Friday, March 05, 2010

ISLAMABAD: A Fatwa (religious decree) issued by Chief Patron of Minhaj-ul-Quran International, Tahir-ul-Qadri, in London a few days back, is being highly appreciated by experts who consider it a significant blow to terrorists recruiting.

According to CNN, the anti-terrorism Fatwa by Muslim scholar Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri declared that terrorism was “Haraam” (forbidden) by the Quran, and suicide bombers would not be rewarded by 72 virgins in heaven, as many terrorist recruiters promise, but with a suite in Hell.

Qadri, the founder of the Minhaj-ul-Quran International, an Islamic movement with centres in 90 countries, said his decree categorically condemns terrorism and suicide bombings in the name of Islam.

Qadri said his 600-page ruling left no room for interpretation. He added “I did not leave a single, minor aspect that, in the mind of radicals or extremists, can take them to the direction of martyrdom.”

The 59-year-old Pakistani scholar called his Fatwa an “absolute” condemnation, going as far as to label the terrorists them “Kafirs,” a term in the Quran meaning “unbeliever”. “This Fatwa has the potential to be a highly significant step towards eradicating Islamist terrorism,” Quilliam, a counter-extremism think tank based in London, said in a statement.

Mannan Ahmad, assistant professor of Islam in South and Southeast Asia at the Institute for Islamic Studies in Berlin, agreed, calling the Fatwa “unprecedented”. “This is a landmark theological study — a careful and systematic treatment of a thousand years of legal tradition dealing with armed resistance against the state, rules of engagement aspects. The Fatwa itself is categorically and comprehensively against terrorism in any form and for any cause,” Ahmad said.Salman Ahmad, the leading singer of the Pakistani rock band “Junoon”, said it were the young men in the West who could be influenced the most by Quadri’s arguments.