“Shedding blood of civilians, even if there are non-Muslims, is haram, prohibited by God,” Qaradawi

By Essam Talima, Special To IOL

DOHA, November 11 (IslamOnline.net) – The deadly bombing attacks against a residential compound in Riyadh is a prohibited act under the Islamic law, said prominent Islamic scholar Youssef Qaradawi.

“Shedding blood of civilians, even if there are non-Muslims, is haram, prohibited by God, and could not be carried out under any pretexts whatsoever,” Qaradawi told IslamOnline.net in an exclusive interview Sunday, November 9.

He was speaking a few hours after the shuddering bombing explosions targeted a foreign residential compound in the Saudi capital thon Sunday, November 9, leaving  17 people  of different nationalities dead and 122 others injured in a car bomb explosion.

Qaradawi, a key moderate Islamic scholar, cited a number of verses from Qur’an stressing against launching any attacks putting an end to the lives of foreigners, and warned against trivializing “such a serious matter”.

 “Those whom Muslims should fight against are the occupiers of Muslims’ territories,” the Qatar-based scholar said.

The prominent scholar had earlier said that he held respect for the American people whom he described as “kind” people, but added that he disagrees with the American administration which “sponsors an aggressive and criminal policy against the world”.

Iraq, Palestine, Syria’s Golan Heights and Lebanon’s Shebaa Farms, all part of the Muslim world, are still under occupation.

Supportive 

In the meanwhile, Qaradawi gave a boost to the initiative proposed by Saudi reformists for ending reciprocal violence between the authorities and young gunmen, hoping that “what would be addressed are the roots of these problems”.

“They should be solved through dialogue and understanding, with security intervention should no longer have the upper hand” in clinching the settlement, he said.

He citied the example of Egypt, where using security to curbing the 1990s violence proved futile.

“When the Egyptian government adopted dialogue with armed groups and positively dealt with their violence-ending proposals, things took an absolutely different turn,” Qaradawi said.

He called on Saudi parties concerned with the violence issue, led by scholars and intellectuals, to join forces and “push forward a dialogue with the armed youth”.

Their guilt should be forgiven, and a new page be opened in which they will act with reform advocates and be entitled to their genuine role, he said.

For the armed youngmen, they should “not be close-minded, and enter into a dialogue with scholars and intellectuals”.

Prior to this explosion, there had been violent confrontations between security agencies in Saudi Arabia and a number of armed youths. Two armed men blew themselves up in Makkah to evade capture Thursday, November 6. Some analysts considered such events serious indicators of the gravity of the crisis in Saudi Arabia.

Qaradawi concluded the interview with a call on the Muslim nation “to bridge differences and stick to a reconciliation policy between the rulers and peoples in order for unity in standing up to all plots be realized”.

In an earlier interview, the prominent Islamic figure had charged that the U.S. invasion of Iraq was aimed at seizing control over Iraqi oil, annihilating the military and human power of Iraq by destroying its weapons and tearing down Arab powers, which represent obstacles in the way of the Zionist state.