The 'Crusade' term carries a sense of racism which is fully rejected by Islam and Christianity, Tantawi

By Mohammad Gamal Arafa, IOL Staff

CAIRO, March 16 (IslamOnline.net) - Grand Imam of Al-Azhar Sheikh Mohamed Sayyed Tantawi expressed on Sunday, March 16, his objection to the description of the looming military aggression against Iraq as new "Crusade", highlighting that Christians are against war.

"All revealed religions call for peace, stability, reform and abhorrence of war," Tantawi said during his meeting with the head of supreme council of Anglican churches in Scotland.

"The 'Crusade' term carries a sense of racism which is fully rejected by Islam and Christianity" he added.

Egypt's Islamic Research Council used the description in a statement on Sunday, March 9, calling on Muslims to stage Jihad (holy war) against any forces attacking an Islamic country.

The council's members include 50 Islamic scholars, 20 of which are non-Egyptians, and had issued many statements on such controversial issues as cloning and bank interests.

"Under Sharia (the Islamic law), if the enemy stepped into the territories of Muslims, Jihad should be obligatory, as we are now facing a new Crusade targeting our land and religion," read the controversial statement.

It also condemned Washington's efforts to have control of the region's resources  and other "sources of power".

But Tantawi's rejection raised questions in political and religious circles about the reasoning behind.

Many wondered if the step was taken after the old Islamic, and the most reverend, institution came under fire from western Christians.

Many Egyptian Muslim scholars shared the rejection of the statement as inflammatory.

"I hope the statement would not put the Iraq war on the same foot with old European crusade against the West," Mohamed Saleim Al-Awa, a widely-respected Egyptian scholar wrote in an article published in an independent paper.

"The term is not even included in the Islamic dictionary, and it was only propagated by the invaders themselves to draw support of Christians for their war which had been nothing but a colonial invasion meant to get economic gains," he added.

"It was a great mistake to refer to the term in the statement as we should respect feelings of Christians who are also against the war," said Tarek Al-Bishri, the former head of the Egyptian State Council.

Al-Azhar had fired the head of al-fatwa (religious edict) committee in February when he ruled that killing Americans during the war is halal (allowed by the Islamic law).

The U.S. State Department issued a statement saying that "Al-Azhar should not encourage terrorism against American troops," said Al-Isboua' newspaper.

"The Egyptian religious institution turned a blind eye on the horrors of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein against his people. It did not even condemn his possession of weapons of mass destruction," the paper quoted the statement as saying.

The statement, prepared by the State Department advisor Richard Scott, called on the U.S. administration to intervene and call on the Egyptian government to pressure al-Azhar into issuing another apology statement, otherwise al-Azhar would be included on the list of terrorist organizations, said the paper.