Fadlallah explains religious basis for suicide attacks

Daily Start [Beirut] ^ | 6/8/02 | Ibrahim Mousawi

[Ranger]

Leading voice also speaks on Western anti-Arab and anti-Islamic prejudice, need to protect the environment

Ibrahim Mousawi
Special to the Daily Star

Suicide attacks in occupied Palestine are not the craven acts of the morally depraved as they are portrayed by Western media, but a form of legitimate resistance amid escalating dangers.
This is the view of senior Islamic scholar and marjaa (highest level of Islamic religious authority) Ayatollah Sayyed Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah, who in a wide-ranging interview with The Daily Star presented a multifaceted argument about the legitimacy of the “martyrdom operations,” the culture of anti-Arab and anti-Islamic prejudice in the West and the degradation of the environment.
“Killing oneself is like killing another human being; it requires permission. One needs permission from Allah to kill himself or to kill others,” Fadlallah explained, adding that “many verses” in the Koran provided such religious sanction.
“Basically, it is haram (prohibited by religion) to kill oneself or others; but during jihad (holy war or struggle for the sake of Islam), which is a defensive or preventive war according to Islam, it is accepted and allowed, as jihad is considered an exceptional case.”
In analyzing the theological arguments legitimizing suicide attacks, Fadlallah said that Allah did not identify a certain procedure to fight the enemy and defend the rights of the nation.
“If achieving victory means that we have to go through a minefield, which necessarily and definitely means that many are going to be killed, then we would go,” he said.
Fadlallah said that the Palestinian perpetrators of “martyrdom operations” do not target civilians, but rather aim to defend their people by inflicting damage and losses on the Israeli side to maintain a kind of equilibrium with the high-tech arsenal used by the Israeli Army.
Fadlallah also insisted on a linguistic distinction between “suicide” and “self-sacrifice” operations. “Suicide is considered a crime from the religious point of view. One does not own his life to end it when he likes. Allah owns everyone’s life and it is a great transgression to inflict harm to oneself as much as it is to others.”
If one kills oneself or others without a religious permission, he will be punished in the hereafter by being immortalized in hell, he continued.
Fadlallah also contradicted views widely held by Islamic scholars on the role of women in jihad, saying women are allowed to participate and carry out “self-sacrifice” operations.
“Nothing in Islam prevents women from embracing struggle and fighting for the sake of Allah. Women initially are not required to fight, for this is men’s duty, but under certain circumstances it might be a women’s duty as well.”
Fadlallah also took issue with anti-Islamic attitudes in the West, saying these prejudices resulted in a vicious circle associating religion with terrorism.
“Europeans have a negative view of Islam; they are against whatever is Islamic because they associate it with terrorism, backwardness and violence.”
He blamed this distortion on the cultural role of reductive orientalist scholars, the Crusades and the colonization of Islamic countries.
But Fadlallah suggested that Americans do not share the cultural baggage of their fellow Westerners in Europe. This difference, he said, explains the less-encumbered spread of Islam in the United States, where many Muslims have found an environment of relative tolerance.
Despite the absence of historically ingrained anti-Islamic attitudes in the United States, the Jewish lobby, he said, had succeeded in presenting both Muslims and Arabs as anti-Semitic fanatics.
Fadlallah blamed the Western media for much of the image-distorting propaganda against Islam, which has led to what he called Islamophobia in the West and around the world. Nevertheless, he identified gestures of religious tolerance by key Western leaders, such as US President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair, as positive developments.
But the cleric said that these gestures were largely attempts to earn credibility in the Arab and Islamic world and deflect criticism of pro-Western allies in the region.
He added that Western governments continue to exploit racist attitudes to further their political goals. “They use the anti-Arab and anti-Islamic drives to make political gains and pressure immigrant communities and force them to accept the policies of assimilation,” he said.
In stark contrast to this reservoir of racism in the West stands the Arab world, Fadlallah said: “Islam has brought Arabs up in a tolerant way. It taught, instructed and ordered them to adopt a rather open, flexible and humane strategy for dealing with other people. This is pretty evident,” he said.
“As we go back in history, Arabs invited, welcomed and encouraged people of other religions whether Christians, Jews or Magis to be part of the social, cultural and economic matrix of Islam.”
Although he said racism was a thick boundary dividing people and nations, Fadlallah expressed hope in dialogue as a means toward human progress.
“As Muslims, we call for a comprehensive human approach toward mankind, regardless of race and religion.”
Shifting to environmental issues, Fadlallah praised a new trend in Islamic jurisprudence, which emphasizes the preservation of natural resources.
“As Islam prohibits any action which inflicts harm on people, the same applies to nature and its resources. It is haram to cause any damage to nature,” the scholar said.
Fadlallah himself has issued a number of influential fatwas on the environment, including a prohibition on littering and the burning of tires.
Nevertheless, Fadlallah placed responsibility for the protection of the environment on the governments of industrialized countries. He targeted the US government in particular, citing its abandonment of international efforts to reduce gas emissions worldwide. “The American attitude, which refused to sign the Kyoto Protocol, is an aggression against nature and mankind.”
The Bush administration earlier this year removed the United States as a signatory of the treaty ­ a move Fadlallah described as a blunt expression of “American greed.”
In Islamic teachings, the protection of nature and its resources are “disciplinary duties,” he said. Reversing the tide of environmental degradation, he said, required a cooperative effort from both civil society and the state.
Fadlallah also emphasized the necessity of educational campaigns to raise environmental awareness.
“The Third World and the underdeveloped countries are not aware of many environmental problems or the ways to solve them. They are busy paying attention to other things, (but) it is very important to spread a culture of awareness and respect for nature among them,” he said.

[Ranger]

What did we learn from this? Suicide is wrong unless you take an infidel with you. Women can't drive cars but it is ok for them to blow up grocery stores and associated patrons. Muslims used to be tolerant and educated relative to europeans in the middle ages but they got over it. Oh yes, and before blowing up that pizza parlor, please be sure to recycle.

[lady lawyer]

"Prejudice" against people who want to kill anyone outside their group? Imagine that.

[rageaholic]

Instead of condemning terrorism and seeking peaceful solutions to their many problems, Moslem leadership is loudly attempting to justify moslem suicide meat bombs and deny culpability for 9/11.

Is Osama bin Laden the Muslim Pope or what?

[rageaholic]

But Fadlallah suggested that Americans do not share the cultural baggage of their fellow Westerners in Europe. This difference, he said, explains the less-encumbered spread of Islam in the United States, where many Muslims have found an environment of relative tolerance.

Oh cr*p, this extremist considers the USA as a "safe haven" for the spread of his sick death cult. We really ought to disabuse him of that.

[anniegetyourgun]

"One needs permission from Allah to kill himself..."

More evidence that they serve a false god.

[McGavin999]

What we learned from this is that the leftists are trying to hijack the hijacking of the Muslim religion and turn it into an environmental issue LOL!

Of course, this poor fool has overlooked the fact that the ONLY natural resource they have in the mid-east is oil and if Koyota was signed by the US billions of Muslims would STARVE!

[hellinahandcart]

“As Islam prohibits any action which inflicts harm on people, the same applies to nature and its resources. It is haram to cause any damage to nature,” the scholar said.
Fadlallah himself has issued a number of influential fatwas on the environment, including a prohibition on littering and the burning of tires.

I must have missed Fadlallah's fatwa against Saddam for setting Kuwait's oil fields on fire.

Nevertheless, Fadlallah placed responsibility for the protection of the environment on the governments of industrialized countries. He targeted the US government in particular, citing its abandonment of international efforts to reduce gas emissions worldwide. “The American attitude, which refused to sign the Kyoto Protocol, is an aggression against nature and mankind.”

I get it. The Islamists are in bed with ELF now, and this is a warning about where the next crop of suicide bombers will be harvested.

Hey Ayatollah, has IRAN ratified Kyoto yet? How about Lebanon? How about the rest of the Middle East? You gonna go after Australia for refusing to sign?

[gaspar]

Fadlallah is an Islamist maniac and for more than two decades Iran's link to the Lebanese Shiites. His operative is Immad Mugniyah, now on the USA's terrorist hitlist, and responsible, inter alia, for the bombing of the marines and the United State Embassy in Beirut.

[bloggerjohn]

Another wierd old man in a funny hat claims to speak for God.

[WIMom]

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[sinclair]

"Oh cr*p, this extremist considers the USA as a "safe haven" for the spread of his sick death cult. We really ought to disabuse him of that."

Unfortunately he is absolutely correct in his assumptions due to the politically correct attitude of the media and the socialist political elite.  They will be welcomed and encouraged to proliferate due to their adding to the diversity of our nation. Can't turn away anyone whose culture is different from ours even if that difference constitutes a known threat to our existence.

[Don Myers]

"...where many Muslims have found an environment of relative tolerance."

Modern America is the result of the liberal experiment of ruining the American culture, and turning it into a diverse society with no morals, no standards, and acceptance of every wierd belief that anyone wants to propagate.

[sheik yerbouty]

Fatuous fatwa Fadlallah...will be read omm ramalamadingdong!

[nightdriver]

“As Islam prohibits any action which inflicts harm on people, the same applies to nature and its resources. It is haram to cause any damage to nature,” the scholar said.

How he can say that with a straight face gives us some true insight into the phoniness of islam.

A remark like that after the homicidal bombings and the insane act of 9/11 reminds me of the way some liberal high school teachers of mine used to talk.

Completely unencumbered by the thought process!

[rageaholic]

You got that right, the INS imports mostly third world garbage to "reflect the world population." Obviously this leads ultimately to becoming a third world nation ourselves.

Instead of "cultural diversity" we got cultural pollution.

[rageaholic]

Modern America is the result of the liberal experiment of ruining the American culture, and turning it into a diverse society with no morals, no standards, and acceptance of every wierd belief that anyone wants to propagate.

California is the spearhead of that experiment. No cooincidence that John Walker Lindh came from California the land of fruits, nuts and hypertolerance.

[Mind-numbed Robot]

In analyzing the theological arguments legitimizing suicide attacks, Fadlallah said that Allah did not identify a certain procedure to fight the enemy and defend the rights of the nation.

And there is the rub. Allah did not proscribe a particular procedure, leaving it to mere humans to decide the procedure. This gives the opening for all the distorted and contradictory fatwahs of various, nearly insane, Imams to issue any they please. Almost anything, like beard length, can be considered an insult to Allah and, therefore, punishable by death. Harm nature? Digging a hole in the ground could be interpreted that way by some idiot human in the absence of a strictly proscribed procedure in the Koran/ Quran/ Qu'ran. It is comforting that there is strict agreement on the correct spelling of their Holy Book, isn't it?

[a history buff]

Discussions about the nuttier version of Islam aside, isn't this the guy who upset us enough that we talked the Saudis into paying for a truck bomb next to his HQ, which didn't get him, but lots of others?

[Faraday]

In stark contrast to this reservoir of racism in the West stands the Arab world, Fadlallah said: “Islam has brought Arabs up in a tolerant way. It taught, instructed and ordered them to adopt a rather open, flexible and humane strategy for dealing with other people. This is pretty evident,” he said.

Huh?

[knighthawk]

Fadlallah said that the Palestinian perpetrators of “martyrdom operations” do not target civilians, but rather aim to defend their people by inflicting damage and losses on the Israeli side to maintain a kind of equilibrium with the high-tech arsenal used by the Israeli Army