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Alexandra
Paris is the author of Arable
The
Presidency and the Anti-Terrorism
Fatwa: Analysis by Qur’an War Maxims
By
Alexandra Paris
Mental
chaos and galaxies of fact and opinion swirl about the ongoing war.
New but essential information yet underlies this article. It is
the sort that Sir Winston Churchill redux would have commissioned by noon
on September 11, 2001. Certain words presage serious actions.
PROVENANCE
Late
in this article is shown a novel, war maxims concept.
This concept is applied to new information of a sort. This author
first reformed the entire Qur’an, a derivation of verse-laws from
multiple English translations. Notable are those of Ali, Pickthall
and Shakir. Reformation rules involved legal drafting
principles and formal if rudimentary skills of poetry. Most
importantly applied was the pertinent vantage, this being the discipline
of a literalist who profoundly respects Allah’s revelations.
The resulting Qur’an restatement is 6,166 verse-laws in extent.
Second, knowledgeable parsing found about 350 war-related verse-laws,
which were sorted with reference to military conflict concepts.
Third, and from such sorting, one could then write war maxims just as
would Osama Bin Laden or his erudite chief of staff, Dr. Ayman al-Zawahiri.
INTRODUCTION
Even
in a time of war, it was historic. At the Viet Nam War’s end in
the mid-1970s, few Muslims lived in the just-defeated
U.S.
Now 30 years later, millions of new U.S. Muslims have favored
their fellow Americans. This favor extends only to civilians.
A new war engages the
U.S.
, against radical Islamic forces. U.S. Muslims have yet officially
announced their historic Muslim opposition to Islamic foes who are
terrorists and extremists. New U.S. Muslim leadership in 2005
proclaimed their
U.S.
“Fatwa Against Terrorism.” A fatwa is an authoritative
Islamic legal order. [1]
On
July 28, 2005, the 18-man Fiqh [juridical] Council of North America issued
this Fatwa (the U.S. Fatwa). [2] U.S. Muslim leaders
thereby asserted new proofs that terrorism and Islamic extremism are not
authorized by Islam against civilians. Top-most,
newly-identified Muslim leaders wrote this new one-page commandment.
Top-most
U.S.
political leadership in August, 2005, studied this U.S. Fatwa. The
political leaders were Christians and presumed yet
to be quick learners about the Qur’an. Non-Muslim Americans
then and now yet show confusion about world Islam’s role in the
unfolding war. Through an envoy the U.S. President
instructed confused Americans that “there is no justification in Islam
for terrorism.” [3] The U.S. Fatwa involves what the U.S.
President has called the war of ideas.
The
2005 Fatwa poses the best controversy by which to see two parallel
universes. They are present in the unfolding world war. They two
universes differ in how they treat Allah’s Qur’an.
In one the Qur’an is devalued. Instead, unending, inconclusive
Islamic multi-disciplinary analysis strangles minds in this universe.
In the other universe is the world at war. In this other universe,
on one side, there is fierce and literal respect for the Qur’an.
The Qur’an is considered as source for the religious
ideology of the World Islamic Front (the WIFront). On the other side
of this real war universe are endangered non-Muslims. They
need some true familiarity with Allah’s sacred text.
Have
today’s U.S. Muslim leaders yet followed in the footsteps of
America
’s most famous anti-war Muslim? Their U.S. Fatwa is implicitly
pro-peace. The 18 men of the Fiqh Council know of Muhammad Ali’s
U.S.
Islamic life of peace. It began during the Viet Nam War, when
Muhammad Ali became the first to educate American non-Muslims on pacifism.
“’War
is against the teachings of the Holy Koran. I'm not trying to dodge
the draft. We are supposed to take part in no wars unless declared
by Allah or the Messenger [i.e., Muhammad]. We don't take part
in Christian wars or wars of any unbelievers.’ Ali also said, ‘I
ain't got no quarrel with those Vietcong.’…” [4]
Such
as Muhammad Ali’s brave Islamic pacifism also undergirds the U.S. Fatwa.
This article is in seven parts. First is compared a 1938
ideas-war incident with today’s U.S. Fatwa. Next
described is the U.S Fatwa. Third, below is examined the
2005 circumstances in which the President joined U.S. Muslims to praise
the U.S. Fatwa. Next addressed are those different parallel
universes, reflecting the mental chaos. The sixth part shows
how the radical World Islamic Front would and could propagandize to
discredit the U.S. Fatwa. Such war-aggressive Muslims
would disavow the U.S. Muslims’ interpretation of the Qur’an.
Particularly addressed in part 6 is a four-verse set of war-laws
which such as Sheik Bin Laden would argue are implicit in the U.S. Fatwa.
How would Osama approach the U.S. Fatwa? [5] Certain war
maxims, based on the Qur’an, are formed. An effort is made
to apply how Sheik Bin Laden thinks. He is a literalist.
Literalists think literally as to the Qur’an.
1938
AND 2005
On
September 2, 2005,
U.S.
leadership ratified the U.S. Fatwa against Terrorism. [6] This
optimism was curiously similar to famous peace hopefulness in
1938.
U.S.
leadership in 2005 were entering their fourth year of the
world war against the radical World Islamic Front. In 1938,
British leadership was seeking peace instead of World War Two.
British foes were led by
Germany
. In 2005, hopeful warriors for peace included U.S. President
George Bush. In 1938, the hopeful leader was British
Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain. Sir Neville was optimistic, then
negotiating peace with the bellicose Chancellor Hitler.
A
confusing year, 1938 was also a difficult year for optimism. That
year in September, the British Prime Minister Chamberlain yet
optimistically returned by airplane from a meeting with Hitler. At
Britain
’s
Heston
Airport
, he held a press conference. Sir Neville was photographed
holding up a paper in his hand. It contained a resolution for peace
as signed by himself and Hitler. Chamberlain spoke at the airport.
[7]
“My
good friends, …[I as ] British Prime Minister [have]…returned
from
Germany
bringing peace with honor. I believe that it is peace for our
time.”
They
were made hopeful by the persistent peace efforts of Lord
Chamberlain and the Germans. The British then gladly reduced their
war readiness efforts. Despite such optimistic diplomatic
efforts, there yet came no peace. British defenders soon were nearly
destroyed by deceptive and onrushing Germans.
Sixty-seven
years later, world-class peace efforts were again performed.
On September 2, 2005, the key political participant was a personal
envoy of the U.S President. His representative was Karen Hughes. She
had long advised the President on
U.S.
politics. The two had joined forces when he earlier had
governed
Texas
. September 2nd found her in
Illinois
. She was on assignment as stand-in for the President.
She soon held a press conference with a paper in hand, a posture curiously
similar to Chamberlain’s gesture 67 years earlier. Her paper
was the U.S. Fatwa. This Muslim juridical order had been signed or
endorsed by most Muslim leaders in the
U.S.
The President’s envoy, a woman of strong Christian faith,
then urged upon her fellow non-Muslim Americans,
this optimistic Islamic conclusion. [8]
“[This
Muslim ‘Fatwa Against Terrorism’] …says there is no justification in
Islam for terrorism.”
JULY, 2005 -- THE
U.S.
MUSLIMS’ FATWA
The
intent of the U.S. Fatwa is to show that Islam is for peace and against
extremism and terrorism. U.S. Muslim leaders seek to
command all of the some 1.2 billion Muslims in the global Islamic
brotherhood. The Fiqh Council began the document with their
wish and a reaffirmation.
[9]
“The Fiqh Council of
North America
wishes to reaffirm Islam’s absolute condemnation of terrorism and
religious extremism.”
The
U.S. Fatwa hence challenges legitimacy of terrorists and extremists,
ill-defined as wrongdoers. The U.S. Muslim leaders quoted four
Islamic laws drawn from sacred texts. These include
three verse-laws from Allah’s Qur’an. Also quoted is one
law from the Prophet Muhammad. Based on these authorities, the U.S.
Fiqh Council posed three anti-war commandments to Muslims.
“1. All acts of terrorism targeting civilians
are…forbidden….
“2. A Muslim [must not]…cooperate with …[terrorists].
“3. …Muslims…[must] cooperate with law enforcement…to
protect…civilians.”
This
U.S. Fatwa’s obvious elements are such U.S. Muslims’ pro-U.S.
reaffirmation -- of Islamic non-terror and non-extremism -- and the
three commandments. Two other elements are important. First is
that the Fatwa identifies by name the men of the Fiqh Council
and also the endorsing Muslim leaders and entities. These
heroic men, women and entities published and endorsed this pro-peace
Muslim juridical order. They put their names on the line in
dangerous times.
“ENDORSED BY: …145 Muslim organizations, mosques and imams have
endorsed the preceding fatwa as of July 28, 2005…. More signatory
organizations are to be added in the following days. To add your
American Muslim organization to the list, please email your name, title,
and affiliation to [email protected]”
Another
important element of the U.S. Fatwa is the strength of the writers’
central proof, drawn from Allah’s Qur’an. This
proof will here be shown as pivotal to understanding the two
parallel universes. This proof is to make believable the Fatwa’s
reaffirmation, of no-terror and no-extremism, and the said three
conclusions. This proof convinced the U.S. President and his envoy,
Ambassador Hughes. It is verse-law 32 from chapter 5 of the Qur’an.
The pro-U.S. Muslims of the Fiqh Council quoted as follows.
“The Qur’an [is] Islam’s revealed text, [and]
states:
“’Whoever kills a person [unjustly]…it is as though he has killed all mankind. And whoever saves a life, it is as
though he had saved all mankind.’ (Qur’an, 5:32)”
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