Suicide bombers are against Islam, say scholars

The murder of Spanish tourists and Yemenis in Marib this week has nothing to do with Jihad, and has nothing to do with Islam, said religious scholars this week.  Non-Muslims coming to Yemen have a guarantee that they will be safe and secure when they are given the visa, said Dr. Fadhel Murad, a professor at Al-Ayman University. “These suiciders have nothing to do with Islam and don’t represent Yemen in any way,” he said. “Young Muslims used as suiciders are being misled, taught Islam in a wrong interpretation of it that is a closed one. The result of these suicide bombers is ignorance in Islam and understanding and interpreting it,” said Murad. 

“In order for this violence to be weeded out, all religious scholars should form a committee in order to fight the ideas of these extremists and everybody behind them,” said Murad.  Murad also said that Muslims should not just copy things blindly, as Islam has ordered us to question and to look at things critically. People want to distort the image of Islam by doing these attacks, he said. “But Islam is a religion for all times that can be applied in all aspects of our life.”     

Rashad Mohammed Saeed, who was in Afghanistan and got back to Yemen after September 11, is one of the young men who use their religion to justify his version Jihad.  He said that the Jihadist movement doesn’t belong to a specific school in Islam. It was rather formed by events in general that have happened to Muslims. This movement takes legality from the Shari’ah in its origins, Quran and Hadeth, said Saeed. It gives him motive to fight oppression.   Jihadists are part of the Salafi sect, said Saeed. “I personally believe that Salafism are the most tenets that is resisting governments like Saudi Arabia and Yemen. Salafism teach on the text literally and urges people, especially the young to jihad.  “But here we must say that Islam prohibited the killing of civilians.

That’s why we say in Islam that it is not right to kill old people, woman. Jihad targets fighters, not civilians,” said Saeed.  “The creation of suicide bombers comes as a result of oppressed people, young ones that are ready to sacrifice themselves,” said Saeed. He said that you convince people to become suicide bombers by telling them that Israelis are killing innocent people, Americans are killing a lot of people in Islamic countries, and whoever gets revenge from those will go to paradise.  “If there is no oppression, you could not find anybody who would sacrifice himself. Other justifications or reasons for suicide bombers beside oppression are corruption and ignorance of the teachings and principles of Islam, he said. 

It is the US’ oppression and wrong policy with Muslims that makes room for suiciders and Jihadists, said Saeed. “The US is the reason behind all the tension that is prevailing in the world these days. The policy of the US also made a lot of people believe that people like Osama bin Laden and his followers are the saviors from the oppression on the Islamic world. The UK was targeted when it entered the war with the US in Iraq, Spain as well. Arabian countries that support and are allies with the US are also targeted.”  Foreigners have a different view of the attacks.  “It is disingenuous to suggest that extremists and suicide bombers are motivated by anything other than a twisted love of violence, a gross misinterpretation of religious texts, and a perverted desire to impose their own narrow political and religious view on billions of law-abiding, life-loving, moderate citizens,” said Philip Boyle, press officer in the British Embassy, in Sana’a.  

Jihadists have carried out terrorist outrages in Yemen, Morocco, Egypt, Russia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Kenya, Tanzania, Syria, Lebanon and many, many other countries, he said.   None of these countries have troops in Iraq or Afghanistan. But they were still targeted by terrorists. “And it is a fact that most victims of terrorist atrocities are Muslims,” said Boyle.   "Muslim civilians are killed daily by murderers who claim to represent God's will on Earth, and it is Muslim men, women and children that suffer the most at the hands of what can only be described as a fascist death-worshipping cult,” said Boyle.   "The UK has been at risk of terrorist attack since long before 9/11. This threat is faced by all countries that embrace the rule of law and that stand up to those who would seek to enforce their political will through violent, undemocratic and murderous methods. As the British Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, said after the attack on Glasgow Airport: We will never yield to terrorists,” said Boyle.  

"The international nature of the terrorist threat, and the cowardly attacks on our two countries this month, just days apart, shows how important it is for all nations to work together to defeat this global menace, and to stand strong in the face of such heinous and reprehensible acts. The UK and Yemen will continue to work closely together to achieve this aim," he said.  Several experts in Islamic experts offered their perspectives on how suicide bombers are made, and what motivates them. They also addressed how westerners should deal with modern Muslims, to cut the road in front of these extremists.   "There is a group of Muslims called Salafi Jihadists. The source of this group is Salafism, which is an Islamic movement that claims that people have strayed from the right path of Islam, and they want to go back to the golden days of Islam," said Zuhair Ali, a researcher at Sana'a University, Political Sciences. 
  
Salafis look at the present from the perspective of thinkers from the old days, and don't renew things and look at religion on the surface and don't look at the real purposes of things in Islamic teachings, said Ali.     He said that Salafis are divided into two groups. The first is the Salafis who focus on preaching and calling for Islam, and are not concerned with politics.  The second one is the Salafi Jihadist who see our society an ignorant one living in Dark Age of pre-Islam, and calls governments and people disbelievers (Koffar).   They started to use violence in order to change things that they see as non-Islamic, even in their own countries, said Ali. Outside of their countries, they divide the world into Islamic and non-Islamic countries that have to be fought.   Here, they carry two different notions. The first belief is that the near enemy is more dangerous and more important, and here that they start to fight against their governments, said Ali. The second one is the belief that the remote enemy is more dangerous and more important.  

Historically speaking, when these Jihadists started to fight, it was in circumstances in which they were exploited by some governments, such as the war in Afghanistan, said Ali.  When the war was over, Jihadists started to look for other fights carrying their notion and beliefs. Some started wars against their governments in their own countries, targeting any interests and institutions belonging to the west, the US in particular. Many people consider the US to be the first enemy of Islam because of its support for Israel, whom they call koffar, said Ali.   These group later spread, and their fights became more systematic. They started working and planning attacks against the US and its interests abroad.  These groups of Salfi Jahadists attract young Muslims and feed them their notions and beliefs that is called Takeferi convincing them that the ultimate end for Jihadists is Paradise—thus convincing them to become suicide bombers.

They target young Muslims who suffer from an identity crisis, or those who are desperate and frustrated because of their situation.     The suicide attacks also allow other groups who want to cause distress and disorder in any place to attack using the same means, because they know that it will be attributed to Jihadists, said Ali.   The Takeferi Salafi Jahadists give themselves a license to shed blood and kill all those who are not abiding by the rules of Islam, in their interpretation of it. They consider any Muslim working with the West as an enemy too that has to be done away with.   They don’t differentiate between civilians or soldiers, and see the agreements that their governments sign with Western countries as invalid, as they were done by a disbelieving government.   Their argument in killing civilians is that Israel is killing civilians in Palestine, the US is killing civilians in Iraq, so this gives them a reason to kill western civilians anywhere.  

These Jihadists are the opposite of other Islamic groups that are connected with reality and modern life, who accept political participation and pluralism and use peaceful means to express themselves.  Modern groups of Muslims form parties. Carnegie Endowment for International Peace said about the moderate groups of Muslims that they are supposed to be given a chance to participate in politics as this will cut the way for extremist groups.   Practicing politics for them will make them more flexible in their views. Moderate groups of Muslims, when they get involved in politics, amend some of their views and start to deal with democracy and freedom of speech. This will help give them a channel to express their views and stop them from going towards the extremists groups, said Ali.   “These moderate groups can turn to parties that resemble socialist parties and Christian parties in the West.”

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