Defending the Transgressed by Censuring the Reckless Against the Killing of Civilians

by Muhammad Afifi Al-Akiti

A fatwa, or religious opinion, by a Malaysian Muslim theologian of the Shafi'i stream of thought, against the targeting of civilians in terrorist attacks.

Genres: Islam

56 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2005

Reviews

[Lumumba Shakur · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is by far the best statement on so-called "Islamic" terrorism from a very capable scholar. Even though Sh. Afifi is Shafi'i, it nonetheless demonstrates how far both the wanton and incidental targeting of civilians as a tactic of warfare is from the Sacred Law. Ten years after it was initially written and translated, it remains the most authoritative (yet concise) statement on the matter, while unfortunately being completely ignored for the obvious reason that it completely contradicts the narrative that the "Salafist" Jihadism represents unapologetic, fundamentalist Muslim thought - something that is in the interest of both so-called Jiihadis and Islamophobes to promote. Rather, it proves that the Marxist notions of warfare and revolution dressed in Muslim garb that has been misnamed "jihad" is a radical departure from the Islamic legal tradition. When Imam al-Ghazali affirms that it isn't permissible to attack someone that one definitively recognizes as a soldier from a recent battlefield when he is out of uniform because he doesn't represent an immediate threat and is considered a civilian at the moment he puts down his weapon or that bombs become impermissible to use when there is a reasonable chance of "collateral damage", there remains little else to be said to propagandists who insist that Islam is an inherently violent religion. It instead represents a moral high ground of just war that no nation in the past 100 years has even come close to rivaling - Muslim nations included. This fatwa should be brought up any time someone tries to argue that Islam and terrorism go hand-in-hand and it is short enough that no one who claims to be interested in the topic has any excuse to not read it. It also doesn't hurt that it is free, this print only being an attempt to make it more accessible to a wider audience

[Matt Friedman · Rating 4 out of 5]

A response not just to "jihadi" actions, but to the quasi-Salafist theological justification often underlying such actions and philosophy. The writer is an orthodox Sunni sheikh, so it is helpful that this comes from "in-house," so to speak. The one caveat is that the Sheikh Afifi al-Akiti represents the Shafi'i school of Islamic jurisprudence, and most of those who he addresses here would probably identify as Hanbali.