Thursday, July 12, 2007

"It Is Not Collateral Damage But Callous Murder"   [John Hood]

More of this, please, from a physician and co-founder of a Muslim-American think tank in Chicago, writing in the Baltimore Sun:

It is tempting to disown them, and others who may yet be indicted in the [British terror] plot, by proclaiming they are not real Muslims. But that would be a cop-out; they read the same scripture and listen to the same prophetic traditions as I and all Muslims do. But they appear to have unpacked a radically different meaning from them.

Suicide bombing has gained a cult status among some groups. The Tamil Tigers, a Hindu faction fighting the Buddhist majority of Sri Lanka, have a hero status among some Tamils. This is similar to the status of suicide bombers among some Muslims in Palestine and now in Iraq. Those who practice or sanction suicide bombing consider it a form of martyrdom. But suicide by any name is still suicide and is explicitly prohibited in Islam. Injunctions of the Quran and traditions of the Prophet Muhammad prohibit it in unequivocal terms. Similarly, killing of innocents is expressly prohibited. It is not collateral damage but callous murder. . .

We in the United States need to redouble our efforts to immunize our young against mutant ideologies that romanticize suicide bombing and to encourage political engagement and civil nonviolent protest. This may be accomplished through Islamic teachings for, after all, the Quran says, "If you have taken an innocent life, it is as if you have killed all humanity."

07/12 09:19 AMShare