British Cleric Issues 600 Page ‘Fatwa’ against Terrorism

Attempting to deter young Muslims from extremism, Muhammad Tahir ul-Qadri, a leading British Islamic scholar has issued a fatwa condemning “terrorists” as the enemies of Islam.

The cleric, who heads the Minhaj ul-Quran religious and educational organisation, released the 600 page edict in London on Tuesday.

“They can’t claim that their suicide bombings are martyrdom operations and that they become the heroes of the Muslim Umma (community), no, they become heroes of hellfire, and they are leading towards hellfire,” he said.

“There is no place for any martyrdom and their act is never, ever to be considered Jihad,” he said.

At a news conference, ul-Qadri said Islam was a religion of peace that promotes beauty, “betterment”, goodness and “negates all form of mischief and strife”.

“Terrorism is terrorism, violence is violence and it has no place in Islamic teaching and no justification can be provided for it, or any kind of excuses or ifs or buts,” he said.

Pakistan-born ul-Qadri, 59, has written about 350 books on Islam, and is a scholar of Sufism.

(Based on media reports)