Islamophobia for Dummies
Osama Bin Laden Dead, 9/11 and Islam
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Welcome to Islamophobia for Dummies. The step by step guide to seeing how ridiculous Islamophobia really is. - In the name of God, the Most Compassionate, the Most Merciful - With the recent death of Osama Bin Laden, in this episode, we will be discussing the relationships between Osama Bin Laden, the terrorist acts of 9/11, and the religion of Islam. First of all, Islam is fundamentally opposed to harming civilians. The Quran states: 5:32 {...whosoever killeth a human being for other than manslaughter or corruption in the earth, it shall be as if he had killed all mankind...} In addition, Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) said: "Do not kill an old man, nor a child, nor a youth, nor a woman". This hadith prohibited harming civilians (even) on the battlefield, let alone outside the context of battle. Sheikh Hamza Yusuf Hanson explains this hadith further: Hamza Yusuf -At essence, Islam is an irenic (aimed at peace) religion, it is a peaceful tradition. Our Prophet was not a warmonger. He did not like war. He disdained war. He said "Never hope to meet your enemies, but if you are forced to meet them, be brave in the battlefield." He prohibited the killing of civilians. He prohibited the killing of women and children. In the Malki Fiqh that I studied, the only time that you can fight a woman is if she is a combatant on the other side. The Malki jurists were so troubled by the hadith, that they said, "if you see a woman on the battlefield, run away from her" ... because they did not want you to fall under that hadith, because it is a "mutawatar" hadith, it's a factual hadith that has the same strength as a verse in the Quran. Harming civilians clearly violates the explicit commands of both the Quran and Prophet Muhammad himself, and this is the consensus of the QUALIFIED Islamic scholars from the 4 Islamic schools of thought: Hamza Yusuf - One of the greatest problems we have, is we have what I call "Sheikh Googles", weekend Muftis. We have now a loss of authority in our tradition. This has led to people like, what they call "Sheikh Bin Laden". Somebody called me up on a recent Arabic program and said "What do you think of Sheikh Osama Bin Laden?"... but, who made him a Sheikh? Really, who made "Sheikh" Osama Bin Laden a Sheikh? Osama Bin Laden is an accountant. Ayman Zawahiri was a pediatric surgeon. And these people are giving "Fatwa" from caves in Afghanistan telling people to kill people. In other words, even though Bin Laden may be qualified as an accountant, he lacks the Islamic chain of authority needed to qualify him to even give accounting fatwas, let alone on any other subject. So let's make a quick analogy to demonstrate how you cannot blame Islam for the ideas of an unqualified person. The Christian Church considers its pope's to be infallible, perfect, unable of making a mistake. And despite the fact that 6 different popes had declared crusades in their "infallible" opinions, you still can't blame the Christian religion. You could blame the Popes themselves who declared a crusade and you could even blame the Christian Church that decided they were infallible, but you cannot blame the teachings of the Messiah Jesus. Now, had these crusades been declared by Christian "accountants", it would make even less sense to blame Christianity, just like it makes very little sense to blame Islam for the ideas of Bin Laden, the accountant. The real irony is that Bin Laden is more a product of the U.S. government than anything else. After all, it was the CIA that initially trained, financed and armed Bin Laden and the "freedom fighters" against the Soviets in Afghanistan. Putting Bin Laden aside for a minute, there are still some unanswered questions about the events of 9/11. • Pilots for 9/11 Truth want to know how a bunch of guys who mastered playing on the jungle gym were able to fly expert maneuvers that would be nearly impossible for master pilots? • Military Officers for 9/11 Truth want to know how is it possible for the world's most advanced Air Force to fail in intercepting all 4 of the hijacked planes? • How is it possible that in the most secure building on earth, not a single one of the pentagon's external cameras was able to record the aircraft that supposedly crashed into it? • How is it possible that before 9/11, not a single steel framed tower EVER collapsed from even extreme fires for up to 20 hours, but the World Trade Center 7 building supposedly fell in just a few hours from mild fires. • Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth also want to know, how is it possible for the 2 World Trade Center towers to collapse at nearly the speed of gravity, despite the tremendous resistance of the floors below? • They also want to know why the World Trade Center collapses behave and look more like demolitions and explosions? But these questions are irrelevant to the U.S. government, as Barack Obama explained: Obama - I'm aware that there's still some who would question, or even justify, the offense of 9/11. But let us be clear: Al Qaeda killed nearly 3,000 people on that day ... claimed credit for the attack But the biggest problem with the so-called admission tape, is that the pentagon mistranslates several key statements, including several parts of the audio that are not even inaudible. And other than being happy about that tragic loss of life, Bin Laden does little more than describe what anyone could have seen and heard on the news. The fact is that Bin Laden explicitly denied involvement with the 9/11 attacks numerous times: Steven Jones - But here's what Bin Laden himself said 5 days, and then what is that, 17 days after 9/11. He said "I stress that I have not carried out this act" ... "which appears to have been carried out by individuals with their own motivation". Then on the 28th of September, just what 17 days after 9/11: "I have already said, I am not involved in the 11 September attacks in the United States. As a Muslim, I try my best to avoid telling a lie." Now, I'm not saying he's a good man, but I'm just saying, just give him a chance, OK ... and see why do we all think that he's responsible? Did you know that he denied this? See, what happened was, the U.S. administration urged American media not to broadcast these words, because they're saying perhaps he's giving signals to the cells of terrorists that are still in the United States, which is possible, yeah, but as you actually look at what he says, he is denying that he was involved. And this is after the release of the so-called confession tape, he says again "the United States now has attacked Afghanistan and killed many people. They are innocent, but on a mere suspicion, the United States has launched this fierce campaign. We have witnessed the true crimes of those who call themselves..." I mean, should I not give this guy a chance to speak? I think I should, OK. "We have witnessed the true crimes ... of those who call themselves humanitarians and claim to be defenders of freedom". Certainly not for these people who died. What's happened then, is that Bin Laden was convicted on TV. The question is, what other ... suspects were even investigated? Hm? The evidence from the crime scene, as we've seen, was destroyed, 1) as the steel beams were cut up and shipped quickly away, 2) the dust was declared safe, 3) surveillance videos and flight recorders have been seized and not released to the public, I'm talking here about the surveillance videos at the Pentagon in particular ... they released 5 frames, which don't show a jet going into the Pentagon at all. It's very suspicious. The reality is, that the FBI never even indicted Bin Laden in connection to 9/11. Could Bin Laden's 3 denials, and the lack of evidence against him, explain why the U.S. government decided to assassinate him, rather than capture the 54 year old unarmed Bin Laden for trial and real justice? But do we really need to prove that the U.S. government has lied about Bin Laden before: George Bush - Well the reason I keep insisting that, uh, there was a relationship between Iraq and Saddam and Al Qaeda (is) because there was a relationship between Iraq and Al Qaeda. Richard Engel - The truth was, there was never a connection between Iraq and Osama Bin Laden. There were no weapons of mass destruction either. And do we also need to prove that the U.S. government has lied about Bin Laden's motivations: Michael Scheuer - ... based on what Bin Laden himself has said, and for those who read the book, will find out that Mr. Clinton, Mr. Bush and Mr. Obama have been lying to us... Each president has lied to the American people about what the war is about. They keep telling us "We're hated because we have democracy". If they did, sir, we would not have a problem. They wouldn't even be a lethal nuisance. They hate us because of our foreign policy, that's why. And do we really need to prove that the FBI itself has actually supplied the explosives to the terrorists who tried to blow up the World Trade Center in 1993: CBS - FBI agents might have been able to prevent last February's deadly explosion at New York's World Trade Center. They discussed secretly substituting harmless powder for the explosives, but they didn't, according to the FBI's own informant Emad Salem. Unbeknownst to the FBI at the time, Salem recorded many of his conversations with his handlers. So while Muslims condemn U.S. foreign policy in supporting Israel and Arab dictators, Islam also condemns the 1998 embassy bombings in Eastern Africa (for which the FBI did indict Bin Laden), and for which he should have faced trial, because Islam not only prohibits killing civilians, but also the official emissaries from other countries. And while Americans are celebrating the death of Osama Bin Laden as "justice", where is the justice for the hundreds of thousands of dead Iraqi and Afghani civilians killed as collateral damage in these unjust wars? Other Americans celebrated by spray-painting "Osama Today, Islam Tomorow" on a Mosque. But despite the facts about Islamic teachings being peaceful, how can we reason with bigots who can't even spell the word "tomorrow" correctly? And the western media knows so little about Islam, that they think dumping a corpse in the ocean is somehow considered a proper Islamic burial: NBC News - and before the end of the day, his remains were aboard the U.S. Aircraft Carrier "Carl Vinson", where U.S. officials say he was given a proper Muslim burial at sea. So with no such thing as a "Muslim burial at sea", Fox News is upset because they think Bin Laden was buried respectfully: Sean Hannity - Do you think we might have been better off ... saving the body of Bin Laden and not worry about sensitivity? Fox News - My question... why? Why treat this terrorist, who killed thousands, with anything like respect. And unfortunately for the whole world, this prejudice against Muslims really did start after the events of 9/11: George Bush - This crusade ... this war on terrorism, it's gonna take a while. But it really didn't have to. The U.S. government could have easily avoided this long crusade by sending in their Navy Seals 10 years ago. Or better yet, the U.S. could have accepted the Afghani government's request, that they were "ready for the trial of Osama bin Laden in light of the evidence". And this was a very reasonable request, especially since the Afghani government didn't even have an extradition treaty with the United States. On a final note, this last clip from NBC exemplifies how the western media, rather than holding the U.S. government accountable for its own actions, would rather to blame Bin Laden for the U.S. government's actions: NBC - Osama Bin Laden is dead. The man who killed thousands of innocent people. The man who launched the United States into 2 wars, in the name of that attack. The man who changed the way we have to live in this country. Now I always thought it was George Bush and the U.S. congress who changed the way Americans have to live, and quote "launched the U.S. into 2 wars, in the name of that attack". I never realized that Osama Bin Laden was secretly appointed as both the American President and its U.S. Congress. In conclusion, Islam clearly condemns the killing of any civilian, and prejudice against Muslims won't address any problem whatsoever. And whether Bin Laden had anything to do with 9/11 or not, his true inspiration was not Islam, rather, his motivation was U.S. foreign policy. |
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