Pages

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

Murderers can't be Muslims: Muslim leaders denounce terrorism as entirely un-Islamic

Islam,Terrorism and Jihad
19 Sep 2008, NewAgeIslam.Com

Murderers can't be Muslims: Muslim leaders denounce terrorism as entirely un-Islamic

 

18 Sep 2008

 

 MUMBAI: In a strong condemnation of the recent terror attacks, Muslims from different sects in the city came together on a common platform on Wednesday to denounce the Indian Mujahideen, the self-proclaimed perpetrators of the bomb blasts. "Murderers cannot be Muslims," they said.

 

The crowded press conference at the Mumbai Marathi Patrakar Sangh at Azad Maidan was attended by eminent ulemas from the Shia, Sunni and other sects. Maulana Mehmood Daryabadi said that the police should explore different angles in their blasts probe and take the investigation beyond the spectrum of Muslim suspects.

 

"Every time, the police claim that the masterminds have been arrested. If these so-called masterminds are in police custody then who is carrying out the blasts?" he asked, adding that there was a need to examine whether Muslims were indeed behind the terror emails before announcing this as a fact.

 

"On earlier occasions, non-Muslims had been arrested but the police showed no interest in probing those cases with a terror angle," he said, suggesting that there was an inbuilt bias against the minority community.

 

Maulana Mustaqueem Azmi of the Ulema Council said that Islam preached love and peace and did now allow the killing of innocent people.

 

Editor of the Urdu daily Hindustan , Sarfraz Arzu, challenged the supporters of Indian Mujahideen to come forward and engage in a dialogue with Muslims.

 

"Come, talk to us and prove that whatever you are doing is correct in the light of Islam. The activities of the Indian Mujahideen have only helped the Sangh Parivar in executing their plans," he said.

 

"Islam is a religion of peace and security and entirely against terrorism. If the blasts probe does not go in the right direction and the real culprits are not caught, such incidents will occur in the future too," he said.

 

Maulana Abdus Salam Salfi from the Jamiat Ahl-e-Hadees said that the average Muslim was so busy making two ends meet that he scarcely had time to think of subversive activities.

 

"We appeal to the media to project our feelings before citizens. We want to express our emotions not in the form of protests or demonstrations but from a common platform and we would like the government to listen to what we are saying," said Salfi.

 

Maulana Burhanuddin Qasmi demanded that the investigation in the blasts cases be made more transparent. "The only way to make it more transparent is through the induction of a greater number of Muslims in the anti-terror security force or in police cells. A Muslim officer will be in a better position to understand the thinking of a so-called Muslim suspect. When we label an innocent a terrorist, his life is ruined and when he is acquitted, there's no one to proclaim his innocence to the world," he said. Qasmi warned against such labelling, adding that it would give rise to an alarming situation of fear and loathing in the country.

 

Shia leader Maulana Zaheer Abbas Rizvi said that after studying the Indian Mujahideen mail carefully on TV he had found that the first line of the email (written in Arabic) was wrong. "A Muslim will not commit such a mistake. The mistake in the very first line shows that it's the handiwork of a non-Muslim organisation. Anti-Muslim forces seem to be behind this email," he said emphatically.

 

Maulana Athar Ali, general secretary of the Ulema Council, said, "Muslims were shown as suspects in the 7/11 train bombing case. However, they have not been proved guilty so far. On the contrary, when a US national's IP address was used for sending a terror email, he was not questioned thoroughly and given a clean chit. It shows how the police thinks."

 

Mohammed Shoeb Koti of the Qaumi Majlis-e-Shura said, "The police will find the likes of the members of the Indian Mujahideen among the associates of (Nathuram) Godse and those accused in the Godhra riots. It seems that anti-Muslim forces are behind these emails and anti-national activities."

 

The speakers also lambasted the anti-terrorism squad for conducting a combing operation based on false information and for not acting against the informer.

 

0 comments: