Suicide Bombings
When is it Murder?
Islam forbids suicide and killing innocents, yet suicide bombings are on the rise. A scary consensus is emerging as Al-Azhar continues to flip-flop on the issue.
By Hadia Mostafa, Egypt Today, June 2004 edition
The headlines have become rather predictable of late. If it’s not Gaza, then it’s Tel Aviv, Baghdad, Riyadh or Madrid: Suicide bombings have become a near-daily reality, and the more frequent the explosions, the more baffled the international community becomes about how Islam can justify what the West condemns as flagrant acts of terrorism.
They’re not alone. Mainstream religious leaders in the Arab world are also perplexed, often disagreeing on whether killing anyone — let alone innocent civilians — can be justified in religious terms.
The political consequences of both publicly condoning and condemning acts of terror has led to an open-ended debate that is not likely to resolve itself anytime soon.
Over the past few years, Grand Sheikh of Al-Azhar Mohammed Sayed Tantawi, regarded as the highest spiritual authority in Sunni Islam, has issued a number of contradictory statements regarding suicide bombings or “martyrdom operations,” as they are often referred to in the Muslim world.
Tantawi’s opinion wavers between outright condemnation of all types of suicide missions (“the difference between true jihad in Islam and the violent extremism we see today is like the difference between earth and sky”) and de facto support (“martyrdom operations are permitted acts according to the Qur’an”).
On occasion, he has occupied a middle ground which holds that only soldiers occupying Muslim land are fair game.
“It’s a sensitive issue and in this highly-charged political environment that we are facing today, anything you say will be attacked one way or another,” says Azharite Sheikh Mahmoud Ashour, a former deputy to Tantawi.
Ashour sighs deeply. The debate is not the Sheikh’s favorite topic for discussion. “The western media calls these attacks ‘suicide missions’ we call them ‘martyrdom operations;’ that distinction, I think, says it all.
“These so-called terrorists are defending their country from occupation. They have every right to do so. Islam gives them the right to fight the occupiers by whichever means is available to them. Unfortunately, they have no weapons so they resort to blowing themselves up. Palestinians and Iraqis are living in a constant state of war, so they are not merely killing themselves for no reason, but rather defending their country — and that is justifiable,” says Ashour.
Suicide is a sin in Islam, where human life is considered a gift from God that only He may end. The Qur’an explicitly states “do not kill yourself, surely Allah is most merciful.”
Numerous hadiths (sayings of the Prophet) support the notion in great detail. Tantawi, as well as several government-appointed Saudi clerics, have stressed that suicide is haraam when denouncing the notion of death missions. But proponents of the practice claim that during the Prophet’s (PBUH) lifetime, the Muslim army sometimes fought against terrible odds. They went in knowing that they were not likely to make it out alive.
Although there is no clear-cut difference between Sunni and Shi’a views on suicide bombings (members and leaders of both sects have at times been for and against using humans as bombs), Iranian Shi’a legitimized suicide bombings in the 1980s, using them as a tool during the Iran-Iraq war. Hamas later followed suit.
According to Egyptian cleric Sheikh Gamal Kutb, a former member of Al-Azhar’s Fatwa Committee, the confusion and contradictory statements issued by Al-Azhar on suicide bombings stem from the fact that in the West all such operations are lumped together and called “terrorism.”
“When we talk about people blowing themselves up, a clear distinction has to be made between those who do so to defend their own land, and those who are just aiming to cause terror and instability as with the World Trade Center bombings,” says Kutb.
At first glance, though, all such missions appear to contradict two basic precepts in Islam: not taking your own life and not killing innocent civilians.
Both Kutb and Ashour, however, argue that a suicide mission carried out as a form of defiance against a foreign occupier makes you a martyr; the same act in a case where there is no occupation or state of war makes you a sinner and terrorist.
Kutb says because most Israelis are required to serve in the military, none can be considered civilians.
It’s a logic that allows the indiscriminate bombing of men, women and children alike.
“It’s true that Sheikh Al-Azhar has repeatedly gone both ways on the issue, but the consensus within Al-Azhar now is that Palestine and Iraq are two special cases,” Kutb says. “Suicide attacks there can not be condemned; on the contrary, we must support our brethren in these two countries because, like anybody else, they have a right to live as free individuals.
“As for terrorism, we stand against it. Islam is a religion of peace and tolerance. We deplore what is happening in Riyadh and elsewhere around the world where there is no state of war to justify violent acts.”
Last year, 28 Azhar clerics, including Mufti Ali Gomaa, signed a communiqué stating that “in accordance with reason and Islamic religious law, if an enemy raids the land of the Muslims, jihad becomes a personal imperative binding on every Muslim man and woman. This is the case because our Muslim nation will be subject to a new Crusader invasion targeting land, honor, belief and homeland.”
Tantawi approved the communiqué despite opposing the words “Crusader invasion,” which he felt was too harsh and indicated a tension between Islam and Christianity that should not be there.
“The issue of jihad, when it should be applicable and what form it should take has been heavily debated since that communiqué was issued,” says Ashour. “But I believe, and I think most Muslim scholars will agree with me, that the mujahid should utilize all the options available to him.
“When there are none, as is the case in the occupied lands of Palestine and Iraq, the last resort is blowing oneself up. If the intention of the bomber is self-defense, it is not suicide — it is martyrdom.”
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