Muslim nations different stances over suicide bombings

Muslim nations different stances over suicide bombings

Jasbant Singh, Associated Press, Kuala Lumpur

Muslim nations took different stances on Monday on suicide
bombings in Israel, with Malaysia urging an end to them and Saudi
Arabia calling Palestinian suicide bombers martyrs.

The differences at the meeting of religious affairs ministers
of the Organization of the Islamic Conference showed lingering
divisions among Muslim countries since a meeting in March, when
foreign ministers were unable to define what constitutes
terrorism.

Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said
holy war cannot be won with violence and suicide bombers, which
achieved nothing by killing Israeli civilians except to bolster
views that Palestinians are terrorists. He added building strong
economies were more important in the fight against injustice.

But Saudi Arabia's minister for Islam, Sheik Salleh Abdul Aziz
Mohammed al-Sheik, differed at a news conference.

"The suicide bombings are permitted," he said. "The victims
are considered to have died a martyr's death."

In a speech opening the three-day conference, Abdullah said
Muslims should not "allow Islam to be hijacked by those who have
a flawed understanding of our faith and rally under the banner of
militancy."

He also urged Muslim countries to drop the widely held belief
that the religion's tenet of jihad, or holy war, meant carrying
out militant attacks.

Jihad must "not be pursued with guns and bombs" but should be
translated into actions that would help to lift Muslims "from the
throes of poverty," he said.

The Saudi Arabian minister agreed but said that the
Palestinians' armed jihad is permissible as a fight for their
rightful land.

"Jihad is any effort that requires strength to better the
lives of a people," Salleh said. "It can range from practicing
self-control to defending your country."

Abdullah said that Muslim countries need to develop economic
clout and political influence to dispel suspicions against the
religion, Abdullah said.

"We must abandon mental blocks that we ourselves have erected
and embrace knowledge and innovation," Abdullah said. "If Islam
is equated with the acts of a minority who have hijacked our
faith, the world will continue to fear and loathe Islam."

The meeting was attended by 42 of the 57 members of the
conference and was expected to address ways to counter a negative
perception of Islam following the Sept. 11 terror attacks.

It followed an OIC conference in late March where Prime
Mahathir Mohamad was unsuccessful in getting foreign ministers to
adopt his call to define all attacks on civilians, including
suicide bombers, as terrorism.

However, other Muslim countries felt the recent wave of
Palestinian suicide bombings was the only weapon available to
people crushed by harsh Israeli occupation.

The Saudi Arabian said that the U.S-led war on terror is
targeting Islam because of a misperception of the religion, but
said it would only be "temporary."

"After Sept. 11, there has been an upsurge, even in America,
to learn what Islam is really about," Salleh said.