By Lamia Toufik, IOL Staff

CAIRO, September 10 (IslamOnline) - The Fatwa Section of IslamOnline said that there could be no justification for killing the innocent, such as those killed in the September 11 attacks.

Following the tape, which was released by Qatari-based Al Jazeera Satellite Channel on Monday, September 10, where the Al Qaeda members allegedly claimed responsibility for the September 11 attacks and declared war on the ‘infidels’, IslamOnline’s fatwa section said that it is not permissible for any individual or organization to take the law into their own hands.

Sayed Ameen, from IslamOnline’s Fatwa Department, said that while retribution (qisas) is a Quranic ruling, and that while the state does not have to interfere in small disputes amongst people, if and when the victim seeks retaliation, he must resort to the state and not take the law into his own hands. “Declaring war on the infidels and killing the innocent is categorically rejected by Islam,” he said.

In a previous fatwa on IslamOnline, renown Muslim scholar, Attya Saqr, said that: “one of the rights Islam has made inalienable for man is the right to live. This indicates that taking someone’s life without any due cause is one of the most abhorrent crimes in Islam. The reason for this is that killing renders children orphans and wives widows. It spreads chaos and instability in the society.

“Moreover, unlawful killing mars the comfort and serenity enjoyed by members of the society; it outlaws the society's etiquette and violates people’s rights. All this may turn the whole community into a place where the law of jungle governs everything.

“It is normal in all religions and among all rational people that taking others’ lives by assault without any right is unlawful and totally condemned.”

Another scholar Sheikh Ahmad Kutty, a senior lecturer and an Islamic scholar at the Islamic Institute of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, said in the past that “Islam holds every soul in high esteem and does not allow any transgression upon it. It does not allow people to take the law in their own hands and administer justice, because doing so will be leading to chaos and lawlessness.”

In a live dialogue on Monday, September 9, Muzammil Siddiqui, the president of the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), was asked about the justification of those who support the September 11 attacks and he responded saying: “There is no justification for the evil action like the one committed on 9/11. It was totally against the teachings of Islam.

“Leading Muslim scholars and respectable Islamic organizations throughout the world have unanimously condemned it. Islam forbids killing non-combatants, armless people. The Qur'an clearly says that killing one innocent person is like killing all humanity (al-Ma'idah 5:32).”

He added that those who committed this crime committed a great sin against Allah and against humanity and that those who justify it are giving a bad name to Islam.

On Monday, September 9, Al Jazeera aired video-clips in which it says Osama bin Laden claimed responsibility for the 9/11 attacks on the United States.

Al-Jazeera also broadcast footage of militants which it said were among those Al-Qaeda members who carried out the 9/11 attacks. The video showed them pouring over flying manuals and aerial maps of the Pentagon, one of the group’s targets along with New York’s World Trade Center, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.

The militants were filmed in the Afghan city of Kandahar “a few months” before heading to the United States to carry out the attacks that left about 3,000 dead, the station claimed.

Meanwhile, over still photos of the hijackers, Bin Laden’s voice was allegedly heard naming some of the attackers in the September 11 strikes, including Egyptian Mohammad Atta who he said “led the group which destroyed the first tower” of the World Trade Center.

Describing the attacks as “the New York and Washington raids,” Bin Laden praised “the men who changed the course of history and cleansed the (Arab-Islamic) nation from the filth of treacherous rulers and their subordinates.”

But many people in Islamic circles and the Arab world cast doubt on it as being inauthentic or doctored and not the smoking gun touted by U.S. officials at the time.