The International Association of Muslim Scholars (IAMS) was really appalled to see the bloody incidents both inside and outside the Muslim world such as those that took place in Egypt, London, Turkey, and other countries. Such grisly incidents left behind great numbers of innocent civilian casualties who were killed in cold blood without any sin committed on their part. The IAMS, which is keen to clarify Islam’s stance concerning these grisly bombings, decides the following for the whole Muslim Ummah and other nations:

The above divine warning encompasses all those who utter the Shahadatayn (Two Shahadahs)—testifying that there is no God but Allah and that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) strongly condemned `Usamah ibn Zayd when he killed a man in one of the battles after the man had uttered the Shahadatayn. The Prophet addressed `Usamah saying, “Have you killed him after he uttered the Shahadatayn, `Usamah!” To this `Usamah responded, “Prophet of Allah, he uttered the Shahadatayn for fear of the sword (that is, in order to save himself from being killed).” The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) then said, “Have you split his heart into two pieces?”

Thus, we are to deal with people as Muslims as long as they are apparently known to be Muslims. The above ruling also applies to those who have a permanent pledge with Muslims. This category of people is named by Muslim jurists as Dhimmi or non-Muslims living under the protection of the Muslim state. This category is protected by the covenant of Allah, His Prophet, and the whole Muslim Ummah. They are known, according to all jurists, as ahl dar al-Islam or the people belonging to the abode of Islam; they are citizens who enjoy the same rights and bear the same responsibilities as Muslims.

With this in mind, Islam considers the act of issuing an entrance visa to a tourist to be a pledge of security given to this tourist, and hence it categorically prohibits transgressing the security given to tourist. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) is reported to have said, “Anyone who kills a Dhimmi will not smell the fragrance of Paradise ” (Al-Bukhari).

3. Islam, which prohibits killing innocent civilians, also prohibits terrorizing the secured and terrifying the peaceful. Islam considers it a basic right that everyone enjoys security regarding himself, his family, his property, his religion, and all other special rights that man strives to protect. Islam ranks safety as one of the top blessings Allah favored man with, and it considers committing any violation against this safety as an act that entails Allah’s curse in the Hereafter and His punishment in this world. It is no wonder that Islam stresses the punishment of theft and highway robbery, as such crimes threaten the security of people.

Islam also prohibits terrorizing the Muslim even if it is done jokingly. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) stressed this when he said to a Muslim who jokingly terrorized his brother, “It is not permissible for a Muslim to terrorize another Muslim.” In this hadith, the Prophet did not intend terrorizing Muslims in particular, but the word Muslim was mentioned in the above hadith because the context of the situation was that a Muslim terrorized another Muslim and not somebody else (that is, a non-Muslim). With all this in mind, the Prophetic hadith assures “The believer is the one to whom people feel secured regarding their blood and property.”

Based on this, it is not permissible to punish the innocents because of an act committed by the guilty or to punish the group for a sin committed by a handful of its individuals. Taking the rough with the smooth, as far as the issue in point is concerned, is an erroneous judgment that does not belong to the Shari`ah. The Islamic Shari`ah has nothing to do with the acts of those few deviated people who follow its teachings but change them from their proper contexts. They claim to punish people because of injustices done by their rulers.

Reality bears witness that the victims of those crimes are the peaceful citizens such as those who were killed in London bombings recently while going to their work in the morning or going to their schools, universities, etc. The same are those victims killed in the bombings that hit the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm El-Sheikh. Those innocent victims are peaceful Egyptians and tourists given the pledge of security as clarified above.

5. The ethical constitution of legitimate war in Islam dictates that it is prohibited to kill anyone except those who are fighting. In this legitimate war, fighting is restricted to face-to-face confrontation between Muslims and the army of the aggressors. Upon seeing a woman killed in the battlefield, the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) renounced the act and said, “That woman shouldn’t have been killed anyway!”

Moreover, the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) forbade killing women, children, the aged, monks in their hermitages, farmers in their lands, and traders. This ruling of prohibition is stressed by the Qur’anic verses, the Prophetic hadiths, as well as the directives given by the Rightly-Guided Caliphs.

How come that people who neither carry a weapon nor participate in war against Muslims practically or verbally are killed?

For the above, the IAMS has asked the kidnappers to fear Allah regarding those who kidnapped them, and to treat them honorably until they set them free. The IAMS took part in releasing the French and Italian hostages in Iraq, and it has condemned the killing of the head of the Egyptian diplomatic mission in Iraq, too, and these days it calls for the release of the Algerian diplomat in Iraq and those kept with him.