This Al Ahram Weekly story offers a different version of the Qaradawi fatwa story. According to al Ahram Weekly, Qaradawi "explained to a press conference in Doha this week that "Islam only allows killing those engaged in combat, and definitely not civilians." But, for El-Qaradawi, whether there are actually "any innocent US civilians in Iraq" remains an open question. El-Qaradawi arrived at his initial edict, which he pronounced during a seminar at Cairo's Press Syndicate two weeks ago, based on the idea that "all Americans present in Iraq are combatants, and so, it is a religious obligation to fight them until they leave the country." While explaining that Islam prohibits killing innocent civilians, El- Qaradawi speculated that, "there is no difference between US military personnel and civilians in Iraq since both have come to invade the country," and since "civilians are actually there to serve the US occupying forces." Perhaps realising that such an absolute generalisation could lead to the wrongful death of a non-combatant, El-Qaradawi quickly retracted his fatwa this week, saying that "in case it is difficult to make a distinction between military personnel and civilians, [people] should take caution not to kill a person unless they have definite proof this person is actually engaged in military action, because human life is sacred.""
This description of Qaradawi's remarks contradicts the account offered by Fahmi Huwaydi the other day, which he says was based on a tape recording of the event. Huwaydi says that what Qaradawi actually said was "we must not kill except those who kill us, and therefore all of those who do not carry weapons it is not upon us to kill." It's possible that he said more than one thing on the subject, and that Huwaydi is quoting one and not the other. What's weird, though, is that even the Al Ahram is based in Cairo, the article does not cite any source which actually attended the lecture at the Egyptian Journalists Syndicate. Their source for their version appears to be the Egyptian Organization of Human Rights, which was one of the groups to initially condemn Qaradawi's statement. If that group was initially basing its condemnation on a misreported remark - which I believe to be the case - then this story doesn't change my mind about what happened. For now, I consider Huwaydi to be a credible source - especially since, as I've said, his reporting coincides with what I heard from some other folks in a position to know second-hand.
That said, I wouldn't want my dismay over the slander against Qaradawi to overwhelm my general satisfaction at seeing this kind of critical debate. I think it's a really healthy thing that Muslims and Arabs are arguing about this sort of thing, working out in public debates and arguments the value of violence, of Islam, of the West, of resistance in Iraq, and all the rest. As this week's poster boy for Muslim self-criticism Abd al Rahman al Rashed admitted the other day, it isn't especially unusual, or especially new - as the Western media seems to think - but it's still always nice to see. I'll bet you some abstract number of abstract but valuable things that al Jazeera has a talk show debating the question within two weeks. Oh, whoops, I already win: September 6, Minbar al Jazeera, topic of debate - "The kidnapping of foreigners in Iraq." UPDATE: on the al Jazeera front, on September 10 the program Akthar Min Rai (More than one opinion) took on the horrors of the schoolchildren at Beslan. Oh, and on September 13 Qaradawi issued a statement again expressing his concern for the well-being of the kidnapped Italian women, saying that "it is not permitted for Muslims to kidnap innocents who have no relation to war." And when asked about the Americans recently kidnapped, Qaradawi said "if there are American civilians in Iraq it is not permissible to kill them."
Damn. So much for finality.
If Qaradawi justifies attacks on civilians assisting the military in non-combatant roles, that would put him out of line with standard western law of war, but in line with those who justified the bombing of Radio Shariat and Radio Television Serbia. Does the US Air Force need a new Muslim chaplain?
Posted by: Abu Frank | September 17, 2004 at 11:49 AM