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<<Previous -- Table of Contents -- Next>> ISLAMISM AND THE ARAB WORLD Spreading
Intolerance, One Fatwa at a Time Muhammad Salih AI-Munajjid is a well-known Saudi cleric who has a large following in Canada and the West. Like other socalled Islamic scholars, he maintains an active presence on the Internet, which he uses as a platform to tell young Muslim men and women how to lead proper Islamic lives .... For some time now, I have been following the questions posed by Muslim youth and the responses (fatwas) issued by such Saudi-based clerics, It is fascinating to see how medieval-minded scholars serving a dictatorial theocracy named after an 18th century brigand are shaping the mindset of a segment of Canadian youth, On Nov. 3, a question asked by an anonymous writer particularly caught my attention. Someone asked the self-described Saudi "Sheikb": "Can a Muslim be a sincere friend to a kaafir [non-Muslim]?" Sheikh Al-Munajjid replied clearly:
"Praise be to Allah. It is not pennissible for Muslim to make friends
with a mushrik, or to take him as a close friend, because Islam calls
on us to forsake the kaafrrs and to disavow them, because they worship
someone other than Allah." Then, the Saudi cleric quoted from the
Koran, "0 you who believe! Take not as friends the people who incurred the Wrath of Allah (i. e. the Jews). Surely, they have despaired of (receiving any good in) the Hereafter, just as the disbelievers have despaired of those (buried) in graves (that they will not be resurrected on the Day of Resurrection)." I picked up my copy of the Koran to read the same verse. Lo and behold, there was no reference to Jews, yet the Saudi cleric had found it within his jurisdiction to add words to the Koran as [a] way to inject it with anti-Semitism .... Then came the bombshell. Quoting again from the supposed words of the Prophet, the Saudi cleric urged Muslim youth to not live among the non-Muslims, unless the objective of living in the West was to convert the non-Muslims to Islam. "Do not live among the mushrikeen and do not mix with them, for whoever lives among them or mixes with them is not one of us. But it is permissible to deal with them in a kind manner in the hope that they might become Muslim." ... This is just one example of the many dubious fatwas being directed at Western Muslims. Well-funded Islamist groups are working tirelessly to convince young Muslims to view their non-Muslim fellow citizens with suspicion and derision. Meanwhile, there is no countervailing effort at any level in the West to counter the Islamists' hateful message of isolation, segregation and hostility. Who will rise to challenge this
cancer of segregation seeping into the conscience of Muslim youth? The
same clerics who sit at inter-faith and multiculturalism conferences
and breakfasts with politicians are the very people who endorse the
anti-Jew and anti=Christian message coming from their Saudi masters.
The time has (National Post, November 9, 2009) <<Previous -- Table of Contents -- Next>> |
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