Radical Muslim : Shaikh Dr Tahir ul-Qadri - Anti-Terrorism Fatwa Without Teeth
MARCH 1, 2010
Regarding Shaikh Dr Tahir ul-Qadri’s Anti-Terrorism Fatwa I guess any steps forward are a good thing. However, these initiatives can be read in many ways and I’ll give you a few points off the top of my head, which is should replicate what everyone else is thinking in the Muslim community.
1. I doubt this will have the clout envisaged by the Quilliam foundation spokeperson as the fatwa iteself (not the issue) doesnt have the unanimous backing of the most promoment scholars and Sheikhs, although the opinions and rulings of some prominent scholars do appear to have been involved in drawing it up. Also this is not the first fatwa to condemn suicide bombings/terrorism, and he is not the first ‘important/eminent’ Sheikh to issue such a fatwa, many more prominent scholars and Sheikhs have done so already, and these are ignored by those idiots that seek to commit suicide bombings and terorrism anyway. Furthermore, most Islamic scholars and imams have already consistently condemned killing people in the name of Islam for a long, long time. There is simply minimal publicity about this and the effort spent promoting Shaikh Dr Tahir ul-Qadri’s Anti-Terrorism Fatwa would have been better spent promoting that Muslims have already been condemning terrorism for a long time.
2. Regarding his status, the Sheikh in question may be Sunni but appears to head a Sufi organisation and as such there will be many Sunni’s and Shia’s wont reconise his rulings. In fact, its likely that most of his own followers will accept the fatwa but then most of these will not support terrorism or suicide bombings anyhow. Furthermore, he is not a universally accepted figure by all Sunni’s and even Sufi’s and in the past has made segregating comments about some other Muslim communities such as Wahabbi’s and Deobandi’s, and he is not considered ‘eminent’ by the majority of muslims. So I’d suggest that this fatwa is not really groundbreaking apart from inside his own organisation and will never be widely acknowledged apart from by his own followers. Furthermore, as Qadri has dismissed millions of people as tacit supporters of terrorism because they don’t follow his particular sect means that he will never be able to deliver any new universally appreciated message.
3. Although it is important that such a Fatwa has been publicised, the importance and reach perceived by the press, email, Quilliam foundation, etc, does appear overated/overestimated. Why? Because those that commit such crimes have already heard existing Fatwa’s stating it to be wrong, those that do not recognise this Sheikh would have already heard existing Fatwa’s stating it to be wrong, those that follow this Sheikh know not to do this already and didn’t need a Fatwa to tell them this, and those that already know it to be wrong don’t really need another Fatwa to remind them.
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