CAIRO,
June 20 (IslamOnline) - Leaders of the Egyptian Islamic Jama’a,
jailed in the heavily guarded Tora prison, denounced the September 11
attacks as a sin, and said they had been mistaken in their 90s’
clash with the government, confirming they owed the Egyptian people an
apology.
“We
will not only present an apology, but have also seriously considered
granting recompense to the families of the victims of previous wars,
from the sale revenues of our book ‘Reviews of The Thoughts of
Previous Jama’as,” Karam Zuhdi, the current leader of the
Jama’a, told Makram Mohammad Ahmed, editor-in-chief of state-run
weekly Al-Musawar, in an interview to be published Friday, June
21.
The
apology was endorsed by Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman, spiritual leader of
Egyptian Islamic Jama’a, who is now in the U.S.
Zuhdi
revealed that he made a number of tours to different Egyptian prisons
to explain “Reviews” and what a mistake - from the viewpoint of
Islamic Shari’a - it was to clash with the government.
The
government in Egypt has released thousands of Jama’a prisoners, who
are all committed to the 1997 non-violence initiative.
The
Islamic Jama’a leaders denied they had any links with Osama bin
Laden, emphasizing he was only linked to the Egyptian Jihad movement
with which they differ in the ideology of renouncing violence.
Zuhdi
said the September 11 attacks are illegal and a sin from the Islamic
viewpoint, if it were indeed Muslims who carried out the attacks.
 |
| Sheikh Omar
Abdel-Rahman endorsed the Jama’a’s apology |
“Killing
tradesmen is haram [illegal], and the World Trade Center was
full of tradesmen,” he said. “It is also haram to kill
innocent women, children, and elderly people. There were more than 600
Muslims in the WTC, and they were killed with the others.”
“Those
were all innocent lives who died there, and Bin Laden will answer for
their murder before God - if indeed he is to blame for the attacks,”
Zuhdi added.
Ahmed,
who survived assassination attempts by the Jama’a in the 90s’,
said the meeting with the Jama’a leaders in prison continued for 3
hours.
During
the interview, crippled Hassan Khalifa, who awaits a death sentence,
spoke to Ahmed, confirming his true atonement and renunciation of
violence.
“What
could someone like me, who awaits a death sentence, expect from such a
bargain? What could I ever want from “Reviews” except to stand
before God with an eye opened by the light of truth? Renunciation of
violence is my daily prayer; with it I atone for a past I now have the
courage to admit it was a sin.”
When
Ahmed asked the Jama’a leaders whether the Egyptian people deserved
an apology for what the Jama’a did prior to the 1997 initiative,
Zuhdi courageously replied: “Yes, we owe Egypt an apology for a
terrible sin that tarnished the concept of Jihad, and a
short-sighted view of Islam that strongly harmed the Egyptian
society.”
