The Arab and Muslim world these days is awash with opinions and comments, all focused on the war to liberate Iraq from the tyranny of Saddam Hussein. The commentators remain confused over the nature of the war: Is it a war against Saddam or an invasion of Iraq?
Most of the commentators seem to forget Saddam’s unprecedented treatment and aggression against the helpless Iraqis who remain hostage to his regime. These commentators seem to have forgotten the tyrannical nature of a government that heeds no advice or appeal and continue to view the war simply as an invasion of Iraqi territory.
These commentators have, by implication, lent their support to all the lies and deception being circulated by Saddam’s government. By doing so, they seem to sympathize with it. By raising the banner of nationalism, Saddam managed to divert attention from his crimes. He managed to arouse the sentiments of many Arabs by using such emotional and sensational expressions as “colonization,” “crusader campaign,” “partition of the country,” “Zionism” and “seizure of oil wealth.”
The regime manipulated the language to further its own interests and incite the feelings of Arabs and Muslims under the pretext of fighting colonialism, defending Islam, fighting a jihad, etc. The objective is to create a state of popular discontent, excitement and outburst which will in turn create an atmosphere in which these ideas can be spread and supporters lured. These are the reasons that the calls for jihad, boycott and such are being issued from certain quarters; the calls are all intended to serve these quarters’ interests and agendas and are emphatically not to further the cause of God.
In a recent article on the conflict, Dr. Abdul Hameed Al-Ansari, dean of the faculty of Shariah in Qatar, sought to refute the fatwas — religious edicts — issued by some people calling for what they termed “jihad against the crusader aggression on Iraq”. He said applying the call for jihad to the current Iraqi case is incorrect.
According to Dr. Al-Ansari, “jihad becomes obligatory on every Muslim when a Muslim state is subjected to aggression. However, applying this religious rule to Iraq is neither right nor timely. If we believed and sought to enforce these fatwas, this could lead to serious consequences and disasters for Islam.”
He described Iraq as a “hostile state and regime which has been waging aggression for more than two decades, starting with gassing its own people, executing its opponents and waging war against its neighbors which resulted in the deaths of more than two million Muslims.”
Dr. Al-Ansari went on to say that the Iraqi regime had humiliated its people and squandered the country’s wealth on fulfilling Saddam’s hostile ambitions while stifling all attempts at reform. In short, he added, Iraq is a hopeless case that needs corrective surgery if it is to be healed. The fatwas calling for jihad have ignored all these facts and tended to forget there are people who continue to suffer under the present Iraqi regime and that four million Iraqis have fled their country to live in exile.
This is an objective and rational analysis by Dr. Al-Ansari in reply to those emotionally whimsical fatwas that only serve extremist political quarters. It is Saddam’s tyranny and oppression that brought war to Iraq. War is hell and only the insane would want it to happen. I say it is a war that we should not fear. Thank God, we are safe and united under a wise leadership.
Arab News From the Local Press 27 March 2003
