Excerpt from BBC World, "Gaza's top Islamic scholar issues fatwa criticizing 7 October attack" (by Rushdi Abualouf) followed by a reflection.
"The most prominent Islamic scholar in Gaza has issued a rare, powerful fatwa condemning Hamas's 7 October 2023 attack on Israel, which triggered the devastating war in the Palestinian territory.
Professor Dr Salman al-Dayah, a former dean of the Faculty of Sharia and Law at the Hamas-affiliated Islamic University of Gaza, is one of the region's most respected religious authorities, so his legal opinion carries significant weight among Gaza's two million population, which is predominantly Sunni Muslim. . . .
Dr Dayah points to Quranic verses and the Sunnah that set strict conditions for the conduct of jihad, including the necessity of avoiding actions that provoke an excessive and disproportionate response by an opponent.
His fatwa highlights that, according to Islamic law, a military raid should not trigger a response that exceeds the intended benefits of the action.
He also stresses that Muslim leaders are obligated to ensure the safety and well-being of non-combatants, including by providing food, medicine, and refuge to those not involved in the fighting.
"Human life is more precious to God than Mecca," Dr Dayah states.. . ."
Reflection: After I read this Islamic scholar's rebuke of Hamas, I realized that his judgement, based on the tenets of his own religion, draws a line in the sand for what is morally acceptable, even in fighting a religious war, or especially in fighting a religious war. I thought of how the US bombed Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and how I always felt, from a very young age, that a moral line was crossed. He says "a military raid should not trigger a response that exceeds the intended benefits of the action". This is saying that Hamas bears some responsibility for triggering Israel's excessive response (!). . . I won't go into how I trust (even if this scholar's fatwah of the current jihad is discredited) that it has rippled out nevertheless, as it has even through me, because I see it as applying to the immoral acts of any superpower (regional or global). . . What we did when we dropped the bombs on Japan, and napalmed and carpet bombed Vietnam etc. etc. should be judged using the same measuring stick. We are also fighting a jihad, but it is against our shadow! That's what happens when any people who were bombed or slaughtered forgive the immoral perpetrator, but the perpetrator never apologizes . . . then it shifts to a shadow problem., which can lead to a psychosis on a collective or national scale. I can see this clearly because of decades of studying Jung, but I am pretty much alone because almost nobody else knows anything about the shadow. Anyway, this criticism of Hamas by a devout Islamic scholar gives me a little hope even though I don't think the United States has the capacity or desire to look within or to see itself in the commission of another nation's sins and atrocities. Maybe Hamas and even some Israelis do have the capacity and the desire to look within.
