Mutilation
of victims and Muslim law
By
Jeff Jacoby | June 13, 2004
"A
RECENT FATWA posted on a popular Islamic website in Saudi Arabia," reports
Neil McFarquhar [sp? Neil
MacFarquhar] in The New York Times, "explains when a Muslim may
mutilate the corpse of an infidel."
The
ruling by Sheik Omar Abdullah Hassan al-Shehabi specifies two circumstances in
which the desecration of an infidel -- a non-Muslim -- is permitted. One is
retaliation "when the enemy is disfiguring Muslim corpses or when it
otherwise serves the Islamic nation." The other is when mutilation will
"terrorize the enemy" or "gladden the heart of a Muslim
warrior."
Given those conditions, it is hard to imagine
a situation in which an Islamist militant couldn't justify the mutilation of a
victim's body.
"That a cleric can post such an argument
in an open forum," commented McFarquhar, "goes a long way toward
explaining how the most radical interpretations of religious texts flourish in
Saudi Arabia."
But they don't flourish only in Saudi Arabia.
The popular "Ask the Scholar"
feature of Islam Online (www.islamonline.net) was recently asked "how Islam
views the issue of mutilating dead bodies of enemies." In a reply, Sheik
Faysal Mawlawi, deputy chairman of the European Council for Fatwa and Research,
began by declaring that mutilation is "not allowable" under Islam. But
then came the loophole:
"It is possible to mutilate the dead
only in case of retaliation. . . . If he inflicts any physical damage on anyone,
he should be retaliated against in the same manner. In case of war, Muslims are
allowed to take vengeance for their mutilated dead mujahids (fighters) in the
same way it was done to them." This, the European sheik explained, is the
teaching of the Koran (16:126), which counsels patience but authorizes revenge.
Does this mean that normative Islamic law
authorizes Muslims to mangle the bodies of non-Muslims they have killed? I am
not a scholar of Islam and would not presume to say. But two facts seem
indisputable: (1) A Muslim intent on such mutilation can find clerical authority
to justify it. And (2) a small but implacable minority of Muslims are intent on
such mutilation. Indeed, it has become a signature of the evil we are fighting,
as the news of the last few months has shown.
(Warning -- the following descriptions are
graphic.)
Fallujah: Four Americans are ambushed,
dragged from their vehicles, jumped on, and pounded with bricks. As jubilant
Iraqis chant Islamic slogans, the bodies are dismembered and set on fire. Two of
the charred remains are then hung from a bridge; the other two are dragged
behind cars along the city's main street.
Khobar, Saudi Arabia: A British oil
executive, Michael Hamilton, is one of 22 people murdered in an Al Qaeda attack.
His corpse is dragged through the city, then dumped near a bridge.
Gaza: After six Israelis are blown up in a
bomb attack, Palestinians are filmed dancing in the streets and playing with the
dead men's body parts. In a video, two Islamic Jihad terrorists take credit for
the massacre -- and display the severed head of one of their victims.
Iraq: Islamofascists videotape their murder of Nicholas
Berg, a 26-year-old US civilian. Shouting "Allahu akhbar!" ("God
is great!"), they saw off Berg's head as he shrieks in pain and fear.
The disfiguring of victims' bodies did not begin this
year. In a notorious lynching four years ago, two Israeli reservists were taken
from their car to the second floor of a Palestinian police station in the West
Bank town of Ramallah, where they were literally torn limb from limb. Their
internal organs were pulled from their bodies, their eyes were gouged out, and
what was left of them was thrown from a window to a cheering crowd below, which
set the corpses on fire and dragged them through the town.
Perhaps even more infamous -- at least to Americans --
were the beheading of journalist Daniel Pearl in Pakistan in 2002 and the
mutilation of the bodies of US soldiers in Somalia in 1993.
We are in a war to the death with an enemy whose deepest
civilizational values come straight out of the 8th century. In the world that
they would impose on us all, there is no dissent, no pluralism, no path to God
but theirs -- and no mercy or tolerance for those who might choose a different
path.
Our enemies make no secret of their intentions: We will
bow to their totalitarian idea of Islam, or we will be killed. And not only
killed, but mangled, mutilated, and subjected to the most hideous indignities
they can devise.
The terrorists and their followers burn and batter corpses
for the same reason the Taliban smashed magnificent statues -- for the same
reason Hitler wrote "Mein Kampf": to openly proclaim their contempt
for the moral principles of the civilized world.
Ultimately it is up to the world's moderate, modern
Muslims to rise up against the barbarians in their midst. Until that day comes,
there is nothing the West can do to ameliorate or appease this enemy. We can
only destroy it -- or be destroyed.
Jeff Jacoby's e-mail address is
jacoby@globe.com.
© Copyright 2004 Globe Newspaper Company.
Editors comment:
Crow: "All I have to say is
what about our radical fundamentalists?
(the first thing that came to
mind was; "What an arrogant load of crap, I suppose you think that we must
stay now to save
the Iraqi's from themselves too?)
What about our barbarians in our
midst?
I think this is a rather
simplistic view. In reality, we will have to meet middle eastern society halfway
by for instance removing the reasons why the moderates might look the other way
or be politically unable to confront the terrorists either for economic reasons,
social reasons, etc.
I mean, you should ask yourself:
What would motivate a person to strap explosives on themselves and end their own
and others lives? Why would they resort to such drastic measures. Why wouldn't
people want a political process which ensured everyone a voice and in doing so
create greater security through community and solidarity with your fellow
humans?
Perhaps they have become
convinced that there are no innocent people in the world. Many of us enjoy the
fruits of laborers that are underpaid and in fact truly slaves of the system.
From the perspective of the average muslim who probably experiences none of the
luxury that might be afforded a nation rich in oil [unfortunately it just
doesn't work that way] our american way is exploitive and we have helped Israel
oppress the Palestinians for far too long.
I think that before we can expect
the moderate Muslims can reign in their "barbarians" that we are going
to have to set the conditions first by reigning in our barbarians in
November."
Comments? depro@deprogrammer.com
