Iraqi civilians bear the brunt of indiscriminate attacks

By Mazen Ghazi, Samir Haddad, IOL Correspondents

BAGHDAD, June 29 (IslamOnline.net) – Iraqi Muslim scholars denounced Tuesday, June 29, the string of indiscriminate attacks that claimed the lives of hundreds of innocent Iraqi civilians, ruling that such blasts are totally prohibited in Islam.

The scholars, however, stressed the legitimacy of unabated resistance operations against the US-led occupation troops to boot them from the country.

"The killing of innocent civilians, particularly university professors, imams and scholars, is prohibited in Islam and run counter to relevant international conventions and the essence of humanity," Professor Mohammad Mahrous Al-Azami, member of Iraq’s Muslim Scholars Association (MSA), told IslamOnline.net.

He, however, said resistance operations aimed to liberating the homeland is "undoubtedly lawful and endorsed by religious texts ".

The imam of Al-Mas mosque in the northern city of Kirkuk, Sheikh Iyad Khurshid, was shot dead by unknown gunmen on June 12.

The league of Iraq’s university professors also condemned the liquidation of academicians, citing the June 22 killing of Professor Lila Abdullah Saad, the dean of the faculty of law in Mosul University, along with her husband.

Sheikh Ahmad Hassan Al-Taha, another MSA member, added that Islam is against operations which target Iraqi civilians or foreigners who are not helping the occupier.

"These operations stoke up feelings of animosity among Iraqis, which plays well into the hands of our enemy," said in his fatwa.

Several car bombs and attacks in Iraq have left hundreds dead this month in Iraq.

Two car bombs killed up to 40 Iraqis and wounded at least 22 others Saturday, June 26, south of Baghdad.

Two days earlier, at least 93 Iraqis were killed and over 200 others injured in a series of coordinated attacks and clashes in several Iraqi cities.

Three Categories

Sheikh Othman Mohammad Gharib Al-Hashimi, professor of the Great Imam College and imam of Al-Barkah mosque in Baghdad, said the resistance operations fall into three categories.

"The first is lawful and obligatory in some cases, when they target the occupiers; while the second is totally prohibited, when the civilians will take the brunt," Hashimi said.

"As for the third category, it has to do with calculating the merits and demerits of such operations when occupation troops use civilians as a cover or shield."

Foul Play

Azami did not rule out that the random car bombs that devastated many parts in Iraq recently were the work of the US occupation troops to blemish the image of the resistance.

Sheikh Ali Khedr Al-Zanad, member of the guidance bureau of the Islamic Party, condemned bombings and targeting Iraqi intelligentsia.

"Such grisly explosions are very much likely carried out by organized sabotage networks to destabilize the country and cause widespread panic among Iraqis," he told IOL.

He also strongly condemned the attacks on civilians, especially religious figures, saying it is pitting the Iraqis against one another.

Iraqi experts accused Monday, June 28, "foreign hands" of the attacks against civilians, saying they sought to stir unrest ahead of the handover of power to Iraqis.

"The current wave of car bombs targeting Iraqi civilians are surely carried out by foreign hands to blemish the image of resistance groups and impede the power transfer to the interim government," Rushdi Al-Ani, professor of history and Islamic civilization in Baghdad University, told IOL.