorities." [1]
But this is easily said than done. Islamic clergy (Ulema) and religious authorities who frequently make the claim that Islam is a religion of peace, are conceivably doubtful of this claim in their own hearts for had it not been so, they would have already ‘delimitated’ the peaceful Islam from terror by outlawing ISIS and other Muslim terrorist groups – or at least by taking to raucous protests such as by massive and tumultuous processions and street marches carrying banners and shouting slogans against them. To the contrary when ISIS chief al-Baghdadi and his followers claimed that “Islam has never been a religion of peace, not even for a day,” and that “it has always been a religion of war and conflict” [2] they did not challenge them for conspiring against Islam and reducing Islam to a cult of violence. [3]
The problem is, the orthodox Islam takes the Prophet’s early biographical reports (Sira) as authentic historical document, regards the Hadith corpus as some form of revelation (Wahi) and venerates the Shariah Law of Islam as its divine Shariah. As these domains - all historically derived and product of human agency contain ample of materials to dismiss the claim to Islam being a religion of peace, Islamic clergy and authorities – barring exceptions, are tight-lipped against passing any legal opinion (fatwa) charging ISIS of crossing the limits of faith. A fanatically brutal terror outfit had emerged soon after the death of the Prophet Muhammad that was otherwise obsessively dedicated to religious rites (prayer, Qur’anic recitation etc,) like ISIS /the radicalized Muslim terror outfits of this era. Caliph Umar outlawed it as ‘Kharijites’ – an epithet that means “those that exited from the faith of Islam”. In a supreme irony of history, the German Chancellor is notionally playing Caliph Umar of this era and trying to guide the Muslims at this darkest point in their history – when hatred of Islam and Muslims has reached the threshold of a flash point - let alone its other fallouts by way of prejudice, contempt, discrimination, rising hate crimes and looming religion based restrictions.
Angela Merkel’s remark may however be regarded as platitude and may not completely dispel the subconscious doubts of Islamic clergy and religious authorities regarding the peaceful character of their faith as preached by their Prophet and encapsulated in the Qur’an. This author, at the strength of his exegetic knowledge, has demonstrated this conclusively by piecing together Qur’an’s disjointed glimpses of the Prophet’s mission in his article referenced below [5]. Since the Qur’an was recorded in full light of history and is preserved verbatim by an unbroken chain of memorizers down the centuries since the Prophet’s era – its testimony is above debate.
With his conviction in the peaceful character of his religion, the author, in one of his articles [6] has declared “the expulsion of ISIS from the pale of Islam in his personal capacity and called upon the Muftis and Ulema of different countries of the world where there is at least one mosque, to declare them as such and to have nothing to do with them and warn all members of the community to disown them and have no sympathy for them as their Islamic title may evoke.”
To wind up this SOS to the Muslim Ulema and religious authorities, the author would like to cite the following religious ruling (fatwa) from an internationally recognized Islamic scholar that can be used as an authentic tool to delimitate peaceful Islam from terrorism and eradicate violent extremism in the name of Islam – so called radical Islamic terrorism.
This article is complementary to my following recently penned article:
In one word, if the Islamic clergy and authorities fail to delimitate peaceful Islam from terrorism by outlawing ISIS / Muslim terror outfits operating in the name of Islam, they will grievously fail in preventing their religion of peace and harmony from turning into a cult of bestial violence and naked terrorism – at least in the eyes of the others. And that may have terrible consequences for the global Muslim community and broader humanity. Hence this article from an insider, with exegetic knowledge, to lend support and give flesh to Angela Merkel’s proposal that purports to strip ISIS and other Muslim terrorist groups of any religious legitimacy – the biggest weapon in their hands to unleash terror against humanity.
Notes:
1. aljazeera.com/news/2017/02/merkel-islam-source-terrorism-170218081154919.html]
4. aljazeera.com/news/2017/02/anti-muslim-groups-tripled-trump-campaign-170216153335713.html
Muhammad Yunus, a Chemical Engineering graduate from Indian Institute of Technology, and a retired corporate executive has been engaged in an in-depth study of the Qur’an since early 90’s, focusing on its core message. He has co-authored the referred exegetic work, which received the approval of al-Azhar al-Sharif, Cairo in 2002, and following restructuring and refinement was endorsed and authenticated by Dr. KhaledAbou El Fadl of UCLA, and published by Amana Publications, Maryland, USA, 2009.
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