Suicide Attacks in Mosques

By Mushtaq Ul Haq Ahmad Sikander, New Age Islam 13 February 2023 Masjids Where These Taghoots Pray Are Also Constructed As Masjid e Zaraar That Was Demolished By Prophet Muhammad (Pbuh). Main Points: 1. In many narrations related to Prophet Muhammad (pbuh), there are huge punishments described in Hereafter for those who opt for suicide. 2. This hara-kiri was adopted by Muslims who justified these suicide missions carried out against enemies by invoking religious connotation. 3. Fidayeen as these religiously motivated suicide bombers are known have been targeting the enemies of Muslims and Islam. But now for a long time these Fedayeen are targeting groups of Muslims too, whom they deem fit for death. ------ Death Should Come Naturally To Humans Not To Be Opted In The Form Of Suicide. In Many Narrations Related To Prophet Muhammad (Pbuh), There Are Huge Punishments Described In Hereafter For Those Who Opt For Suicide. ------- Suicide is illegal in Islam. Committing suicide is debarred in Islam because Islam believes in human life, its sanctity and upholds that humans do not have the right to take their own lives. Humans, Islam believes are put for test in this world. So they are supposed to live according to the principles of Islam that renders them eligible for heaven. Abusing body is not allowed, as humans have no choice over their birth, so death too is not their prerogative or option to be availed. People inspect the inside of a mosque following a bombing in Kunduz province northern Afghanistan, October 8, 2021. (AP Photo/Abdullah Sahil) ----- Death should come naturally to humans not to be opted in the form of suicide. In many narrations related to Prophet Muhammad (pbuh), there are huge punishments described in Hereafter for those who opt for suicide. They have been described to be continuously killing themselves in Hell as a form of punishment. So when a person opts for suicide using a medium of hanging, jumping from a building or kills himself by using a firearm or knife, the person will find himself in Hell, continuously enacting the same act of getting killed and being revived again. The sanctity of life can be discerned form the Quran too as it believes that killing a single person is synonymous with killing of whole humanity and saving a single soul is akin to saving whole humanity (5:32). So Quran and Hadith make it clear that killing and particularly opting for suicide is something that should be debarred and never be an option. But despite this fact numerous Muslims every year commit suicide. Although many Muslims do take pride in this fact that they have the least number of suicide rates as compared to other non-Muslim communities. It is true but like any deviation from Islam we have this tendency of suicide among Muslims too. But a new trend that has gained traction among Muslims is that of suicide attacks. Suicide attack is something where a religiously, politically or ideologically motivated person makes a firm resolve of attacking his enemy keeping this reality in mind that he will not return alive and do maximum damage to his enemies. It was something that has its contemporary roots in Japan during Second World War and was known as hara-kiri. So its aim was to inflict maximum damage to the enemies by a volunteer suicide soldier who crossed the enemy lines, attacked the enemy and blew himself up or died in action. This hara-kiri was adopted by Muslims who justified these suicide missions carried out against enemies by invoking religious connotation. It was based on the fact that Muslims who are being oppressed by the enemy army and are not in a position to defend their property, land and honor. So to drive fear in the minds of enemies, suicide attacks became inevitable. Earlier, Palestinians and Chechens used it against Israel and Russia, then many Kashmiri and Pakistani Muslims used it against India. Some scholars like late Yousuf al Qaradawi too gave a fatwa legitimizing suicide attacks by Palestinians, although later he retracted his fatwa. But the suicide bombings continued to take place as once something is legitimized in the name of Islam it is very difficult to put a curb on it by retrograding from the previous stance. Fidayeen as these religiously motivated suicide bombers are known have been targeting the enemies of Muslims and Islam. But now for a long time these Fedayeen are targeting groups of Muslims too, whom they deem fit for death. It needs a lot of hate, anger, resentment, oppression, violation of rights for the victims who cannot fight a decisive war, so opt for suicide to wreak havoc against the enemies. So what hurt have the fellow Muslims caused to the other Muslims that makes them opt for the suicide attacks. A Muslim does oppress other Muslim but is the oppression so strong that it provokes certain Muslims to attack them inside the religious places, shrines, hospices and masjids? To understand this rage we need to analyse how the Muslim revivalist movements like Jamaat e Islami and particularly Muslim Brotherhood (MB) were oppressed by the Muslim governments. The manner in which torture was perpetuated against the cadres and leaders of Muslim brothers by the Naseer regime of Egypt and later on in Syria by Hafez al Assad radicalized a section of the imprisoned MB members. The gory details have very well been documented in prison dairies like Zainab al Ghazali’s “My Days in Prison” and other autobiographies of MB leaders. So we have the details where Muslim torturers uttered blasphemous statements against Allah, making these victims believe that they have become apostate. So a group of these radicalized people concluded that there is no difference between them and oppressive infidels. Hence they included them too as infidels and hypocrites, whose blood has become legal and lawful to be spilled, given their anti-Islam and anti-Muslim stance. The first vulnerable groups among them were the police and army men and politicians because they were the Taghoots that needed to be destroyed. This Taghoot was the biggest impediment towards the realization of the dream of Islamic State. The torture perpetuated by anti-Islamic movements and criminal behaviour of army, police, politicians and rulers had made it evident that they are the new Nimrods and Pharaohs, hence need to be punished. So this punishment was to be carried out by these radicalized cadres. So all the attacks against the police and army are carried out in masjids, because they are at the forefront of perpetuating oppression against the Islamists in their respective countries. Hence when a group is witnessed as Taghoot, so the attacks against them get a religious sanctity from the Muftis of the group. Tehreek e Taliban Pakistan (TTP) or Islamic State, Khorasan and its other branches do carry out attacks against army and police regularly and justify them as revenge attacks. Masjids where these Taghoots pray are also constructed as Masjid e Zaraars that was demolished by Prophet Muhammad (pbuh). So where these hypocrites pray that is not sanctified holy place but Masjid e Zaraar that can be demolished, with impunity from the punishment of Allah. ----- A New Age Islam columnist, M.H.A. Sikander is Writer-Activist based in Srinagar, Kashmir URL: https://newageislam.com/radical-islamism-jihad/suicide-mosques-fidayeen-islamists/d/129088 New Age Islam, Islam Online, Islamic Website, African Muslim News, Arab World News, South Asia News, Indian Muslim News, World Muslim News, Women in Islam, Islamic Feminism, Arab Women, Women In Arab, Islamophobia in America, Muslim Women in West, Islam Women and Feminism