Istishhad

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See also: Martyrdom in Islam

Istishhad (Arabic: استشهاد‎) means the seeking of or the act of martyrdom, martyrdom being defined as a military or insurgent attack which almost certainly will lead to the death of the attacker. The most common form of such an attack is a suicide bombing, but there are other forms such as detonating a landmine by walking on it to make a path in the battlefield for other soldiers.

Contents

[edit] History

The origins of modern Istishhadi attacks lie among the Shia in Iran during the Iran-Iraq War. Mohammed Hossein Fahmideh, a 13 year old boy who fought in the war, is said to be the first Muslim to have participated in such attack in contemporary history. He strapped rocket-propelled grenades to his chest and blew himself up under an Iraqi tank in November 1980. Ayatollah Khomeini declared Fahmideh a national hero and inspiration for further volunteer for martyrdom.[1] [2]

Shia usually refer to martyrdom of Hussain ibn Ali and his companions and family members in battle of Karbala as role models and inspiration for martyrdom as a glorious and noble death.

According to one non-Muslim scholar, Noah Feldman: "The vocabulary of martyrdom and sacrifice, the formal videotaped preconfession of faith, the technological tinkering to increase deadliness — all are now instantly recognizable to every Muslim." Feldman sees a worrying trend in the steady expansion of the targets of Istishhad since its debut in the 1980s.

First the targets were American soldiers, then mostly Israelis, including women and children. From Lebanon and Israel, the technique of suicide bombing moved to Iraq, where the targets have included mosques and shrines, and the intended victims have mostly been Shiite Iraqis. The newest testing ground is Afghanistan, where both the perpetrators and the targets are orthodox Sunni Muslims. Not long ago, a bombing in Lashkar Gah, the capital of Helmand Province, killed Muslims, including women, who were applying to go on pilgrimage to Mecca. Overall, the trend is definitively in the direction of Muslim-on-Muslim violence. By a conservative accounting, more than three times as many Iraqis have been killed by suicide bombings in the last 3 years as have Israelis in the last 10. Suicide bombing has become the archetype of Muslim violence — not just to frightened Westerners but also to Muslims themselves. [3]

[edit] Martyrdom operation

A 'martyrdom operation' is an attack on military or civilian targets in which the attacker is expected to die; most frequently by detonation of a bomb. The term is usually used by Muslim militants, although non-Muslim groups have engaged in suicide attacks. Islamist militants prefer the term to suicide attack as suicide is forbidden under traditional Islamic law. While most combat involves a chance of death, a "martyrdom operation" implies a deliberate act of self-sacrificial suicide.

Muslims who have carried out 'martyrdom operations' have done so as part of jihad ('holy war') and believe it is a necessity. According to Ayatollah Mohammad Taghi Mesbah Yazdi,

when protecting Islam and the Muslim community depends on martyrdom operations, it not only is allowed, but even is an obligation as many of the Shi'ah great scholars and Maraje', including Ayatullah Safi Golpayegani and Ayatullah Fazel Lankarani, have clearly announced in their fatwas.[4]

Islamic clergy especially in Iran consider martyrdom operations in Palestinian terrotories and other occupied countries an act of resistance and heroic. This is shared across the various Islamic sects. Thus, Yusuf al-Qaradawi agrees with Iranian mullahs.

Ruhollah Khomeini showered martyrdom operations during the Iran-Iraq War and those against Israel with accolade.

Osama bin Laden called the attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon a "martyrdom operation." Palestinians primarily speak of a ‘martyrdom operation’ as opposed to ‘suicide bombing.’ The Iraqi administration referred to suicide attacks on invading troops during the 2003 Iraq war in these terms also, and, in particular, their promise to retake the Baghdad airport.

[edit] Disagreements

In January of 2006, one of Shia Islam's highest ranking marja clerics, Ayatollah al-Udhma Yousof al-Sanei also decreed a fatwa against suicide bombing however, declaring it as a "terrorist act":

"Even those who kill people with suicide bombing, these shall meet the flames of hell."[5]

Some Sunni scholars opinion rejects suicide.[6] However, some top authorities do support suicide attacks on perceived enemies of Islam. Mohammed Ijaz ul-Haq, religious affairs minister of Pakistan, the world's second largest Muslim majority country, has made public statements in favor of it. Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, sometimes called "the world's most quoted independent Islamic jurist",[7] has called martyrdom operations:

the greatest of all sorts of Jihad in the Cause of Allah. A martyr operation is carried out by a person who sacrifices himself, deeming his life less value than striving in the Cause of Allah, in the cause of restoring the land and preserving the dignity. [8]

Other clerics have supported attacks mainly in connection with Palestine. Sunni Iraqi Cleric, Sheikh Ahmad Al-Qubeisi has proclaimed that "those who commit martyrdom [i.e. suicide] operations who are, by Allah, the greatest martyrs in Islamic history..." [9] Amongst others the Imam of the Grand Mosque in Mecca, Abd Al-Rahman Al-Sudayyis,[10], the former President of Al-Azhar University, Ahmad 'Omar Hashem [11] and Cleric, Sheikh Ibrahim Mudeiris of Gaza [12] have all urged on suicide operations by Muslims. Sayed Mohammed Musawi, head of the World Islamic League in London, condemning the London bombings, but insisted

"there should be a clear distinction between the suicide bombing of those who are trying to defend themselves from occupiers, which is something different from those who kill civilians, which is a big crime."[13]

There have been conflicting reports about the stand of Sheikh Muhammad Sayyid Tantawy, the top Egyptian cleric of Al-Azhar University, and the mufti of Egypt, Sheikh Dr. Ahmad Al ­Tayyeb. Shortly after 9/11 the Sheikh Tantawy issued a statement apposing suicide attacks.[14] But a translation from Al ­Azhar website quotes him as supporting suicide attacks on Jews in Israel as part of the Palestinian struggle "to strike horror into the hearts of the enemies of Islam." [15] Then in mid-2003 he was quoted again as saying "groups which carried out suicide bombings were the enemies of Islam."[16]

According to Professor Charles A. Kimball, chair of the Department of Religion at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, "There is only one verse in the Qur'an that contains a phrase related to suicide", Verse 4:29 of the Qur'an.[17] It reads

O you who believe! Do not consume your wealth in the wrong way-rather through trade mutually agreed to, and do not kill yourselves. Surely God is Merciful toward you.

Some commentators believe that the phrase "do not kill yourselves" is better translated "do not kill each other", and some translations (e.g. Shakir) reflect that view. (A note on the Qur'an's unique textual density is perhaps in order here: It is not uncommon for a single Qur'anic Arabic phrase to embrace two or more complementary meanings at the same time, and this may be the case with 4:29.)

Mainstream Islamic groups such as the European Council for Fatwa and Research use the Quran'ic verse Al-Anam 6:151

(And take not life, which Allah has made sacred, except by way of justice and law)

as further reason to prohibit suicide.[18] In addition, the hadith unambiguously forbid suicide.[19]

A contrary view is presented by Faisal Bodi who has written in The Guardian that,

"in the Muslim world, then, we celebrate what we call the martyr-bombers. To us they are heroes defending the things we hold sacred. Polls in the Middle East show 75% of people in favour of martyr-bombings."[7]

Nevertheless, Islamist militant organisations (including Al-Qaeda, Hamas and Islamic Jihad) continue to argue that suicide operations are justified according to Islamic law, despite Islam's strict prohibition of suicide and murder.[20][21] Irshad Manji, in a conversation with one leader of Islamic Jihad noted their ideology.

"What's the difference between suicide, which the Koran condemns, and martyrdom?" I asked. "Suicide," he replied, "is done out of despair. But remember: most of our martyrs today were very successful in their earthly lives." In short, there was a future to live for--and they detonated it anyway.

Since the four suicide bombings in London, there have been many scholastic refutations of suicide bombings from Sunni Muslims. Ihsanic Intelligence, a London-based Islamic think-tank, published their two-year study into suicide bombings in the name of Islam, titled 'The Hijacked Caravan',[22] which concluded that,

"The technique of suicide bombing is anathema, antithetical and abhorrent to Sunni Islam. It is considered legally forbidden, constituting a reprehensible innovation in the Islamic tradition, morally an enormity of sin combining suicide and murder and theologically an act which has consequences of eternal damnation."[23]

The Oxford-based Malayist jurist, Shaykh Muhammad Afifi al-Akiti, issued his landmark fatwa on suicide bombing and targeting innocent civilians, titled 'Defending the Transgressed, by Censuring the Reckless against the Killing of Civilians', where he states suicide bombing in its most widespread form, is forbidden:

'If the attack involves a bomb placed on the body or placed so close to the bomber that when the bomber detonates it the bomber is certain [yaqin] to die, then the More Correct Position according to us is that it does constitute suicide. This is because the bomber, being also the Maqtul [the one killed], is unquestionably the same Qatil [the immediate/active agent that kills] = Qatil Nafsahu [suicide]"[24]

In January of 2006, one of Shia Islam's highest ranking marja clerics, Ayatollah al-Udhma Yousof al-Sanei also decreed a fatwa against suicide bombing, declaring it as a "terrorist act".[25]

[edit] See also

[edit] Footnotes

  1. ^ Our leader: Mohammed Hossein Fahmideh
  2. ^ The making of a suicide bomber - Times Online
  3. ^ Islam, Terror and the Second Nuclear Age By NOAH FELDMAN Published: October 29, 2006
  4. ^ http://www.mesbahyazdi.org/english/contact-us/afq/contact4.htm#عمليات%20شهادت%20طلبانه
  5. ^ Feb 2007 interview with Christiane Amanpour of CNN: [1]
  6. ^ Terrorism and Suicide bombings
  7. ^ a b Bodi, Faisal (2001). Bombing for God. Special report: Israel and the Middle East. Guardian Newspapers Limited. Retrieved on 2006-07-19. - "In the Muslim world, then, we celebrate what we call the martyr-bombers. To us they are heroes defending the things we hold sacred. Polls in the Middle East show 75% of people in favour of martyr-bombings."
  8. ^ Fatwa Bank
  9. ^ Dubai TV, May 5, 2004
  10. ^ On Saudi TV Channel 1, April 2, 2004,
  11. ^ On Channel 1 of Egyptian TV, April 23, 2004
  12. ^ Palestinian Authority TV, May 21, 2004
  13. ^ After London, Tough Questions for Muslims
  14. ^ Grand Sheikh condemns suicide bombings
  15. ^ lailatalqadr.com, April 4, 2002.
  16. ^ Cleric condemns suicide attacks
  17. ^ AN-NISA (WOMEN)
  18. ^ Euthanasia: Types and Rulings
  19. ^ Committing Suicide Is Strictly Forbidden in Islam
  20. ^ The Islamic Ruling on the Permissibility of Martyrdom Operations
  21. ^ Fatwa of Sheikh Yousef Al-Qaradhawi
  22. ^ The Hijacked Caravan
  23. ^ The Hijacked Caravan: Refuting Suicide Bombings as Martyrdom Operations in Contemporary Jihad Strategy
  24. ^ Defending The Transgressed By Censuring The Reckless Against The Killing Of Civilians
  25. ^ Feb 2007 interview with Christianne Amanpour of CNN: [2]

[edit] External links