I went to the page but I didn't click on any videos. That whole thing is disturbung because of a few reasons. They make a distinction of palestinian Islam. What is that? I have never heard of it. The second problem is that one cannot attain the status of shuhadah through suicide. Suicide is a major sin in Islam and Allah does not reward it. There is no situation that I am aware of that Islam gives permission to commit suidicide. The status of a shaheed in islam can be attained in several different ways, but not suicide. A woman who has died giving birth to her child is considered a shaheed for the cause of Allah. A muslim who is killed in defense of the life, property, and or family of his neighbor can attain shaheed status. One who is supposedly fighting in the way of Allah can only attain shaheed status if the intention is good. He cannot have been the aggressor, nor could he have been the one in the wrong. Muslims dying or being killed does not automatically mean that they are martyrs for Islam.
I find it interesting that it is called Palestinian Islam. I guess they mean the type of Islam that the palestinians supposedly practice. One has not and cannot attain piety and righteousness through the wanton killing of themselves and innocent bystanders. In Quran Allah states clearly for us what He consideres al-birr or righteousness:
It is not Al-Birr that you turn your faces to the east and the west (in prayers) but al-birr is (the quality) of the one who believes in Allah, the last day, the angels, the book, the prophets and gives his wealth in spite of his love for it, to the kinsfolk, the orphan, and to the poor, and to the wayfarer and those who ask, and to set slaves free, perform salaat and give zakaat, and who fulfil their covenants when they make it, and who are patient in extreme poverty, ailments, and at the time of fighting. Such are the people of truth and they are righteous. (2:177)
This is the core of what piety means to a muslim who is trying to really practice Islam. Where the verse does mention fighting it also mentions to have patience when faced with a situation where one may have to fight. A muslim who is regurlary displaying the above-mentioned qualities cannot also be bloodthirsty killer and a terrorist.
To say that Islam supports the killing of any non-muslim whether they are combatants in a war or not, is to say that it is a very confused religion. On the one hand Quran contains verses like this. Many people would agree that many of the qualities listed above are desireable for any person to have. On the other hand Quran supposedly contains verses about the killing of innocent people in whatever situation you might find them in. That is very contradictory. Either Allah wants us to be good people who practice humanitarian actions, or He wants us to be cold-hearted killers. Can't be both. It only makes sense that where Quran does speak on war and when it could be acceptable to fight, that guidelines be given with that.
I think this is where the muslims and the non-muslims in this discussion part ways. I think the root problem is that non-muslims cannot reconcile that if Islam is said to be a peaceful religion why does the book on which it is based make any mention at all of fighting. My answer to that is that Islam as a whole is designed to deal with all facets of life, and all situations that can and will arise in life. Violence has always been apart of the human experience. It would have made no sense to leave out any and all rulings pertained to fighting from the Quran. If these laws and rules had been left out, then muslims would have no guidance if and when a time came that they are actually attacked due to their religion. If Allah were to have said that all fighting under any circumstance was prohibited, Islam would have died out a long time ago. That might actually be a good thing for some people, but not for the muslims.
However, Allah did prescribe fighting as can be seen in Quran, but also rules and limitations were established. Why did Allah set these rules? Because He knows that there will be those among the muslims who will trangress the limits set. Allah warns of the punishment for such offences. Do you all think that muslims believe we are exempt from the punishment of Allah? Of course not. We are just as suscpetible to being thrown into the hellfire as the next person for our gross trangression. There have been and will continue to be those muslims who go astray from the straight path, and committ all sorts of wrongdoings and injustices, including persecution of people for no reason, tyranny, oppression, murder, theft, etc. Any thing you can percieve as wrong I am willing to guarantee that a muslim somewhere has done it.
I accept the reality that everything muslims do is not golden and precious. Thats not logical anyway. What i reject is the blaming of Islam as a religion for the worngs of its so-called followers. Thats a major cop out to me, as I believe people are responsible for their own actions and must take responsibility for it. IF a muslim committs adultery then they must accept the consequence for it. We can't say that Islam teaches us to be adulterers when clearly it does not. If any person committ worngdoings then they can;t make excuses about it.
I think we have effectively established that terrorism and killing of innocents is wrong and inexscusable. Now what is going to be done? The honest answer for us muslims to give is that we dont know what is to be done. It is obvious to me that major changes should happen to the entire system of government in places where people feel the need to act so ugly with one another. How do I change a government? I think it is up to the citizens of these countries to unify and overthrow a corrupt government. I have no idea how to help with such a thing. I dont think just saying it's wrong is enough. All a rally does is let the people around me know that I do not support terrorism or whatever, but at the end of the day what will we accomplish? Will the terrorists be watching Fox news to see the rally? IF they could, do you all think that will effect them when the conditions that they feel are causing their behavior has not changed?
