World’s top Muslim leaders sort of condemn attacks on Iraqi Christians

http://www.jihadwatch.org/2014/08/worlds-top-muslim-leaders-sort-of-condemn-attacks-on-iraqi-christians

Robert Spencer Aug 12, 2014 at 2:21pm Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, Organization of the Islamic Conference 67 Comments

Iyad Ameen Madani, the Secretary General of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, “officially denounced the ‘forced deportation under the threat of execution’ of Christians, calling it a ‘crime that cannot be tolerated.’ The Secretary General also distanced Islam from the actions of the militant group known as ISIS, saying they ‘have nothing to do with Islam and its principles that call for justice, kindness, fairness, freedom of faith and coexistence.’”

And this was the “most explicit condemnation.” But at least from this report, it doesn’t look as if Madani condemned anything but the deportation of Christians by the Islamic State. And that is perfectly understandable: Umar, the second caliph, is said to have declared: “I advise you to fulfill Allah’s Convention (made with the Dhimmis) as it is the convention of your Prophet and the source of the livelihood of your dependents (i.e. the taxes from the Dhimmis.)” (Bukhari 4.53.388) That is, subjugating the dhimmis and bleeding them dry is to be the source of the Muslims’ livelihood. So of course Muslims should not deport them. And the Islamic State has indeed been collecting the jizya, killing or deporting those who refuse or are unable to pay it.

Madani’s statement that Islam calls for “justice, kindness, fairness, freedom of faith and coexistence” is just empty verbiage, since those terms have a quite different meaning under Islamic law from the meaning that most Westerners take for granted. If Sharia mandates second-class status for non-Muslims, and it does, then by Madani’s lights, that constitutes justice, kindness, fairness, freedom of faith and coexistence.

So why, then, is he condemning the Islamic State? These condemnations more than a hint of deception to them, particularly when Turkey’s top Muslim cleric, Mehmet Gormez, says that “Muslims should not be hostile towards ‘people with different views, values and beliefs, and regard them as enemies.’” What, then, would Mehmet Gormez make of these Qur’an passages? “Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah ; and those with him are harsh against disbelievers, merciful among themselves” (48:29). “O you who have believed, fight those adjacent to you of the disbelievers and let them find in you harshness” (9:123). “O you who have believed, do not take the Jews and the Christians as allies. They are allies of one another. And whoever is an ally to them among you, then indeed, he is one of them. Indeed, Allah guides not the wrongdoing people” (5:51). Mehmet Gormez knows of those passages. So for him to say that “Muslims should not be hostile towards ‘people with different views, values and beliefs, and regard them as enemies,’” without any explanation, it suggests that he is more interested in fooling the Infidels and lulling them into complacency than in genuinely opposing or condemning the Islamic State.

And if the Islamic State proves itself to be viable, a lot of these top Muslim leaders are going to come around. For the caliphate, might makes right.

“World’s top Muslim leaders condemn attacks on Iraqi Christians,” Vatican Radio, July 25, 2014 (thanks to Joe):

Two of the leading voices in the Muslim world denounced the persecution of Christians in Iraq, at the hands of extremists proclaiming a caliphate under the name Islamic State.
The most explicit condemnation came from Iyad Ameen Madani, the Secretary General for the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, the group representing 57 countries, and 1.4 billion Muslims.
In a statement, he officially denounced the “forced deportation under the threat of execution” of Christians, calling it a “crime that cannot be tolerated.” The Secretary General also distanced Islam from the actions of the militant group known as ISIS, saying they “have nothing to do with Islam and its principles that call for justice, kindness, fairness, freedom of faith and coexistence.”
Meanwhile, Turkey’s top cleric, the spiritual successor to the caliphate under the Ottoman Empire, also touched on the topic during a peace conference of Islamic scholars.
In a not-so-veiled swipe at ISIS, Mehmet Gormez declared that “an entity that lacks legal justification has no authority to declare war against a political gathering, any country or community.” He went on to say that Muslims should not be hostile towards “people with different views, values and beliefs, and regard them as enemies.”
Their remarks come at a time when Christian leaders in Iraq have called on Muslim leaders worldwide to denounce the anti-Christian violence in the country. In the past decade, the majority of Iraqi Christians have either fled the country or taken refuge in the autonomous region of Kurdistan.
The declaration of a “caliphate” by Islamist militants in Iraq lacks legitimacy and their death threats to Christians are a danger to civilization, Turkey’s top cleric, the successor to the last caliph’s most senior imam, said.
Islamic State, an armed group formerly allied to al Qaeda that has captured swathes of territory across Iraq, last month declared its leader, Ibrahim al-Baghdadi, “caliph” – the historical title last held by the Turkish Ottoman sultan who ruled much of the Muslim world.
“Such declarations have no legitimacy whatsoever,” Mehmet Gormez, head of the Religious Affairs Directorate, the highest religious authority in Turkey, which, although a majority Muslim country, has been a secular state since the 1920s.
“Since the caliphate was abolished … there have been movements that think they can pull together the Muslim world by re-establishing a caliphate, but they have nothing to do with reality, whether from a political or legal perspective.”
Gormez said death threats against non-Muslims made by the group, formerly known as Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), were hugely damaging. “The statement made against Christians is truly awful. Islamic scholars need to focus on this (because) an inability to peacefully sustain other faiths and cultures heralds the collapse of a civilization,” he told Reuters in an interview.