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Terror un-Islamic: Deoband meet |
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One of the most influential Muslim seminaries, with followers across the world, has issued a kind of fatwa (edict) declaring terrorist activities as anti-Islam.
The Darul Uloom seminary in Deoband also involved top clerics at a conclave in defining terrorism in the light of the Quran and Shariah. Reading out the declaration on behalf of an aging Darul Uloom rector, Maulana Marghoobur Rahman, a member of Darul’s governing body said on Feb. 25 “Killing of innocents is not compatible with Islam. It is anti-Islamic.”
The declaration said Darul seriously viewed allegations from intelligence agencies as well as the Centre that madrasas were terror hubs. “Madrasas don’t teach students to kill. They teach them to lead an Islamic life, where respect for human life is supreme,” he said. The Darul declared that terror acts fell under the “shirk category of sins”. According to Quran, shirk is a “sin for which there is no pardon”.
The convenor of the hugely attended conclave, Jamiat Ulema-i-Hind general secretary Maulana Mahmood Madani said that attending clerics “analysed terror activities in Islamic light” and felt that before such a declaration — which has the stature of a fatwa — could be passed, it was important to codify and define terrorism according to the Quran.
He said all top clerics, including representatives of Ajmer Sharif Dargah, All India Madarsas’ Association and All India Muslim Personal Law Board, arrived at this definition of terrorism: “Any action that targets innocents, whether by an individual or by any government and its agencies or by a private organisation anywhere in the world constitutes, according to Islam, an act of terrorism.”
This is the first time that an Islamic theological institution has institutionally defined and banned terrorism.
At the same time, the convention condemned the alleged hounding of Muslims by the police, bureaucracy and the intelligence agencies in the name of terrorism.
A resolution assailed the Union Government’s “tilt” towards the West, particularly the United States. It said “targeting” the biggest minority community of the country raised a question mark over the nation’s secular democratic credentials.
Speakers at the convention criticised what they called “marginalisation” of Muslims. They asked the community to remain calm and exercise patience, make an independent analysis of the scenario and lodge a peaceful protest whenever such a need arose.
India was dubbed a “police state” just as Turkey and Pakistan were termed “military states” by some speakers.
The Congress and the BJP have welcomed the Deoband Declaration. Congress spokesperson Jayanti Natarajan said every citizen of the country should join the fight against terrorism. She said, “the Congress does not accept that people belonging to a certain religion were being picked up and harassed by the police.” BJP leader V.K. Malhotra, welcoming the Deoband Declaration, said that the message should be made known and followed. He said it would be good if the perceived link between Islam and terrorism is broken.
Leading Muslim clerics and scholars have described the anti-terror fatwa issued by Darul as historic and path breaking and said that it is likely to have a global impact.
Noted Islamic scholar Saud Alam Qasmi, dean of Theology at the Aligarh Muslim University, said: “We fully endorse the Deoband fatwa against terrorism because there is not a single school of religious thought in Islam which endorses the killing of innocent persons in retaliation for any criminal act.”
Maulana Yasin Mazhar Siddiqui, a senior Islamic theologist said: “The fatwa should be welcomed by the entire Islamic world,” adding that revenge killing of innocent people was unambiguously prohibited by the holy Quran.
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