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KUALA LUMPUR: One of the most influential Muslim scholars, Sheikh Mohamad Syed Tantawi of Cairo’s Al-Azhar university has condemned all attacks by suicide bombers, local media reported on Saturday.
Speaking to journalists at an international conference of Islamic scholars in Putrajaya, near Kuala Lumpur, he said groups who practised extremism and carried out suicide bombings were enemies of Islam.
Islam was opposed to all forms of extremism such as violence, the occupation of someone else’s land, the destruction of buildings and the killing of innocents, he said.
This included the September 11 terrorist attacks in the US where innocents were killed, he said.
“These people are wrong,” he was quoted as saying by the New Straits Times.
“It is our responsibility as Ulema (religious scholars) to condemn the attacks of September 11 as a criminal act,” he said.
“Terrorism in all its forms should be condemned, whether it is committed against Muslims or non-Muslims.”
He said the concept of jihad, or holy struggle, could not be associated with terrorism and extremism.
“Jihad in Islam means to defend one’s self and to help others who are oppressed. Jihad and extremism are not alike, the difference between them is like the sky and the earth,” he was quoted as saying by the Malay Mail.
REJECT TERRORISM: Meanwhile, a world conference of Muslim scholars agreed on Saturday that Muslims should reject “narrow-minded interpretations, extremist ideologies and acts of terror”.
“Wrong and deviated interpretations must be rectified by refuting it,” said Malaysia’s Nakhaie Ahmad, the conference’s organizing chairman.
However, the scholars agreed Muslim countries must build up their military might, without depending on foreign powers. They resolved at the end of their three day conference that Muslim countries should cooperate on military research and development, intelligence, military technology and training.
Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad earlier called for Muslim countries to arm themselves to “put fear in the hearts of their enemies... not as aggressors but to defend ourselves”.
Mahathir had said false religious teachings had left Muslims backward and easily oppressed.
In a statement after the conference the scholars said an awareness must be created amongst the Muslim community about the dangers of globalization, which had been “designed by the superpowers which are the new colonialists or neo-imperialists”.
They also resolved women must be allowed to play an important role in the Muslim community.
A permanent secretariat based in Kuala Lumpur is to be set up as a think tank for Muslim scholars and intellectuals worldwide.
Some 800 participants from 33 countries attended the conference in Putrajaya, Malaysia’s administrative capital near Kuala Lumpur to discuss issues facing Muslim nations.—AFP
