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Imam of Azhar: Aggression Against Any Muslim Country Unacceptable
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| Tantawi called on Iraq to show good intentions and release Kuwaiti prisoners |
KUWAIT,
September 29 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) – Following the
footsteps of prominent Muslim scholars, the head of Al-Azhar
Institution in Egypt, Sheikh Mohamad Sayed Al-Tantawi said that it was
not permissible for any Muslim country to allow the United States or
any other country to use its land to strike Iraq or to facilitate the
aggression on any Muslim nation.
In
Tantawi’s statement, published Sunday, September 29, by Kuwaiti
newspaper Al Rai Al Aam, he also called on Iraq to show its
good intentions and to release the remaining Kuwaiti prisoners in its
jail or to prove that it has none. This, he said, would clear the air
and the relations between the two countries could be restored, so that
the Arab world will stand united against any dangers.
“We
are with the Iraqi people and against any aggression on them. We will
not accept any oppression on any Muslim or Arab country,” he said.
Tantawi
added that when his refusal of aggression against the children, women
and old aged Iraqis, he’s not defending the Iraqi regime, but the
Iraqi Muslim people, who “are part of us”.
On
Sunday, September 22, the Shiite leadership in the southern Muslim
holy city of Najaf issued two religious decrees calling on Muslims to
defend Iraq, in the face of a potential U.S. military attack.
One
decree, or fatwa, by Imam Ali Hussein al-Sistani said “the duty of
Muslims in these difficult circumstances is to unify their position
and deploy all means to defend Iraq and protect it from enemy
designs,” Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.
“All
Muslims should know that if the aims of the aggressor are realized in
Iraq... it would be a catastrophe that would threaten the entire
Muslim world,” said Sistani.
A
second fatwa issued by prominent Najaf Imam Mohammad Said Al-Hakim
warned against “any kind of cooperation with the United States”
and attacked “all those who would broker a truce with the
Americans.”
“The
United States and their agents are seeking to impose their control on
the Islamic nation, to loot its wealth and violate its holy sites,”
he said.
A
week earlier, September 15, speaking on his weekly show on Al-Jazeera
satellite channel, prominent Muslim scholar, Dr. Yousef Al-Qaradawi,
said that it is well known among Muslim scholars that assisting the
United States is prohibited, and that there is no benefit for any Arab
or Islamic country in assisting the U.S. in its aggression against
Iraq and that Islam prohibits oppression and assisting oppressors.
Al-Qaradawi
said that Allah will vindicate the oppressed Muslim if he was unable
to fend away oppression, but he also punishes those who can fend away
oppression and choose to be silent. “We must not feel helpless and
say that we’re oppressed. We must do something to fend this
oppression,” he said.
He
called upon Iraq to accept the U.N. weapons inspectors and said that
the Iraqi government should be wise in this matter so that there will
be no excuse for the United States to strike.
“The
wise person chooses the least of two bad situations and I think the
Iraqi government will consider the return of the inspectors, but it
doesn't want the return open without any limitations or conditions, or
else Iraq will be under sanctions forever.”
Al-Qaradawi
said in a earlier fatwa (religious edict) to IslamOnline that what the
Iraqi opposition is doing in terms of asking the U.S. and the U.K. for
help is not suitable for a Muslim concerned about the welfare of his
own country.
If
the Iraqi regime was cruel, he said, this does not mean that we
replace it with an American or British regime which would control the
resources of the region for the sake of U.S. or Zionist interests.
Islam,
the revered scholar added, does not allow Muslims to ask infidels for
help so that they may replace the leader who doesn’t fulfill his
duties towards the nation. This, Al-Qaradawi said, would be more
harmful than if the leader remains.
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