No Excuses for Cold-Blooded Murder and Terrorism in the Name of Islam

By Sheikh Salman Al-Oadah at IslamToday.net

History is replete with human violence and iniquity, going all the way back to Cain’s murder of his brother Abel. Allah says:

فَطَوَّعَتْ لَهُ نَفْسُهُ قَتْلَ أَخِيهِ فَقَتَلَهُ فَأَصْبَحَ مِنَ الْخَاسِرِينَ

But his mind imposed on him the killing of his brother, so he slew him and became one of the losers.

[Sûrah al-Mâ’idah 5:30]

The context of this verse emphasizes both his deep regret and his spiritual loss for the great sin that he had committed. Allah says:

فَبَعَثَ اللَّهُ غُرَابًا يَبْحَثُ فِي الْأَرْضِ لِيُرِيَهُ كَيْفَ يُوَارِي سَوْءَةَ أَخِيهِ قَالَ يَا وَيْلَتَا أَعَجَزْتُ أَنْ أَكُونَ مِثْلَ هَٰذَا الْغُرَابِ فَأُوَارِيَ سَوْءَةَ أَخِي فَأَصْبَحَ مِنَ النَّادِمِينَ

مِنْ أَجْلِ ذَٰلِكَ كَتَبْنَا عَلَىٰ بَنِي إِسْرَائِيلَ أَنَّهُ مَن قَتَلَ نَفْسًا بِغَيْرِ نَفْسٍ أَوْ فَسَادٍ فِي الْأَرْضِ فَكَأَنَّمَا قَتَلَ النَّاسَ جَمِيعًا وَمَنْ أَحْيَاهَا فَكَأَنَّمَا أَحْيَا النَّاسَ جَمِيعًا

Then Allah sent a raven scratching up the ground, to show him how to hide his brother’s naked corpse. He said: Woe unto me! Am I not able to be as this raven and so hide my brother’s naked corpse? And he became repentant. For that cause We decreed for the Children of Israel that whosoever kills a human being for other than manslaughter or corruption in the earth, it shall be as if he had killed all mankind, and whoso saves the life of one, it shall be as if he had saved the life of all mankind.

[Sûrah al-Mâ’idah 5:31-32]

The murderer faces two punishments. The first is a legal punishment – the loss referred to in the verse above. This includes both the legal retribution in the world and the chastisement in the Hereafter. Allah says:

وَمَن يَقْتُلْ مُؤْمِنًا مُّتَعَمِّدًا فَجَزَاؤُهُ جَهَنَّمُ خَالِدًا فِيهَا وَغَضِبَ اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَلَعَنَهُ وَأَعَدَّ لَهُ عَذَابًا عَظِيمًا

Whoever kills a believer intentionally, his punishment is hell; he shall abide in it, and Allah will send His wrath on him and curse him and prepare for him a painful chastisement.

[Sûrah al-Nisâ 4:93]

The second punishment is the acute sense the murder has of his sin and its magnitude; the shame and blame that the murderer feels after the rage of the moment has subsided and his normal frame of mind is restored.

Murder is sometimes committed because of conflicts related to worldly gain, like the quest for wealth and power. This stark reality is something that sincere people strive to curtail or at least minimize in society thought education, social guidance, and reform. The laws of nations seek the same through their penal codes and police forces.

The very worst murders are committed by zealots who wrongfully and unjustly commit their crimes in the name of religion. This is the worst form of murder, since it takes the very faith that came to establish justice and to preserve human life and human welfare and misuses it in order to achieve the very opposite of the religion’s noble objectives. It perverts some people who should be upholding human life into the very ones who commit murder.

This murder is the worst kind of murder, since the murderer is far removed from regret or from penitent feelings. A person who kills someone else out of bigotry, greed, or other worldly desires, might hear the word of Allah and the teachings of the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him, about the sanctity of human life and the sacredness of the human being. He might hear about the great punishments that await the murderer in this life and the next. If his heart has any faith, he might be seized by fear for what he has done. He might feel regret, which can lead him to repentance and to mend his ways.

As for the one who kills in the name of religion, he is filled with falsehoods that come from his baser self and that have been made fair-seeming for him by Satan and which are supported and encouraged by his associates. These falsehoods have been embellished by words that are bereft of truth until the person is utterly blinded to the truth and kept away from the Book of Allah. He is led to propound arguments so banal and false that he who utters them would not accept their like from someone else in the most trivial of matters.

Some people are amazed by the sheer nerve of the murderer. It is the courage born of ignorance, which was seen in the times of ignorance before Islam. Abû Jahl displayed such courage during the Battle of Badr, when he was thrown down to the ground, covered in his own blood and seeing his imminent death before his face, was able to ask, “So who is winning the battle now?” He was able to insult Ibn Mas’ud, saying, “You have risen to a difficult status, haven’t you little shepherd?”

Every manner of conduct or action that is not kept aright by the values of Islam will tend either to extremism or to crass neglect. Targeting public places where people converge – like markets, hotels, and airports – is the epitome of wrongdoing. All manner of people are found in such places, both Muslim and non-Muslim, whose lives are inviolable. For someone to detonate a bomb in such a place is a grievous evil. It is clearly a most heinous sin, a transgression against others and against the law of Allah. It is most appalling that anyone would have the presumption to call such a depraved act a “jihad.” Where is the “jihad” in killing innocents? This is clear misguidance.

It is the obligation of all of us – everyone who has access to a pen or a podium – to condemn such acts in clear and unequivocal terms. We must not mix our condemnation with anything else. It is not necessary for us whenever we speak about such crimes against humanity to, in the same breath, bring up the wrongdoings of America or Israel. Instead, we must confront these heinous crimes being perpetrated by Muslims with our particular condemnation, and do so with the direct and unambiguous evidence of our sacred texts and by clarifying the objectives of Islamic Law. Other crimes that were perpetrated by other people should not be brought up in the same discussion.

We must steer clear of giving any justification to these crimes. Though it is the responsibility of specialists in security issues, political analysts, and social scientists to study any phenomenon and investigate its causes, at this time it is particularly necessary to put forth a clear message of condemnation of these crimes being carried out by Muslims and to declare their unlawfulness in Islam. The Muslim youth need to be made to understand how clear the matter is, so that they will not slip into error.

The perpetrators of these acts are generally a few, isolate individuals. They are the ones who have to carry their sin and meet their Lord with its great burden weighing down their backs. They will have to face their victims grabbing them by the shoulders and saying, “My Lord! My Lord! Ask this man why he killed me unjustly!”

If this is the grave state of the murderer, then those who Allah spares from the blood of such murders should be careful not to meet their Lord bearing the guilt of having ever said anything in support of those crimes, or encouraging them, or of sympathizing with or applauding the perpetrators. We should be careful not to ever utter such statements that might be said inadvertently by some people on account of personal prejudices, or by the idea that some supposed objectives were realized, or from malicious joy at the expense of one group or another. All of that is impermissible. Nothing should ever be said to justify, trivialize, or excuse those crimes. We should always imagine that it was ourselves, or our parents, or our children who were the victims and think: for what purpose were they killed?

We must not remain silent until those crimes strike us in our own homes. Our Lord tells us that in the Hereafter the infant girl who was buried alive will be asked for what sin was she killed. This will be asked as a means of condemning and humiliating her murderer. This girl will have been from the age of paganism before Islam, when the custom of burying infant girls used to be practiced. Her Lord will, nevertheless, come to her defense on that grave day. How much worse it will be for those who murder en masse?

O Allah! These unjust acts are a crime against the religion of your Prophet, peace be upon him, who You sent with mercy. They are a transgression against Your servants.

O Allah! Protect the Muslims from these crimes. Guide them by their forelocks to what is right. Save them from corruption. Give them insight and clear vision so that they will not love that which You despise, nor despise that which You love. Bestow upon them mercy, peace, and prosperity.

Amîn.

(www.faithinallah.org / 11.05.2012)

UNRWA mysteriously removes top official’s statement on Israel’s treatment of hunger strikers

A widely reported statement by UNRWA Commissioner General Filippo Grandi that merely noted the health conditions of hunger striking prisoners and the validity of their demands has been removed from UNRWA’s web site without explanation.

The statement, originally available at http://unrwa.org/etemplate.php?id=1340, was published earlier today and removed soon after. It read in full:

10 May 2012
Jerusalem

The Commissioner-General of UNRWA, Filippo Grandi, expressed his grave concern about the current medical and health conditions of the thousands of Palestinian political prisoners on hunger strike in Israeli prisons.

The Commissioner-General appealed to the Israeli government to find an acceptable solution, noting that the hunger strikers’ demands are generally related to the basic rights of prisoners, as stipulated in the Geneva Conventions.

Filippo Grandi reiterated the call of the Secretary-General of the United Nations that those under administrative detention be brought to trial or be set free, noting that two of the administrative detainees are in serious condition after more than 74 days, and are in imminent danger of death.

For more information, please contact:

Sami Mshasha
UNRWA Arabic Spokesperson
Mobile: +972 (0)54 216 8295
Office: +972 (0)2 589 0724
s.mshasha@unrwa.org

Filippo Grandi’s comments were aggregated by UNISPAL and are still available in that system. UN Radio reported his statement. Notable journalists also have mentioned it.

@BBCBarbaraPlett
Barbara Plett#UNRWA head says demands of #Palestinian hunger strikers related to basic prisoner rights stipulated under #GenevaConventions…
May 10 via web Favorite Retweet Reply

The disappearance of the Commissioner General’s statement from UNRWA’s web site is a mystery. Original screen captures are included below.

 

 

Update

Soon after this post was published, UNRWA added a new statement to its web site which reads in full:

The statement on prisoners on hunger strike has been removed because it contained some inaccuracies, which are being checked.

(electronicintifada.net / 11.05.2012)

‘Boerka is mijn eigen keuze’

Universiteit Gent deed eerste kwalitatief boerka-onderzoek in België: resultaten hetzelfde als in Nederland.

Eva Brems leidde een onderzoek binnen het Centrum voor Mensenrechten aan de faculteit Rechtsgeleerdheid naar de reden achter het dragen van een gezichtssluier alsmede de beleving van het dragen ervan. Haar conclusie: Het is niet dat ik uitsluit dat er in België vrouwen onder dwang een gezichtssluier dragen, maar we hebben er geen enkele gevonden. ‘Geen van de ondervraagde vrouwen ziet een gezichtssluier als verplichting. Voor hen is het een vrijwillig engagement als vervolmaking van hun geloof.’

Algemeen wordt aangenomen dat er in België een 250-tal vrouwen een gezichtssluier dragen. De 27gesluierde vrouwen die voor dit onderzoek – tussen september 2010 en september 2011 – ondervraagd werden, zijn daarvan ongeveer tien procent. Hoofdzakelijk huisvrouwen van Marokkaanse origine die in grote steden wonen, verspreid over het land. ‘We claimen geen representativiteit, maar hebben wel een grote groep ondervraagd’, zegt Brems. ‘De resultaten zijn gelijklopend met Nederlands onderzoek.’ Dit onderzoek werd eerder al door ons geplaatst en is hier te vinden.

Aanleiding voor het onderzoek waren de plannen van de Belgische wetgever om in april vorig jaar een verbod op gezichtssluiers in te voeren. Ongeveer de helft van de interviews vond plaats voor het invoeren van het verbod, de andere helft nadien.

Alle ondervraagde vrouwen spraken over de positieve gevoelens die de sluier hen geeft: van vreugde en trots tot vrijheid en innerlijke rust. Eén moslima vatte het zo samen: ‘Met mijn niqab voel ik me zo vrij als de wind’. Alle ondervraagde vrouwen geven aan een zo normaal mogelijk leven te willen leiden. ‘Ik neem de bus en ga naar het pretpark’, liet een moslima optekenen. ‘Al voel ik me daar in mijn niqab soms de grootste attractie van allemaal.’  De positieve gevoelens die de sluier hen geeft, staan haaks op de negatieve reacties die ze van anderen krijgen. Een opvallende bevinding van het onderzoek zijn de talrijke verhalen van verbale en soms fysieke agressie die de vrouwen op straat ondervonden. ‘Een politieagent lachte me uit. Hij deed alsof ik zelf niet kon nadenken’, aldus één van de respondenten.

Sinds de invoering van het boerkaverbod vinden de vrouwen dat de negatieve reacties erger zijn geworden. Sommige vrouwen vermijden om die reden activiteiten buitenshuis. ‘Door de moeilijke reacties van buitenaf, moeten ze erg sterk zijn’, zegt Eva Brems die daarbij nog een gemeenschappelijk kenmerk ziet. ‘Het zijn stuk voor stuk eigenzinnige vrouwen. Ze laten zich niet beknotten in hun geloofsbeleving. Een derde van de ondervraagde vrouwen draagt de niqab langer dan tien jaar. Maar een gezichtssluier dragen, blijkt toch ook niet voor altijd. Tien van de 27 vrouwen legden de sluier intussen af.

Waarom ze dat doen? Angst voor agressieve reacties of om door de politie beboet te worden, blijkt de voornaamste reden. In de meeste gevallen is het de echtgenoot die het eerst suggereert of het meest aandringt. ‘Uit bezorgdheid of omdat hij het met de negatieve reacties op straat nog moeilijker heeft’, zegt Brems. ‘Ook daar gaat het idee van de tirannieke echtgenoot dus niet op.’ Ze is zich ervan bewust dat de conclusies van het onderzoek tegen een aantal vooroordelen ingaan. ‘Zelfs aan vrienden en familie kreeg ik de resultaten moeilijk uitgelegd’, zegt ze. ‘Ik weet dat er cynische reacties op zullen komen.’

Als Kamerlid voor Groen stemde Eva Brems vorig jaar als enige tegen het boerkaverbod omdat het vrouwen volgens haar in de steek laat. Mannen die hun vrouw verplichten zich te sluieren, kunnen door de wet niet gestraft worden. De vrouwen die het vrijwillig dragen worden weggezet als onderdrukt hoewel zij het als onderdrukking ervaren de sluier af te leggen. Het is jammer, aldus Brems, dat men dergelijke stappen tot een verbod heeft ondernomen zonder enige wetenschappelijke bron ervoor aan te spreken.

(waaromislam.nl / 11.05.2012)

Hirsi Ali: Breivik werd niet gehoord

BERLIJN -  Aan haar vele argumenten tegen het multiculturalisme heeft publicist en oud-VVD-Kamerlid Ayaan Hirsi Ali de aanslagen door de Noorse massamoordenaar Anders Breivik toegevoegd.

Anders Behring Breivik tijdens het proces.

In een toespraak in Berlijn zei ze „Breivik schrijft in zijn manifest niet dat het moslims waren die hem tot zijn daden brachten, zoals vaak wordt gedacht.”

“Hij nam zijn toevlucht tot geweld omdat het hem niet lukte door de politieke correctheid heen te breken”, aldus Hirsi Ali. „Wie de moeite neemt zijn 1500 pagina’s tellende manifest te lezen, zal tot die ontdekking komen.”

De in de VS woonachtige Hirsi Ali kreeg donderdag in Berlijn de Axel Springer-prijs uitgereikt voor haar „compromisloze strijd voor de rechten van moslimvrouwen”, weet NRC Next.

(www.telegraaf.nl / 11.05.2012)

From Ramleh to the World: Can You Hear Us?

An Israeli soldier fires tear gas at Palestinians during a protest in solidarity with incarcerated Palestinians on hunger strike in Israeli jails in the village of Beit Omar, near the northern West Bank town of Hebron, on 11 May 2012.

“Can they hear us?” wonder the protesters. Raising their voices louder and louder, the protesters in front of Ramleh prison are hoping the detained hunger strikers inside the jail can hear them. They are hoping their shouts will reach the ears of the prisoners and whisper to them: “we hear the growling of your stomachs”. We hear your shouts for freedom loud and clear and it moves us to action.

Buses carrying the prisoners’ families are leaving. Engines start, alerting those wearing uniforms. Five minutes pass and the occupation’s police get a rush of adrenaline. It is finally time to do what they do best, crush protests. Pushing the protesters, people fall to the ground and in just a minute it all became a mess. With beatings and arrests everywhere, the protesters remain steadfast. No force can silence them. The result was eight arrests, including Palestinians, Jewish citizens of the state of “Israel”, a Canadian and an American. Who said it was apartheid? You can clearly witness the equality in oppression of those calling for rights.

The eight arrestees are driven to Ramleh police station. Those who are cuffed with their hands behind their backs are unfortunate; they are dragged by the cuffs, not knowing the best way to walk. Sideways? Backwards? And even if you walk at a regular pace forward, they push you. You do not have the right to walk like a human being. You have to be humiliated.

Four policemen pick up a man and another tazes him. It is just an experiment to see how the human body reacts to electric shocks.

Women are taken to one room. Men are taken to another nearby room. One of the arrestee is a minor. The police want his information. Speaking to him in Hebrew, he refuses other than to be spoken to in Arabic. Even at this young age, he knows who he is. He is a Palestinian Arab and proud. Six men, two Palestinians, two Israelis, one Canadian and one American, are locked inside a chamber. The minor was left outside the chamber, hands and legs cuffed. The chamber is three-by-three meters. It is big enough to fit the six arrestees, each one has their leg cuffed to another. The walls have red blood spots all over them. Is it Palestinian blood? What happened inside this chamber? Thoughts are broken by loud noises, screams and tazers. 

Outside the police station, the arrestees’ comrades are gathering to check up on their friends. They move outside the compound. The noses of Zionist policemen are sensitive to the smell of proud people. It’s time to teach them a lesson, taze them, beat them. This is their game. Four policemen pick up a man and another tazes him. It is just an experiment to see how the human body reacts to electric shocks. A bench is flipped over two other men, and Jump! Jump! Tazing and beating everybody, nine more are arrested.

A handcuffed man is dragged to outside the men’s chamber. The officer forces open the man’s mouth and spits inside it several times. The man is then beaten against the wall. He is thrown to the ground, leaving a blood spot on the wall. Now it makes sense, that is how blood spots decorate the walls of the chamber. Four more handcuffed men are dragged to the room, thrown next to a man with a broken shoulder. An officer comes in with his tazer, playing the Shock! Shock! game for several minutes. Now screams come from the next room. Sexual harassment and the sound of tazers are sneaking through the walls. Women are threatened with rape if they do not sign. Meanwhile, two Israeli arrestees are standing shocked with pale faces. They have been arrested before. They have seen the atrocities committed by the occupation inside detention centers and prisons, but nothing like Ramleh. “I have never seen such a thing!!” says one of them, with eyes wide open. “Imagine if we were from the West Bank,” said one of the Palestinian arrestees, trying to calm them down. “Imagine if we were in the 90s, 80s, or 70s! This is a walk in the park!”

Policemen seemed to have calmed down. They are taking the arrestees to interrogation. In the men’s room, an American, a Canadian and two Palestinians are waiting. An officer comes: “Whose bag is this?” It is the Canadian’s bag. The officer stamps on it several times. The Canadian is shocked: “Why are you stamping on it?” Adrenaline rush is back. How dare he talk back to the officer! Punches, slaps and kicks, this is what you get for talking. The officer turns back and slaps the Palestinian: “Do not look at me!”

“Where is Harry?” they called. “Come!” Harry is a Jewish American from Philadelphia. His father is the head of a synagogue there. They drag him in for interrogation. “Your mother is a whore!” said the officer, leaving Harry shocked, eyes wide open. “You are not Jewish! You are a disgrace!” Harry thought that interrogations were supposed to be Q&As. He never thought he would sit there defending his Judaism.

Interrogations finish at 3:30am. It is now time to take the arrestees to Ramleh prison. No vacancies in Ramleh prison. Some of the arrestees have to spend the night sleeping on the floor or the iron bench in a detention cell. No, not even sleep. Just lying down, being called for one by one several times, first for fingerprints, then for a photo, then for some questions. It is already 7:30am now. Get ready for transfer to Petah Tekva for trial. The arrestees are transferred with other criminals. In Petah Tekva, they are all locked in one room, 18 men. The wait is long, sleep on the floor, wake up, talk, discuss, and lay down again. Finally at 4:30pm the first group is taken to trial.

 

The Zionist policemen had an exciting end to their week. Spitting in mouths, punching, slapping, breaking shoulders, sexually harassing women, playing with tazers.

It is always spirit-lifting to see your comrades sitting there in the courtroom. We do not leave a man behind. There is no evidence for the made-up charges. But they cannot let them get out for free. Being creative, the court orders a three-day house arrest, a two-week ban from contacting any person present at the protest, and a 30-day ban from a 0.5km radius of the Ramleh and Lydd areas. The same creative order is given to the second group. Now they are waiting to be released. Time is passing, arrestees are losing their temper. Documents from Ramleh prison have not arrived yet. “Officers in Ramleh prison are delaying the documents!” said one of the guards. At 7:30pm, they start releasing. By 8:30pm, everyone is out. Smiles on their faces, these people’s spirit cannot be broken. Before calling their parents, the arrestees come out and ask about the hunger strikers, Thaer Halahleh and Bilal Thiab, both on their deathbeds.The Zionist policemen had an exciting end to their week. Shabat Shalom! Spitting in mouths, punching, slapping, breaking shoulders, sexually harassing women, playing with tazers, they thought they succeeded in humiliating the arrestees. Unfortunately for them, they are out planning for their next protest. And the officers are just sitting in their offices praying to have the chance to repeat their aggression. None of their atrocities were caught on camera. But cameras are no longer needed to document Israel’s crimes.

Deir Yassin was caught on camera. Sabra and Shatila was caught on camera. Breaking bones in the First Intifada was also caught on camera. A long list of Israeli atrocities, attacks and massacres, have been caught on camera. It does not really matter. We cleared our hard disks several times to make space for more documentation. We have enough documentation of our sufferings. We now want to make space to document our victories and triumphs. We will not document them with our cameras, we will document our victories with our blood.

(english.al-akhbar.com / 11.05.2012)

Palestijnse hongerstaker Thaer Halahleh heeft te horen gekregen dat hij nu elk moment kan sterven

Mona Neddaf, een advocaat van de mensenrechtenorganisatie Addameer, heeft donderdag  een bezoek kunnen brengen aan vier Palestijnse hongerstakers die in de kliniek van de gevangenis van Ranleh verblijven. Eén van de vier was Thaer Halahleh, die vandaag aan de  74ste dag van zijn hongerstaking bezig is.
Volgens Neddaf is Thaer in acuut levensgevaar. De gevangenisarts heeft hem verteld dat hij elk moment kan sterven. Thaer weegt 55 kg, normaal woog hij ruim 80 kilo. Hij heeft een uitzonderlijk lage bloeddruk, en zijn temperatuur gaat op gevaarlijke manier op en neer. Hij geeft bloed over en heeft bloedende wangen en lippen. Volgens de gevangenisarts heeft hij een plaatselijke infectie in een deel van zijn lichaam.  Thaer drinkt water, maar neemt geen vitaminen of mineralen. Neddaf  rapporteerde dat hij weliswaar lichamelijk zwak is, maar mentaal onaangedaan. Hij zou donderdag bezoek krijgen van familie, maar de Israelische gevangenisdienst zette daar een streep door.
Addameer meldt dat ook de gezondheid van Mohammed Taj, nu in de 55ste dag van zijn hongerstaking, eveneens ernstig in gevaar is. Addameer vreest verder voor de levens van Bilal Diab, die net als Thaer aan de 74ste dag van zijn hongerstaking bezig is, Hassan Safadi (de 68ste dag), Omar Abu Shalal, (de 66ste dag), en andere hongerstakers die in ernstige gezondheidsproblemen verkeren en wier situatie door de gevangenisautoriteiten niet voldoende ernstig wordt genomen.
Advocate Neddal meldde dat alle hongerstakende gevangenen in de gevangenis van Ramleh in isolatie worden gehouden. Ook oefenen de gevangenisautoriteiten nog steeds druk op hen uit. Zo moeten zij nog dagelijks op het ”appel” verschijnen, omdat ze anders geen bezoek van een advocaten mogen ontvangen.

Zowel in Gaza als op de Westoever zijn voortdurend solidariteitsdemonstraties met de hongerstakers. In Gaza zijn tenten met mensen die uit solidariteit eveneens eten weigeren. In Oost-Jeruzalem werd door enkele tientallen mensen gedemonstreerd voor de kantoren van de Europese Unie en het Internationale Rode Kruis. Een 150-tal mensen demonstreerde bij de Ofer gevangenis op de Westoever, wat leidde tot botsingen met het Israelische leger. Een demonstrant belandde in het ziekenhuis na door een rubberkogel aan het hoofd te zijn getroffen, 10 andere raakten lichter gewond door een te grote dosis traangas.

Opmerkelijk is dat inmiddels de NOS-tv – na meer dan 70 dagen – eindelijk ook heeft ontdekt dat er een hongerstaking gaande is onder de Palestijnse gevangenen. Donderdagavond zat het item zowaar in het Acht uur journaal. Er is echt iets heel wonderlijks aan de hand met de berichtgeving rond Palestijnen. Stel je voor dat er ergens ter wereld om wat voor reden dan ook 2500 Joden in hongerstaking zouden zijn gegaan. Zou dat dan ook ruim 70 dagen onopgemerkt zijn gebleven?

(abu-pessoptimist.blogspot.com / 11.05.2012)

Islam and Christianity must renovate religion: Atheists have to stop trashing it

•  Omar Shahid

Sufi devotees on pilgrimage to Ajmer: the Sufi form of Islam is one that emphasises asceticism and inner peace.

In Religion for Atheists, published earlier this year, Alain de Botton suggests that religion has a lot to teach atheists. It is far too important to be regarded as completely redundant, he argues, because it promotes “morality” and “teaches us to become polite, honour one another, to be faithful and sober”. This is all true. Denying the wealth of knowledge and benefit that can be found in religion is hubristic.

But religion is also the cause of many of the world’s problems: it’s dangerous. Religious people often accept exoteric, literal interpretations of religious texts, without using their rational faculties. Religion without reason is blind, ruthless and leads to discrimination.

But 21^st Century secularists are also guilty; they have dismissed and lost the ethics taught by religion. Contemporary media focus is too heavily weighed on the out-of-date issues which religion appears to have a regressive and pejorative understanding of.

In an article he wrote in February for the New Statesman, Journalist Bryan Appleyard described how a “neo-atheism” – by which he means “the conviction that science provides the only road to truth and that all religions are deluded, irrational and destructive” – has emerged over the past two decades.

de Botton echoes this view when he writes that when an atheist says ‘I think religions are not all bad’, he or she is subjected to “savage messages” calling them a “fascist, an idiot or a fool”.

One religion, however, is widely understood for its moral benefits. Buddhism – which, by its nature is a much less proselytising faith than the Abrahamic religions – stresses disengagement from worldly affairs and meditation, while it insists on maintaining a healthy relationship with the world.

It is this kind of emphasis on moral and spiritual benefits that the other faiths need to tap into; dogma, perfunctory rituals and overzealously propagating one’s religion are often a hindrance to their progression. There is nothing wrong with propagating faith, but how about doing it through acts of kindness, smiling and helping one’s neighbours, not through shouting on a pedestal or condemning others.

Two things are clear: many religious teachings are beneficial to humans – and there are a great many atheists who deny this truth. While religion has been in steady decline since the early 20th century, particularly in the West, it still plays a prominent part in many countries and will do so for a long time. So instead of completely rejecting it, we need to work with it and, more importantly, redefine it.

The Bible is still interpreted literally by many Christians and, consequently, we have seen the “issue” of homosexuality – which is condemned in the Old Testament – creep back into the headlines in the past few months. Religious leaders, basing their opinions on pre-modern scriptures, often speak insensitively about homosexuality. Why some Christians – even intelligent ones – still hold the Bible as a text that should be interpreted literally is a mystery, and potentially perilous. According to leading New Testament scholar Bart Ehram in his New York Times bestseller Misquoting Jesus, The Story Behind Who Changed the Bible and Why,the Bible is far from a divine revelation and has been altered, intentionally and unintentionally, on numerous occasions.

What is needed, however, is the quintessential message of love which suffuses much of the New Testament to override all other hostile attitudes to other people. There also need to be more progressives like Dr. Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury, who although firm in their faith, are not afraid to challenge scripture.

Islam, like Christianity, is also failing in the field of hermeneutics; modern exegetes are unable or unwilling to interpret the texts to conform with our current world. This is partly because sects like the strictly orthodox Wahhabis in Saudi Arabia, who are intent on not allowing innovation (which is a grave sin in Islam) into the religion, have a huge say on the Islamic literature disseminated throughout the world.

Then again, there are Muslims calling for change; in a blog called Contemporary Muslims are in need of spirituality, the Oxford academic Tariq Ramadan claims “Sufi movements have re-emerged” within Islam. Sufism is the inner, mystical version of Islam which places greater importance on asceticism and God’s love; the adherents, Sufis, are generally more liberal. The Sufi movements, Ramadan says, contrast with the “ritualistic traditionalism [and] Islamist activism”.

Muslims, according to Ramadan, have lost the essence of their religion which is the quest for meaning and the peace of heart. “The time has come,” Ramdan argues, “for a spiritual and religious emancipation.”

Many Muslims have neglected the inward dimensions of faith and have placed more importance on the outward. In a time when many Muslims’ faith has been shaken to the core, particularly since the bombardment of anti-Islamic sentiment following 9/11, the spiritual teachings of Islam are needed to restore a sense of equanimity more than ever. And none more so than for many intellectuals who see little import in “mainstream Islam”, an anthropomorphised God and other metaphysical concepts which seem farfetched.

The Muslim discourse on what traditionalism really is has been hijacked by literalists and has been exacerbated by 9/11: instead of Muslims saying what they are, they have become too preoccupied in saying what they are not.

A Facebook page dedicated to the 13th century Sufi poet Rumi who, according to Time Magazine, is one of the all-time best selling poets in the USA – reached 300,000 ‘likes’ last week. Rumi’s vision for Islam is one that is refreshingly inclusive compared to the doctrinal fundamentalist forms which are so often the focus of news media.

“Come, come again, whoever you are, come! Heathen, fire worshipper or idolatrous, come! Come even if you broke your penitence a hundred times, ours is the portal of hope, come as you are,” he writes, encouraging people to the positive messages of the faith. While his writings may not conform with everyone’s particular interpretation of Islam, his candid understanding represents the depth and openness with which religion can understood and practised.

It is not just inclusivity that is needed but rather a more open and discerning mind that Muslims need to embrace. Debates around homosexuality and evolution as well as the effect that our increasingly sexualised world is having on young Muslims is, to a large extent, brushed under the carpet . It’s as if scholars and exegetes hope that by brushing these issues aside they will not resurface in the minds and daily lives of the Muslim community who are in need of answers.

But conversely, we cannot underestimate what the four horsemen of New Atheism – Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett, Sam Harris and Christopher Hitchens – have done to widen the divide between religious believers and non-religious believers. Their articulate presentation of their views and deeply convincing writings shouldn’t blind us to the essence of religion and our need to reinterpret and redefine religious texts. If these leading atheists are really in search for cosmic or absolute truth, instead of incessantly thumping religion, they should encourage religious erudition, contextualisation and reasoning, as some of the answers they may be looking for may be buried deep in these ancient texts.

We often condemn religion as something simple and backward but we treat philosophy and science as pursuits of rigorous and profound study. Perhaps the reason why Dawkins et al. fail to see the profundity in religion is because, as Plato said, an individual can only master one art. The four horsemen are all leading experts in their respective fields, and indeed know more about religion than the masses – but, ultimately, they are pseudo-experts on religious texts. Sam Harris, for example, loves to talk about Jihad as if the term is linguistically synonymous with fighting and war; it’s not: Jihad means ‘struggle’, and the highest form is to struggle against one’s innate, evil tendencies. What’s so wrong with that?

Islam, according to American convert and intellectual Hamza Yusuf, is suffering from a crisis of authority, as he elucidated in a debate at Oxford University with Tariq Ramadan, entitled “Rethinking Islamic reform”, in 2010. Christian Catholics have a leader, the Pope, Tibetan Buddhists have the Dalai Lama, but many Muslims are demanding a leadership of their own, the caliphate.

So who are the right people to lead their respective religious communities? Many of the religious leaders and old establishments that are in place today clearly aren’t fit for the purpose: child abuse has been found to be widespread among Christian leaders and too many Muslim leaders in this country can’t connect with the young – indeed, 97% of Imams in Britain are foreign, mainly Urdu-speaking Pakistanis.

Christianity, Islam and the other world faiths shouldn’t be completely disregarded. Many of the ethics they teach – and the faith, and in turn, the security which they offer believers – are far too valuable to ignore; what needs to change is our understanding. It is up to the intellectual religious leaders, who have the ability to engage with the intelligent as well as the uneducated, to renovate religion.

(blogs.independent.co.uk / 11.05.2012)

Hunger strikers challenge Israel. But which side will blink first?

International outcry as Palestinians protesting against policy of detention without charge near death

In the message to his family, Tha’er Halahleh asks his wife for forgiveness. It might be the Palestinian’s last words to her, for he is close to death after 74 days on hunger strike in an Israeli jail.

At his family home near Hebron, his mother, Fatmeh, holds a picture of her son in happier days. No longer the lean man in the photograph, he tells them that he is wasting away in a prison hospital bed. His weight has plunged by nearly 30 kilograms, he is bleeding internally, his teeth are falling out, and he is finding it difficult to hear.

A so-called administrative detainee, Mr Halahleh, 34, has been imprisoned for two years without charge, denied trial or permission to view the evidence compiled against him. Israel typically detains those it suspects of security-related offences or membership of militant organisations. Mr Halahleh and his fellow administrative detainee Bilal Diab, 27, who was seized last August and is also on hunger strike, now face what critics say is a “death sentence” after Israel’s highest court rejected an appeal for their release last week.

As their conditions deteriorate, Israel is under growing international pressure to take steps to end the hunger strike. Some believe the swelling support for the strikers could trigger the Palestinians’ own Arab Spring.

Responding to criticism that the United Nations has remained silent on the matter, Ban Ki Moon, the UN chief, condemned Israel’s inaction, calling on it to charge the administrative detainees or release them “without delay”.

Israel has defended its policy of detaining Palestinians without charge by saying that it cannot always reveal evidence against terror suspects without compromising its informants.

Nevertheless, Mr Halahleh’s family was quietly optimistic yesterday in view of unconfirmed media reports suggesting that a decision to release the two men within weeks may be imminent.

Between 1,500 and 2,000 of the 4,700 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails have been on hunger strike since 17 April. They are demanding better conditions, including an end to solitary confinement, improved family visitation rights and access to education.

Palestinian sources suggested yesterday that Israel might cave in to those demands, but there was no confirmation of a deal for Mr Halahleh and Mr Diab, who Israel claims are both active members of the militant group Islamic Jihad and remain a threat.

“If this is a game of who blinks first, [Israel] is taking it to the limit,” said Hadas Ziv from Physicians for Human Rights, an Israeli NGO monitoring the cases of the two men. The prisoners’ situation bears gloomy parallels to the Irish Republican hunger strike in 1981. Ten died during the stand-off with the Thatcher government, the last after 73 days. Such was the international attention that more than 100,000 mourners attended the funeral of Bobby Sands, the most famous of the hunger strikers.

Israel faces a conundrum. If it releases the men, their struggle will provide inspiration to others, much like the recent release of Khader Adnan and Hana Shalabi after 66 days and 43 days, respectively, without food. But if one or both die, some fear their deaths could fan the flames of Palestinian resistance and trigger widespread unrest in the occupied West Bank. “We don’t want to see anybody die,” said Mark Regev, an Israeli government spokesman. “[But] you cannot have a situation where every prisoner who goes on hunger strike gets a ‘get-out-of-jail-free’ card. The criminal justice system would fall apart.”

Mr Halahleh seems to accept he may not win this fight. In his letter to his wife, Shireen, dated 8 May, he writes: “I cannot describe with words my love for you. I am doing this for the sake of God and my homeland, for [you] and my daughter Namar. Take care of her and take care of your health… and forgive me.”

Arrested two weeks before Namar was born, he has held his infant daughter for only five minutes, as family visits are conducted via telephone in separate rooms. Israel has tried to persuade his family to convince Mr Halahleh to give up the struggle, but to no avail. His mother says: “I will not put pressure on my son to make him yield. His dignity is more important than everything.”

Desperate for justice: High-profile protesters

Yulia Tymoshenko

The former Ukrainian prime minister had until this week refused food to draw attention to her maltreatment in prison, where she says she is serving a politically motivated sentence. Ms Tymoshenko ended her almost three-week hunger strike, after Ukraine – under global pressure – met her demand to be moved to a hospital for medical treatment. EU officials and some governments have said they will boycott the European Championship football tournament in June, co-hosted by Ukraine and Poland, over her case.

Irom Sharmila

Nicknamed the “Iron Lady of Manipur”, Ms Sharmila has been “nil by mouth” since November 2000 in protest against India’s Armed Forces Special Powers Act, which allows the military special powers in the way it combats radicals and separatists. Force-feeding, through a tube in her nose, has kept her alive.

Anna Hazare

The acclaimed social activist’s hunger strike in April last year ended days after it began when the Indian government agreed to his demand, and vowed to set up an anti-corruption ombudsman.

Abdulhadi al-Khawaja

The Bahraini rights activist became the face of anti-regime protests ahead of last month’s Formula One Grand Prix in the Gulf kingdom. His ongoing refusal of food casts light over his imprisonment and that of 20 others accused of attempting to overthrow the regime during pro-democracy protests last year. There is speculation that Mr al-Khawaja has been force-fed.

(www.independent.co.uk / 11.05.2012)