Thanks Deenport staff and Sheykhs GF Haddad and Muhummad Afifi al-Akiti for this fatwa:
Click Here
I am really impressed with this fatwa, especially in the light of the fact that the American media is clamoring all over this:
Click Here for CAIR’s Endorsed Fatwa
It’s all over the airwaves here and its positively wimpy in comparison.
Although both fatwas seem to have the same intentions the CAIR fatwa really addresses none of the topics at hand, relies on no scholarly precedents, and in my opinion, opens the doors for a rebuttal with a similar ‘my ayat, my hadith, my interpretation’ approach to fatwas.
This fatwa shared on Deenport lessons really demonstrates the knowledge required of an islamic scholar and automatically commands the respect and authority that a legacy and community of scholarship provides.
Just a thought: Now that we are opening up Afghanistan and Iraq to elected governments / democracy, what have the populations of those countries opened themselves up to?
Sure, when Iraq made some aggressive moves in the past, the world could point and blame Saddam. Considering the possibility that this democracy lasts beyond 30 years, what happens when a new generation who has grown up under American sanctions reaches the age of assuming power? What are the next steps when American resentment is what the Iraqi’s eventually choose?
This is similar to what is occuring in Palestine today. Although he is actually an elected leader, Yasser Arafat does not meet the ‘needs’ of the American/Israeli governments. It is interesting to note that while you hear the current administration treating democracy as a form of political baptism for Iraq and Afghanistan, you hear little about implementing ‘democracy’ in Palestine.
This is because a form of democracy is already in place in Palestine, it’s just not what the West wants. The West has always desired control of the Middle Eastern governments, and I fear how they will try to establish that control in a democracy.
I suppose that at the next Palestinian elections one will probably hear the voting booth respond after casting the ballot, “Invalid entry, please try again. It’s either that or get your home run over by tanks and bombs.”
Democracy will eventually lead both America and Muslim countries to a clash of the type we can only imagine. If democractic countries behave contrary to American’s goals, the only recourse is to blame the people themselves.
How much farther is blaming them from bombing them? At what point do they cease to become collateral damage, and become the target themselves? Hey, it’s one way to influence a vote. It seems that America has no issues with attacking people or turning a blind eye to a third party doing so, when they feel that ‘they voted for it’.
We’ve moved from intimidating dictators to intimdating the people.
I think we’ve ushered in a new highway to hate.
I went to the bookstore last night, and spent some time re-reading about our history and how different rulers managed the empire.
I think that there is room in our Islamic literature for something akin to Adam Smith’s “Wealth of Nations”, which defined capitalism. The more I think about it, the more I think I want to be involved in such a project. I will ask Sheykh Haddad his opinion.
I participate on a forum with a number of great people around the country, many of whom have not ever met a Muslim at all.
The discussion of the beheading of Mr. Berg came up today and it was a real attention-getter.
The main issue seemed to me to be that some Christian Americans are expecting outrage from Muslims/Arabs. I will count myself as one Muslims who is outraged that such a thing occurred. But, a lot of things outrage me everyday! Maybe I am being desensitized, but we have children missing here and rapists and murderers in America as well. Why expect additional outrage because murder occured in Iraq? Iraq is a war-zone, and America is not. I am actually more outraged that things like this are happening in my own country: http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/state/20040512-1339-ca-xianamurder.html
Compare the murders by insane individuals to the authorized abuses of prisoners who are paid by my tax money, and I feel that what outrages me ‘more’ is the prison abuse scandal. Neither the beheading nor the murder above were committed by people that I feel betrayed my trust and the trust of Americans. We expect and pay our military to fight for what Americans believe in, I don’t have expections such as that from al-Qaeda and the child molester above.
I think the idea here is that non-Muslim Americans feel Muslims should feel ‘especially’ responsible for this beheading, and hence should apologize. I think the question that is at the root of this is, do -I- feel responsible?
Read More Post a comment (0)The Washington Post has obtained over a 1000 digital camera pictures showing further abuses in the Abu Ghraib prison (no pictures in the link).
Incredibly damaging to the American image overseas. Damaging enough internally to at least open discussions about Rumsfeld resigning.
yursil on 
syed fareed amad on 
burhan on 
Australian Muslim on 
Ghulam Rasool on 
Abdul Malik on 
Abdul Jabbar on 