Mar 3 2010

SUICIDE bombers were described as the “heroes of hellfire” by a leading Muslim scholar in a fatwa condemning terrorists as the enemies of Islam.

Pakistan-born Dr Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri said there were no “ifs or buts” about terrorism and such acts had no justification in the name of Islam.

In a news conference attended by MPs, representatives from the Metropolitan Police, charitable organisations, think-tanks and other groups, he called on Islamic leaders to convey the message that acts of terrorism cut people off as true followers of Islam.

“They can’t claim that their suicide bombings are martyrdom operations and that they become the heroes of the Muslim Umma (the wider Muslim community), no, they become heroes of hellfire, and they are leading towards hellfire,” he said.

“There is no place for any martyrdom and their act is never, ever to be considered Jihad,” he said.

Communities Minister Shahid Malik, whose Dewsbury constituency was home to 7/7 bomber Mohammad Siddique Khan, welcomed the fatwa.

“It is incumbent on Muslims to stand up for their faith.

“When 7/7 occurred those four evil young men killed themselves and over 50 innocent people because they followed a twisted and perverted interpretation of Islam which told them by doing so they would go to heaven,” he said.

“A clear and unequivocal message must go out that Islam teaches that these four are not martyrs going to heaven but sinners going somewhere very different indeed.

“Hence, I very much welcome the work of Dr Qadri in helping reinforce this most crucial of message to Muslims and non-Muslims alike.”

Dr Qadri, who spoke at length in both English and Arabic before his audience, said his fatwa, a religious edict or ruling, was an “absolute” condemnation of terrorism without “any excuses or pretexts”.

“Good intentions cannot convert a wrong into good, they cannot convert an evil into good,” he said.

“Terrorism is terrorism, violence is violence and it has no place in Islamic teaching and no justification can be provided for it, or any kind of excuses or ifs or buts.”

He insisted that Islam was a religion of peace that promotes beauty, “betterment”, goodness and “negates all form of mischief and strife”.

The fatwa has been billed as “arguably the most comprehensive” theological refutation of Islamic terrorism to date by counter-extremism think-tank the Quilliam foundation.

A fatwa, an edict issued by a learned Muslim scholar, may concern any aspect of Islamic life.