Qatar-based Islamic scholar Dr Sheikh Yousuf al-Qaradawi yesterday condemned the recent Moscow subway bomb attacks, saying that militant groups targeting civilians should review their adopted convictions of jihad.
In his Friday sermon, Sheikh Qaradawi said that jihad should only be defensive and that non-military persons should not be targeted in such a war. “The Holy Qur’an says that killing an innocent person is tantamount to killing the whole humanity. For this reason, Islam prohibited Muslim armies to kill women, children or old men in wartime,” Sheikh Qaradawi told a congregation at the Omar bin al-Khattab mosque.
Qaradawi, who is the chairman of the International Union for Muslim Scholars, urged the Islamic militant groups to review their convictions about Jihad, saying that their attacking of civilians led the detractors of Islam to brand Muslims as “terrorists”. “Such atrocities only hurt Islam and our Qur’an. They were even used as a pretext for accusing Islam of being a religion of violence and terror,” he added.
Referring to the twin suicide bombings that rocked Moscow’s underground train system last week, the scholar rejected the attacks as “having nothing to do with jihad” rules. “Islam does not allow killing innocent people in war even if they are non-believers. Those people who got embroiled while they were on their way to work were innocent and could not be held responsible for their political leaders’ mistakes,” the scholar added.
However, he urged the Russian leaders to start a political dialogue with the Caucasus militant groups and not to resort to armed force to solve the conflict. “I hope that the Russian leaders would launch a constructive dialogue. They can even request some leaders of Muslim or Arab countries to mediate between Russia and the Caucasus militants.”