Peaceful Religion Watch
Mon, Dec 9, 2002 at 3:33:35 pm PST
Last Friday the sheikhs and imams of the Arab world bade farewell to the month of Ramadan, calling on the faithful to think of the needy, and calling on God to “inflict his might” on the Zionists and make them booty for Muslims.
From the holy mosque in Mecca, Saudi Arabia:
"O God, support our brother mujahidin for your sake in Palestine and elsewhere. O God, we ask you to save Al-Aqsa Mosque from the aggressor and usurper Jews. O God, deal with the Zionist Jews for they are within your power. O God, disperse them and make them a lesson for others and booty for Muslims. O God, inflict your might on the criminal ones."
From the Shaykh Zayid Bin-Sultan Al Nuhayyan Mosque in Gaza:
Shaykh Dr. Muhammad Mustafa Najm delivers the sermon, which he begins by thanking God for "cursing the brothers of apes and pigs" until doomsday and warning Muslims "of their evil and arrogance." He cites the Koranic verse that refers to "Jews" as the most hostile. He also hails Prophet Muhammad, "the imam of the mujahidin and strugglers, who fought Jews and expelled them from the Arabian Peninsula."
Continuing, the imam says it is not strange for Jews to carry out massacres and invasions even on Muslim religious holidays. This, he adds, has always been their hostile attitude toward Muslims, who only demand their rights. He also says that it is not strange for Jews, who tried to kill the prophet, to kill Palestinians after placing them under siege, beginning with their leader. "Our leader," the imam adds, "is unfairly besieged not only by our enemies, but also by those who provide them with political, military, economic, cover."
The imam says that the United States sponsors world terrorism and practices all methods of terrorism, especially against Muslims. So what is required of us in the Holy Land and the Arab and Islamic nation is to unite and fight solidly, he says. We must rise above our differences, he adds.
The imam emphasizes the need for unity and says: "Muslims are being besieged, killed, and butchered. Our kinfolk and brothers in Iraq are being besieged. The so-called United States fabricates allegations and lies in order to wage war on them. If Muslims do not support their brothers in Palestine and Iraq, there will come a day when it would be too late to regret our inactivity. For they will swallow us up one by one, Muslim after Muslim, country after country, and seize our resources."
From president Hafiz al-Asad’s mosque in Damascus, Syria:
The imam asks Muslims as they celebrate the feast to think about the ones "displaced by imperialism and sinful, criminal Zionism" in Palestine. The Islamic and Arab nation, he adds, is "waging a very serious battle and passing through an important and critical phase, the phase of life or death. The enemies have attacked the lands, desecrated holy places, violated sanctities, and sowed corruption on earth." "Jihad," he affirms, "has become a duty for everyone who can help with his or her soul and money. Every individual must be ready to become a soldier fighting with his soul. Sacrifice of spirit is the most expensive thing for the best aim of saving the countries and freeing the holy lands from the occupier tyrants. Every rich person has a duty to spend his money as much as possible in order to supply the resistance with the modern weapons that will help them remain steadfast against the enemies and end their aggression." Arabs and Muslims have never succumbed to invaders, he adds.
"Our nation, will not be intimidated by the United States and those who help Israel openly and secretly," the imam says, adding: "Let Israel expel peaceful people from their homeland and let it drop its bombs and fire on peaceful villages. It will only face steadfastness, firmness, and bravery, as we believe in our just cause and our right to a free, respectable life."
The imam says: "Muslims and Arabs in all their countries, and the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque which is part of their belief, are called upon to rise as one man and fight with their funds and souls for the sake of freeing their countries and saving Al-Aqsa Mosque and other holy places from the tyrannical Jews."
From Shaykh Abd-al-Qadir al-Jaylani mosque in Baghdad, Iraq:
"In our jihad against the administration of tyranny and evil today, we represent faith. In its present jihad, Iraq represents faith while the United States represents infidelity. We appeal to our Muslim brothers and tell them the camp of faith is here and the camp of infidelity is in the United States. The faithful is the one who joins the camp of faith under the flag of Allahu Akbar. The hypocrite is the one who fails to express an opinion and the infidel is the one who stands with evil and tyranny. We shall triumph by our dependence on God. Come closer to God as much as you can, because victory is no doubt coming. History is full of lessons."
The imam recalls incidents from Islamic history showing how God backed the faithful with His angels in times of adversity and says God will not disappoint Iraq, the country of saints -- Imam Ali, Imam Al-Husayn, Imam Al-Abbas, Imam Abu-Hanifah, and Shaykh Abd-al-Qadir al-Jaylani. "If the clique of evil ones attacks," he says, "the whole universe will shake. The angels, the heavens, and the whole world will shake if Iraq is attacked, because our strength is from God's strength."
The imam calls on worshippers to depend on God and place their trust in God. "Do not weaken," he adds, "and do not listen to the media of evil and lies. They are not ashamed to tell lies. They have no scruples about telling lies. They tell lies unashamedly." He adds: "Let them threaten as they want and let them say what they want. We have barricaded ourselves with faith and depend on God."
The imam devotes the second sermon to a solemn prayer to God for support. He prays: "O God deal with the Americans for they are within your power. O God, shake the land under their feet. O God, fight them with your angels. O God, make their plans destroy them. O God, we ask you on this blessed hour to support and aid the intifadah people in Palestine. O God, support the mujahidin in the land of Palestine."
From the Al-Rifa'i mosque in Cairo, Egypt, Dr Ahmad Umar Hashim, the head of Al-Azhar University, supreme head of the world Muslim youth association and member of the Egyptian higher Sufi council, explains that Islam is a religion of tolerance.
After the conquering and converting/subjugating is finished, that is.
He adds that it is time for the Islamic nation to be united, and for those who claim that Islam is a strict religion to understand that Islam is a religion of tolerance. To support his earlier statements, Dr Hashim says that when the prophet and his followers won the last battle against the infidels and entered city of Mecca, he did not punish the infidels who fought against him and told his followers to call that day the day of mercy.
He says that when Islam achieves victory and its instructions spread, security prevails everywhere, even for its enemies. He also says: "You, who were unjust towards our religion, this is our religion. You who are ignorant of the call of Islam, this is the call of Islam. It is the call of mercy and bliss for all humanity. It is mercy for the entire world, with its east, west, north, and south, for Muslims and non-Muslims, and Arabs and foreigners." Dr Hashim continues to relate stories of Mecca's conquest that prove Islam's mercy towards enemies. He says that Islam with its tolerant instructions calls upon the world to understand the true Islam and to believe in and follow the prophet, as the prophet is the last messenger of God. He adds that God has ordered all nations on earth to follow the prophet so that peace and security prevail on earth. He also stresses that Islam is an international religion for the whole world.
Finally, words of relative moderation from martyr King Abdallah mosque in Amman, Jordan, where the king has told the imams to lower the volume:
The imam then calls for a generation of Muslims which believes in "enlightened" Islam rather than "fanaticism." He calls for a generation, which does not oppress, betray, attack, become arrogant, run after sedition, or get misled by mirages. He calls for "a generation whose conscience and feelings are filled with love for the higher ideals, virtues, and moral values, which the world lacks today in its international and domestic relations." He says that it was on the basis of such ideals and values that the state of Islam was established. But, before resolving the problems of the world, we must resolve our own problems, he adds.
