Terror Despite Fatwas

The violent terrorist attacks in Mumbai (formerly known as Bombay), a tourism and financial center and the most crowded city in India, were watched by the entire world as they were broadcast live on TV.

The timing of the attacks and the manner in which they were choreographed implied that they had been carefully planned to attract the media's interest. The terrorists successfully staged the bloody show for the entire world to watch.

The terrorists, who were allegedly members of an upstart terrorist organization called Deccan Mujahidin, arrived in boats and attacked 10 different spots in plain view of the entire world. Carrying rifles by hand and explosives in their bags, the group of terrorists killed almost 200 people, wounding another 300. Many hostages were terrified for hours on end.

As if the very name of the organization was not sufficient for associating this violence with Islam, it was rumored that terrorists checked the passports of the hostages to see whether they were Muslims or not and if they were, they were released. Indeed, the son and daughter-in-law of Ziya Müezzinoğlu, a former finance minister, who were taken hostage in the Trident-Oberoi Hotel during the attack, received privileged treatment from terrorists allegedly because they were Muslim. This was the perspective that the Turkish media took on the violent attacks in India.

This is one of the many violent attacks which have been supposedly conducted in the name of Islam, i.e., a religion which literally means "peace" and which equates the unfair killing of a person to the murder of humanity. What will be the image of Muslims in the minds of the people around the world who watched these violent images? How many conferences or seminars will we have to organize in order to redress the damage that these attacks have done? How many people in the East and West should we visit to tell them that this is not the true Islam? After this disturbing act of terrorism, will it ever be possible to explain the good manners and humane qualities of Muslims to people around the globe?

Unfortunately, this sort of violent incident has recently become quite frequent in India, Pakistan and Afghanistan. In October 2005, 60 people died in an explosion in a marketplace in New Delhi. In July 2006, 183 people were killed in attack on a passenger train in the same city. In violent skirmishes in Ahmedabad many Muslims and Hindus have died. The heartrending conditions in Afghanistan and Pakistan are already known.

To counter the escalating waves of violence in the region, influential Muslims clerics had acted to issue religious fatwas strongly condemning terror. One of the most powerful of these fatwas was declared in the Fight against Terrorism and Global Peace Conference held in India on May 31 with the participation of thousands of Muslim leaders and madrasa teachers from around the world. This fatwa against terror was issued by Maulana Mahmood Madani, the head of Dar al-Ulum Deoband and the Indian Religious Scholars Association, which represent the 150-year-old heritage of Islam in India.

The fatwa stressed that according to the Quran, terrorism is major sin and was important for two reasons. Firstly, the fatwa was issued as the concluding declaration of a conference with about 100,000 people in attendance. Secondly, this conference was supported by Dar al-Ulum Deoband, the most influential religious educational institute in the region, as well as Nedvet al-Ulama, Jamaat-e Islami Hind, the Ahle Haid Association, Rabta Madaris Islamia Arabiya and the Indian Muslim Jurists Association.

In addition, in a clear move to condemn terrorism, Dar al-Ulum Deoband convened more than 6,000 Muslim clerics from Muslim countries around the world, but particularly from Afghanistan, Pakistan and India, in early November in Hyderabad. In this meeting, it was declared that terrorism is clearly against Islamic principles and that terrorist methods cannot be justified as part of jihad. Dar al-Ulum Deoband is also planning to hold an international conference with wider participation in order to get its voice heard.

Muslim clerics not only from India, but also from other Islamic countries have issued numerous fatwas against terrorism. Fethullah Gülen has categorically condemned terrorism, saying, "A Muslim cannot be a terrorist, and a terrorist cannot be Muslim." But as you see, some people are vying to create disorder in the world. While we listen to voices against terrorism, the people masterminding terrorism do not just sit and wait, but go on with their plots.