6,000 Muslim clerics approve a fatwa against terrorism

A fatwā (Arabic: فتوى‎; plural fatāwā Arabic: فتاوى‎), in the Islamic faith is a religious opinion on Islamic law issued by an Islamic scholar. In Sunni Islam any fatwa is non-binding, whereas in Shia Islam it could be, depending on the status of the scholar. wiki

Sharia

During his lifetime, Muhammad held both spiritual and temporal leadership of the Muslim community. Religious and secular law merged, and all Muslims have traditionally been subject to sharia, or religious law. A comprehensive legal system, sharia developed gradually through the first four centuries of Islam, primarily through the accretion of precedent and interpretation by various judges and scholars. During the tenth century, legal opinion began to harden into authoritative rulings, and the figurative bab al ijtihad (gate of interpretation) closed. Thereafter, rather than encouraging flexibility, Islamic law emphasized maintenance of the status quo.

The word “Islam” means “submission.” A “Muslim,” therefore, is one who submits to the will of God. Shariah, frequently translated as “Islamic law,” is neither a document nor a code in the strict sense, but rather an amalgamation of scriptural (Quranic) injunctions, sayings of the Prophet Mohammed, juridical rulings, and legal commentaries dealing with all aspects of social, economic and political life, similar to Jewish Halakhic law.

Islam, like Judaism, is a religion of laws " it is the legal code, not a theology, which establishes the criteria of right and wrong, proper and improper behavior. Like Halakhah, Shari’a is believed to be ordained by God and its scope to be total, ranging from the loftiest ideals to the minutiae of daily life. Even the words Halakhah and Shariah, have similar meanings and may be translated as the “path” or “road” to righteousness.

In its ideal form, Shariah ensures the rights of all in an Islamic state. Fiqh is Islamic jurisprudence; it forms the basis of Shariah and is a process of ongoing interpretation. Thus it is neither static nor monolithic, and may take different forms in different countries or from one period of history to another. A classic text on Shariah, by the fourteenth-century scholar, Ahmad ibn Naqib al-Misri, deals with a wide range of subjects, including purity of heart, fasting, divorce, backbiting, crimes, and rules of warfare. more

Report: Al-Qaida planning Britain strikes

LONDON, Nov. 9 (UPI) -- al-Qaida cells in London, Birmingham and Luton, England, are planning mass casualty attacks in Britain, a government intelligence report indicates.

The restricted document, authored by the Ministry of Defense, MI5 and the British Special Branch, maintains al-Qaida operatives based in Britain will attempt another "spectacular" event targeting major transport facilities, such as airports and train stations, the Sunday Telegraph said.

Someone should get in touch with them to explain that putting bombs on London Transport is against the law.

Steve 41oo wrote:

Someone should get in touch with them to explain that putting bombs on London Transport is against the law.

Yes. And then he should tell Christians, Jews and others that there religions forbid killing ...

Christianity, just as much as Islam, teaches children that unquestioned faith is a virtue. You dont have to make the case for what you believe. If somebody announces that it is part of his faith, the rest of society, whether of the same faith, or another, or of none, is obliged, by ingrained custom, to 'respect' it without question; respect it until the day it manifests itself in a horrible massacre like the destruction of the WTC or the London and Madrid train bombings. Ther is a great chorus of disownings, as clerics line up to explain that this extremism is a perversion fot eh 'true' faith. But how can there be a perversion of faith, if faith, lacking objective justification, doesnt have any demonstrable standard to pervert?

Ten years ago, Ibn Warraq, in his excellent book Why I am not a Muslim made a similar point from the standpoint of a deeply knowledgeable scholar of Islam. Indeed, a good alternative title for Warraq's book might have been The Myth of Moderate Islam, which is the actual title of a more recent article in the London Spectator (July 2005) by another scholar, Patrick Sookhdeo, director of the Institute for the study of Islam and Christianity. 'By far the majority of muslims today live their lives without recourse to violence, for the Koran is like a pick and mix selection. If you want peace you can find peaceable verses. If you want war, you can find bellicose verses.

Sookhdeo goes on to explain how Islamic scholars, in order to cope withg the many contradictions that they found in the Koran, developed the principle of abrogation, whereby later texts trump earlier ones. Unfortunatley, the peaceable passages in the Koran are mostly early, dating from Muhammed's time in Mecca. The more belligerent verses tend to date from later, after his flight to Medina. The result is that

"the mantra 'Islam is peace' is almost 1400 years out of date. It was only for about 13 years that Islam was peace and nothing but peace...For today's radical Muslims - just as for the medieval jurists who developed classical Islam - it would be truer to say 'Islam is war'. One of the most radical Islamic groups in Britain, al-Ghurabaa, stated in the wake of the two London bombings, 'Any Muslim that denies that terror is a part of Islam is a kafir.'

Could it be that the young men who committed suicide were neither on the fringes of Muslim society in Britain, nor following an eccentric and extremist interpretation of their faith, but rather that they came from the very core of the Muslim community and were motivated by a mainstream interpretation of Islam?

One might as well suggest getting rid of the Police
when some policemen behave badly.

Mr Dawkins is on his third wife who I presume is tax deductible.

I don't rate Mark Twain.

I suppose Dave that English history is as old as the title England. I don't know how old that is though. I would guess about 1,000 years.

New York got its first police dept. around the same time: 1845.
It was the 2nd or 3rd police dept. in the USA.
Before then, we all got along with no police.
That was considered a pro-freedom thing.

I wish I coud travel thru time,
to visit and enjoy its freedom.


The Founders were very wary of police.
Thay called the concept " a standing army " to be avoided.





David

]
R u coming up on the 200th Anniversary
of Robert Peel 's creating police for England ?

Before that, the English got along with no police.

I wish I coud travel thru time,
to visit and enjoy its freedom.