wfn.org | Bin Laden's religious justification rejected by most Muslims

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Note #6856 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

worldwide
20-September-2001
01338

Bin Laden's religious justification rejected by most Muslims worldwide

by Mark O'Keefe
Religion News Service

WASHINGTON - Experts say that religion is central to deciphering the motives
and actions of Osama bin Laden, the prime suspect in masterminding last
week's attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon. But bin Laden's
interpretation of jihad, or holy war, is far different from that of
mainstream Muslims.

	In interviews and his own writings, bin Laden has promoted a holy war
against the United States, death to "infidels" and suicidal attacks that
guarantee eternity in paradise.

	For most who practice Islam, however, jihad refers primarily to the inner
struggle of being a person of virtue and submission to Allah in all aspects
of life. This is sometimes described as "jihad of the heart."

	But jihad also encompasses the external struggle against injustice and
oppression, the "jihad of the sword." And in that, the concept could shape
Islamic perception of how America responds to the events of Sept. 11.

	Almost every scholar of Islam agrees that if the Bush administration hopes
to navigate its war effort with success, it must do so with clear
understanding of how U.S. retaliation could shape the perception and future
actions of more than 1 billion Muslim adherents worldwide.

	A U.S. response perceived in Islamic countries as a war on their religion
could unravel the international coalition needed to wage war on terrorism,
according to experts on Islam.

	"You could have rioting in the streets, a breakdown of law and order, a
toppling of regimes in Islamic countries," said Abdullahi An-Na'im, an
internationally recognized scholar of Islam and a law professor at Emory
University in Atlanta.

	R. Kevin Jaques, assistant professor of Islamic Studies at Indiana
University in Bloomington, predicted "massive backlash" if the United States
"overreaches."

	Islam, like many other religions, allows for armed self-defense. As
Christians have written volumes on what constitutes a "just war," Muslims
have differed over the requirements of jihad.

	While not all Muslim terrorists are religiously motivated, bin Laden 
appears to be deadly serious in his spiritual zeal.

	"When he formulates his declarations, he makes every effort to justify his
means through Islamic law, and adheres to his own conception of what the
laws of jihad entail," said David Cook, associate professor of Islamic
studies at Rice University in Houston.

	Bin Laden described his theological position in 1996, when he issued his
"Declaration of War Against the Americans Who Occupy the Land of the Two
Holy Mosques."

	He argued that the U.S. military presence in Saudi Arabia and other
countries threatened Islam and warranted jihad. He elaborated in another
edict in 1998: "The ruling to kill the Americans and their allies --
civilians and military -- is an individual duty for every Muslim who can do
it in any country in which it is possible to do it."

	According to bin Laden and his followers, suicide for the cause guarantees
an eternal life of pleasure and honor in the hereafter.

	"It's an act of worship, literally," said Peter Bergen, a free-lance
journalist and terrorism expert currently completing a book about bin Laden
and militant groups. "Taking part in a jihad, whether it's against your own
shortcomings or against the enemies of Islam, gives you a ticket to paradise
if you're martyred."

	While nearly all Islamic believers contend that true religious martyrs go
to paradise, most disagree with the idea that those who cause civilian
deaths are automatically religious martyrs.

	That helps explain why most of the Islamic world has officially denounced
the attacks, which appear to have killed more than 5,000 Americans, most of
them civilians.

	Many of the condemnations came from Muslims who are not necessarily fans of
the United States, including Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and bin
Laden's own family in Saudi Arabia.

	Even if the attacks were orchestrated by bin Laden - who is estranged from
his family and believed to be living in Afghanistan - they "violate Islam
and are totally rejected by all religions and by humanity at large," said
Abdallah Awad Abbud bin Laden, head of the bin Laden family, in a statement
in Saudi Arabia.

	This view presents a unique opportunity for President Bush, said David
Forte, a professor of law at Cleveland State University and an authority on
Islamic law.

	"The key thing we have to do is say these guys are attempting to undermine
Islam," Forte said, referring to bin Laden and his network of terrorists.

	"They are replicating an ancient Islamic heresy that said if someone didn't
practice Islam perfectly they're an apostate. What they're really trying to
do is become the legitimate Islamic representative of the world. What the
United States needs to say to Islamic regimes is, 'You are being truly
Muslim if you fight these people.'"

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