Morning epiphany

Despite the intuitive attractiveness of the ideal of markets unencumbered by regulations upon transactions between informed, consenting participants, such a state of affairs is impossible to implement morally, because many transactions have adverse effects on unknowing, nonconsenting third parties.

Egypt’s Grand Mufti: Terrorism “a manifestation of the immorality of people with cruel hearts”

Via Notre Dame University’s Contending Modernities blog, a statement by Shaykh Ali Gomaa, one of the most respected sharia jurists in Sunni Islam:

There is no religion worthy of the name that does not regard as one of its highest values the sanctity of human life. Islam is no exception to this rule. Indeed, God has made this unequivocal in the Quran by emphasizing the gravity of the universal prohibition against murder, saying of the one who takes even one life that “it is as if he has killed all mankind.” Islam views murder as both a crime punishable by law in this world and as major sin punishable in the Afterlife as well. Prophet Mohammad said, “The first cases to be decided among the people on the Day of Judgment will be those of blood-shed.”

The Islam that we were taught in our youth is a religion that calls for peace and mercy.  The first prophetic saying that is taught to a student of Islam is, “Those who show mercy are shown mercy by the All-Merciful. Show mercy to those who are on earth and the One in the heavens will show mercy to you.” What we have learnt about Islam has been taken from the clear, pristine, and scholarly understanding of the Quran, “O people we have created you from a single male and female and divided you into nations and tribes so that you may know one another.”

Terrorism, therefore, cannot be the outcome of any proper understanding of religion. It is rather a manifestation of the immorality of people with cruel hearts, arrogant souls, and warped logic. It is thus with great sadness and outrage that we witness the emergence of this disease in our nation with the recent bombing outside a church in Alexandria that killed tens of Egyptian citizens. There is no doubt that such barbarism needs to be denounced in the strongest of terms, and opposed at every turn.

Just as importantly, we must counter the deviant beliefs that underpin such gross transgressions. Despite their confused claims, terrorists are miscreants who have no legitimate connection to the pure Islamic way, whose history and orthodox doctrine are testaments to the Islamic commitment to tolerance, compassion and peace. The Quran is clear that “God has honored the children of Adam.” Islam therefore makes no distinction among races, ethnicities, or religions in its belief that all people are deserving of basic human dignity. Furthermore, Islam has laid down justice, peace and cooperation as the basic principles of interaction between religious communities, advising Muslims that the proper conduct towards those who do not show aggression towards us is to act with goodness and justice. Indeed, this is the way of the true Muslim, for “God loves the just.”

This is only Gomaa’s most recent statement against extremism; in the past, he has argued against theocracy and for republican government, asserted women’s entitlement to political rights mostly equal to men’s, forbidden female genital mutilation in a country where 97 percent of women have endured it, stated apostasy is not a capital crime, and denounced the fraudulent hate literature of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, which is currently a bestseller in parts of the Arab world, with most readers taking its poisonous claims at face-value.