SHARM ELSHEIKH, Egypt, August 21, 2005 (IslamOnline.net) – Renowned Muslim scholars called Sunday, August 21, for a juristic battle against the violent groups, blaming their acts on misinterpretation of Islam.

"We must sit and talk with those people…We must at least address their ideologies," Sheikh Yusuf Al-Qaradawi, the chairman of the International Association of Muslim Scholars (IAMS), told Iqraa Juristic Forum, an anti-terror conference that opened Sunday in this Egyptian Red Sea resort city.

The two-day conference is organized by Iqraa organization, a charity owned by Saudi business mogul Sheikh Saleh Kamel.

It is attended by a plethora of leading figures, including Sheikh Mohammad Sayed Tantawi, the grand imam of Al-Azhar, the highest seat of religious learning in the Sunni world.

The event comes three weeks after up to 64 people were killed in three bomb attacks in Sharm, the most deadly attacks in the country for more than 20 years.

Three groups, two of them citing ties with Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaeda network, have claimed responsibility for the attacks, but the authenticity of the statements could not be verified.

Sheikh Qaradawi said divergent ideas are the main culprit behind the rising violence.

"Some blame violence on unemployment and social woes," he said. "But the problem lies in the mindsets of those people, many of whom have diverted from the right path."

The prominent scholar regretted that some extremist ideas are being condoned in some Muslim countries.

"A Saudi university, for instance, has approved with distinction a thesis by a post-graduate student, who said that Muslim representation in the United Nations was a major sin and distorted some tenets like the forbidden killing of prisoners of war and slave emancipation.

"Why do we overlook those people?" Qaradawi wondered.

He said he and other scholars have reached out to those people and managed to help them return to the right path.

"They even started quoting me and reading my books which were among their taboos," he said, referring to some militant Egyptian groups that took up arms against the government in the 80s and 90s.

Sheikh Tantawi welcomed a dialogue with violent groups, though he was skeptical about the outcome.

"These groups are calling us unbelievers and reject dialogue," he said.

Famed Muslim thinker Mohammad Ramadan Al-Bouti called for establishing a unified religious authority for Muslims worldwide.

"Muslim scholars are still divided on many issues and usually have contradictory positions," he told the attentive audience.

"It is high time that all religious authorities worldwide melted into one crucible, forming an umbrella supreme Islamic council with irreversible decisions and opinions."

The scholars further distanced Jihad from the acts of terrorism that claim the lives of innocent people and spread panic.

"Jihad rules and kinds are spelled out clearly in the Noble Qur’an," said Sheikh Saleh Al-Marzouki, an Islamic thinker.

"A group of Muslims can not declare war on an enemy without the approval of the imam (ruler).

"Those [extremists] who are calling themselves Jihadists are indeed nothing but a bunch of saboteurs as mentioned in the Noble Qur’an and deserve to be severely punished," he added.

Sheikh Qaradawi said Islam does not permit terrifying people even if it was just meant to play tricks and jokes on them.

"If a person from a country which is at a state of war with Muslims enters Islamic territories for a reason other than fighting and is granted the pledge of security, that solemn pledge should be honored and it can't be violated in any case even if it is given by a single woman."

Famed British writer Karen Armstrong said after the July 7 London attacks that some people wrongly prefer to call terrorists "jihadists".

She further said that Islam should not be associated with terrorist acts committed by people who call themselves Muslims because they violate essential Islamic principles.

Sharm El-Sheikh’s conference coincides with a similar one in London, which opened Sunday.

Titled "Together for a Better Future," the London conference is held upon an initiative from famed Muslim preacher Amr Khaled to discuss a host of social and family issues such as domestic violence, extremism, crime and unemployment.

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