https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-768759
For the Jewish people, the Sabbath of October 7 was our darkest hour since the Holocaust. The Hamas perpetrated unspeakable horrors reawakening past traumas. To justice and sanctify these atrocities, they invoke their religion.
This deeply challenges those, such as myself, who believe that mutual respect and understanding between Jews and Muslims can help build a better future for all. Can we reconcile the painful current reality with this vision?
I have come to understand, as the late Rabbi Jonathan Sacks said, that the term “fundamentalists” to describe violent extremists is a misnomer, for these are precisely the people who most violate the fundamentals of their religion.
What greater blasphemy can there be than committing atrocities in the name of God? But how is it that religion can be so perverted? My friend, Imam Talib Shareef, insightfully explained, “Religion is power, and power corrupts.”
What empowers Hamas and allows it to thrive is that too many have accepted their corruption of the teachings of a world religion. Too many more know better but remain silent. Both of these groups are complicit in the massacre that began this Saturday.
Palestinians demonstrate at Al-Aqsa Mosque as Palestinian Muslims attend Friday prayers of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, on the compound known to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary and to Jews as the Temple Mount, in Jerusalem's Old City, April 7, 2023. (credit: AMMAR AWAD/REUTERS)
But there are those who have spoken out. Hundreds of Muslim leaders signed a public statement issued by the Global Imams Council (GIC) unequivocally condemning the massacre. In the condemnation, they refer to a legal ruling issued by the Islamic Fatwa Council, located in the Iraqi spiritual capital of Najaf: “It is prohibited to pray for, join, support, finance, or fight on behalf of Hamas.”
The ruling enumerated 11 correlations between Hamas and ISIS, including the use of suicide bombers, missile attacks against civilians, and genocidal aspirations, in the case of Hamas annihilating the Jews. The fatwa was issued in March, prior to the massacres. Its focus is on how Hamas’s corruption and crimes are a violation of Islam and a source of the suffering of the Palestinians in Gaza.
For the Jewish people, the Sabbath of October 7 was our darkest hour since the Holocaust. The Hamas perpetrated unspeakable horrors reawakening past traumas. To justice and sanctify these atrocities, they invoke their religion.
This deeply challenges those, such as myself, who believe that mutual respect and understanding between Jews and Muslims can help build a better future for all. Can we reconcile the painful current reality with this vision?
I have come to understand, as the late Rabbi Jonathan Sacks said, that the term “fundamentalists” to describe violent extremists is a misnomer, for these are precisely the people who most violate the fundamentals of their religion.
What greater blasphemy can there be than committing atrocities in the name of God? But how is it that religion can be so perverted? My friend, Imam Talib Shareef, insightfully explained, “Religion is power, and power corrupts.”
What empowers Hamas and allows it to thrive is that too many have accepted their corruption of the teachings of a world religion. Too many more know better but remain silent. Both of these groups are complicit in the massacre that began this Saturday.
Palestinians demonstrate at Al-Aqsa Mosque as Palestinian Muslims attend Friday prayers of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, on the compound known to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary and to Jews as the Temple Mount, in Jerusalem's Old City, April 7, 2023. (credit: AMMAR AWAD/REUTERS)
But there are those who have spoken out. Hundreds of Muslim leaders signed a public statement issued by the Global Imams Council (GIC) unequivocally condemning the massacre. In the condemnation, they refer to a legal ruling issued by the Islamic Fatwa Council, located in the Iraqi spiritual capital of Najaf: “It is prohibited to pray for, join, support, finance, or fight on behalf of Hamas.”
The ruling enumerated 11 correlations between Hamas and ISIS, including the use of suicide bombers, missile attacks against civilians, and genocidal aspirations, in the case of Hamas annihilating the Jews. The fatwa was issued in March, prior to the massacres. Its focus is on how Hamas’s corruption and crimes are a violation of Islam and a source of the suffering of the Palestinians in Gaza.
