Could Have Fooled Me… Almost

Civitas, 26 February 2008

Today’s Times reports that 20,000 Muslim leaders have just issued a declaration condemning terrorism as un-Islamic.
Their declaration was made at a conference held yesterday at the Dar Uloom madrassa in Deoband, northern India. It runs:
“Islam is a religion of mercy for all humanity. Islam sternly condemns all kinds of oppression, violence and terrorism.”
Clearly, Muslim scholars should know what their own religion condemns and what it condones far better than any non-Muslim. But the remarkably pacifistic tone of the declaration not only seemed too good to be true. It also seemed at variance with numerous other claims made by Muslims and non-Muslims alike that Islam condones and sometimes mandates physical violence in the form of jihad.
Could any further light on this matter be shed by visiting the website of the madrassa at which yesterday’s declaration was made?
continued on the Centre for Social Cohesion blog.