Name of Questioner
Sister - Turkey
Title
Jewish Fatwas on Killing: Politics or Religion?
Question
Respected scholars, as-salamu `alaykum. As you see, the brutal barbaric Israeli war againstGaza that has led to a horrific number of victims: more than 1400 people have been killed and more than 5000 seriously injured. The vast majority of them are women and children.
Before and during the aggression, Israeli rabbis and scholars issued a lot of fatwas that encourage attacking Gaza and its inhabitants, irrespective of whether such inhabitants are civilians or combatants. These Jewish fatwas incited Israeli soldiers to kill and destroy every thing, even to kill animals and cut down trees, and this is what happened.
Why do they have such extreme hatred towards innocent people and politicize fatwas for inhuman goals? Do Muslims have similar instructions that incite killing innocent people or destroying life?
Date
26/Jan/2009
Name of Mufti
Topic
International Relations & Jihad, Relations during War
Answer
Wa `alaykum as-salamu wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh.
In the Name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful.
All praise and thanks are due to Allah, and peace and blessings be upon His Messenger.
Dear sister, thank you for your question. We ask Almighty Allah to reward you and strengthen our faith in Him.
Islam never allows killing innocent people. Even in times of war, the teachings of the Qur'an and Sunnah prohibit killing civilians, women, children, elderly people and those who are not armed who have nothing to do with war. Moreover, international laws and conventions prohibit targeting innocent people.
Really, it is unbecoming of Jewish rabbis to encourage their leaders to target the helpless Palestinian people and their infrastructure based on a religious creed. We, as Muslims, believe that the Shari`ah of Prophet Musa (peace and blessings be upon him) never allowed targeting innocent people in the way the Israeli army did in Gaza.
In his response to your question, Dr. Jamal Badawi, professor of religious studies and management at St. Mary's University and the vice chairman of the Islamic American University, stated,
A proper understanding of Islam and its teachings concerning the ethics of warfare does not allow for deliberately harming innocent people. This can be amply documented from the Qur'an and the Sunnah. For example, the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) instructed Muslim armies not to commit any act of treachery or to kill women, children, elderly people, the clergies of other religions or any non-combatants. He also forbade any unnecessary destruction such as residential homes, non-military targets and what we call today the infrastructure of the community. He also forbade killing animals for any purpose other than food.
Really, it is unfortunate that some rabbis, as you said, have abused the original pristine teachings of Prophet Musa (peace and blessings be upon him) to justify the way they massacred innocent people for political purposes. However, I must say that there have also been Jewish rabbis, intellectuals and ordinary, decent Jews who have loudly and clearly expressed their outrage both as Jews and as decent human beings at these crimes that were committed against their fellow human beings, namely the Palestinian people.
Any Muslim who tries to justify the deliberate killing of innocent, non-combatants or the unnecessary destruction of property must be condemned in exactly the same terms as any other person from any other faith or background. Certainly this would be a violation of the teachings of the Qur'an and the Sunnah when properly and contextually understood.
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