Extend fatwa against suicide attacks to other countries, says Pakistani Archbishop
Lahore (AsiaNews) Archbishop Lawrence John Saldanha of Lahore welcomed a fatwa by Muslim clerics condemning suicide attacks. He demanded the same be done in other countries.
"As Catholics, we, too, are against violent attacks since life is a sacred gift and we cannot take it away because God forbids it," he said.
"Such edicts should be taken in other countries," he added.
On Tuesday, May 17, 58 Muslim clerics from different schools issued a fatwa (legal opinion or ruling by a Muslim scholar) that decreed that suicide attacks violated Islamic teachings and were not an instrument for jihad.
The clerics said that the fatwa was applicable only to Pakistan and was intended to dispel the misconceived idea spread by some religious organizations that brainwashed would-be suicide attackers into believing they would go to heaven.
"This propaganda," the scholars said, "gives Islam a bad name. With this fatwa, innocent people can be spared becoming a tool in the hands of the enemies of Islam."
As Mufti Muneebur Rehman, president of the Tanzeemul Madaris Pakistan, (an association of religious seminaries of different schools), said: "Anyone who takes part in a suicide attack thinking that he or she had God's blessings will not be considered Muslim."
The fatwa declared killing innocent people haram (forbidden) and carried the death penalty.
"Pope John Paul II promoted a civilisation of life and love," Archbishop Saldhana said, "and we must do the same. Suicide belongs to a civilisation of death".
The Archbishop further reiterated the Church's opposition to all forms of murder such as abortion and euthanasia.
Muneebur Rehman also said that Islam condemned planting bombs, attacking mosques or other places of worship or even public places.
"Killing human beings had nothing to do with Islam," he said, stressing that no self-respecting Islamic religious institution could teach such things.
Since 1980 more than 4,000 people have died in sectarian violence between Shiites and Sunnis. The year 2004 was the deadliest with 160 dead.
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