Fort Walton Beach Council agenda — 03-09-2010 Regular — reading text

instance of a mis- sion being sent after awaiting permission for it.... Was any missionary party sent to Rome before mounting an attack on that metropolis? As far as my knowledge goes, there is not a single instance throughout the entire history of Islam where the intention was announced that warfare would be stopped if the enemy conceded to this condition ( permission to carry out peaceful missionary work)." 29 The Shariah Advisors For Taqi Usmani, offensive jihad can be postponed for a time only in cases when the Muslims in question are not strong enough to battle or otherwise challenge the infidels. And so, he advises the Muslims to live peacefully in countries like Britain, for instance, but only until they gain enough power to carry out jihad. On Martyrdom and Suicide Bombing Although Mufti Usmani does not openly condone suicide bombing ( at least in the available English language publications), most of his relevant writings reveal a strong endorsement of the philosophy of martyrdom, which is the theological underpinning of both jihadism and suicide bomb- ing. This of course is not surprising since it is grounded in traditional and authoritative Shariah. For instance, in an article apparently written shortly after the U.S. invasion of Iraq, Usmani bitterly attacks his fellow -Muslims for their ostensible passivity while " Pharaoh is roaming around without any fear." " No one is found having any desire of Shahadah" ( martyrdom), he laments„ and compares today' s Muslims to a mythical Islamic nation of the past " where every single person preferred death to life." " How many mothers are there," he continues, " who want to sacrifice their sons for the cause of Islam ?" " How many sisters are there who want to say goodbye to their brothers departing to wage jihad against non -believers." On America and the West Mufti Usmani' s writings are characterized by an animus toward the West and, more specifically, the United States, so strong as to turn his anti - Western polemics into sedition. Thus, for instance, Americans and their allies in Iraq are called by the mufti " stinking atheists" and the " the worst ever butchers and vultures of the world" who are " clawing off the flesh of bodies of innocent Iraqi Muslims." In the same vein, America stands accused by Usmani of the " murder of unarmed and distressed Afghans" and the " simultaneous murder of values and universally accepted funda- mental human principles" and of turning the whole world " into a perpetual inferno of violence and chaos." These hateful descriptions, understood in context of Islamic law, are the necessary descriptors which allow Usmani to rule authoritatively that western Muslims are obligated to engage in Jihad against their host countries. While Taqi Usmani' s antiWesternism appears to have been inflamed to near hysterical levels by recent events in Afghanistan and Iraq, it has been a constant feature of his world -view and intellectual output for a very long time. Much of it appears to be generated by his deeply -held belief that 30 Shariah, Law and `Financial Jihad': How Should America Respond? Muslims who do not share his traditional Shariah -based views of what Islam is or should be have been corrupted by Western influence and modernism. This is especially true, in his view, of influential Muslim thinkers and scholars who have fallen under the sway of Western culture and are in turn corrupt- ing Islam by trying to make it compatible with modernism. What Usmani really despises is the fact that this process, if allowed to take place, would rid Islam of its obscurantist legacy and violent jihadist traditions in which he and his fellow -Islamists firmly believe. A good example of this attitude is contained in a 1995 Usmani diatribe against the prominent Islamic scholar, Prof. Fazlur Rahman, director of the Institute of Islamic Research in Pakistan and later professor at the University of Chicago. In it, Usmani accuses Prof. Rahman of having fallen under the influence of the " unholy ways of the West" and enumerates a litany of Western innovations that are said to be destroying the West and would also destroy Islam if accepted. These include a banking system based on inter- est and insurance, family planning, banning polygamy, co- education, doing away with the hijab, refusing to believe in miracles etc. All this, the mufti concludes, leads to changing the " established commandments of Islam" and " converting the entire Quran into a poetic and metaphorical book." Taqi Usmani is far from being just an intellectual opponent of the West, however. In his capacity as a prominent educator and executive of a Deobandi madrassa, a respected issuer of fatwas and his various political incarnations, he has been and is in the position of giving a forceful practical expression to his anti -Western and Shariah- driven Islamist views. Apart from being instrumental in the training and indoctrination of thousands of poten- tial Islamic jihadists at Darul Uloom Karachi, he has directly provided materi- al support to international terrorism through his numerous fatwas, interviews and writings all intended as legal dictates to the Shariah faithful worldwide. Political Involvement As a former member of the Shariah Appellate Bench and the Federal Shariah Court of Pakistan and a leading member of the politically powerful Deobandi establishment, Mufti Taqi Usmani has played and continues to play an important political role. Invariably, he has promoted Shariah -based Islamist solutions in Pakistani politics and has contributed in no small measure to the progressive Islamization of the country since the late 1970s. His earliest involvement in politics dates to the early 1970s when he became a key member of a group of Islamic authorities who pressured president Zulfikar Ali Bhutto to declare the Ahmadi Muslims infidels. A law to 31 The Shariah Advisors that effect formulated mostly by Usmani was passed on September 21, 1974, ushering in a period of vicious persecution for the moderate and peaceful Ahmadis that has continued to this day. What is their crime? They reject traditional and authoritative Shariah. Usmani was one of the clerics who continued to argue for much tougher measures against the Ahmadis and was instrumental in drafting a new harshly discriminatory anti -Ahmadi measure passed by military dictator Zia ul -Haq in 1984. It prohibited the Ahmadis from calling their places of worship mosques, and even to address each other with the traditional Muslim greeting sa /am. Under General Zia ul -Haq, ( 1977- 1988), himself a zealous advocate of Shariah, Usmani played a key role also in the introduction of the Shariah- based punishment code known as the Huddud Ordinance, as well as blasphemy laws and other Shariah injunctions, to the huge detriment of Pakistani justice and civil liberties. More recently, Usmani vigorously opposed proposed amendments to Shariah statutes that blatantly discrimi- nated against women. Beginning in 1980, Mufti Usmani also was one of the driving forces behind the effort to Islamize the Pakistani economy and drafted many of the regula- tions designed to transform banking into a shariah -compliant system. He is also the author of fatwas and various clerics' statements designed to steer Pakistan in a pro -Islamist and anti-Western direction. Sheikh Yusuf Talal DeLorenzo Sheikh Yusuf Talal DeLorenzo is considered the leading authority on Shariah finance in the United States and one of the half -dozen best known Shariah advisors internationally. Although he has carefully avoided making public statements in support of Jihad, his religious background, professional affiliations, his high praise of fellow Shariah authorities such as Usmani, and his experience prove beyond much doubt that he subscribes fully to the Islamist agenda. Background DeLorenzo was born in 1948 in Northfield, Massachusetts. Sheikh Talal DeLorenzo is the grandson of Italian immigrants from Sicily. He currently resides in Ashburn, Northern Virginia with his Pakistani wife and three children. Education DeLorenzo attended the secular Northfield -Mount Hernon Preparatory School in Northfield, Massachusetts. He then enrolled in the undergradu- Shariah, Law and `Financial Jihad': How Should America Respond? ate program at Cornell University but dropped out. He studied Islamic sciences under prominent Deobandi scholars at madrassa Jamia Uloom Islamia, Binori Town, Karachi, Pakistan ( see details below). DeLorenzo completed three years of doctoral studies on the Legal Rulings of the Quran at Bahawalpur University, Pakistan, and allegedly studied in Egypt. DeLorenzo' s professional experience and affiliations include teaching courses on " The Principles of Islamic Investment," Dow Jones University. He is also the Director for the Master' s Program for Imams, Graduate School of Islamic and Social Sciences ( GSISS), Leesburg, Virginia. He has served as Director of Education for the Islamic Saudi Academy, Fairfax, Virginia, as Guest Scholar at the American Learning Institute for Muslims (ALIM), Canton, Michigan and as an Advisor on Islamic affairs and education to the President of Pakistan, 1981 - 1984. DeLorenzo has many affiliations with Islamist Organizations: Secretary— Figh Council of North America ( FCNA) Member of the Board —International Institute of Islamic Thought ( IIIT) Director —Graduate School of Islamic and Social Sciences Director of Education —Islamic Saudi Academy DeLorenzo is affiliated with a Shariah Finance Sponsoring Organization: Special Consultant —Islamic Financial Services Board ( IFSB). Appointed to the position by the Asian Development Bank and the Islamic Development Bank, Jeddah De Lorenzo is affiliated with a wide range of Shariah- Compliant Banks and Institutions: Chief Shariah Officer —Shariah Capital Inc. Greenwich, Connecticut and Dubai Member —Shariah board, Dow Jones Islamic Market Index Member —Shariah board, Guidance International Inc. Member —Shariah board, Brown Brothers Harriman Islamic Global Equity Fund, New York. Member —Shariah board, Muslim E- Financials, Washington D.C. Member —Shariah board, Ihilal. com, Dubai Member —Shariah board, Thahabi Ijara Fund I, UAE Member —Shariah board, Socially Acceptable Market Investments SAMI), Toronto Sole Shariah Advisor —Devon Islamic Ventures -Offshore, Ireland 33 The Shariah Advisors Ideology and Views Although Talal DeLorenzo has been very careful to avoid public statements advocating Jihad and the broad Islamist agenda, his religious background and professional and Islamic affiliations virtually without exception reveal a strong commitment to Shariah, its purposes and methods. Much of his long religious training in Pakistan, for instance, took place in Jamia Uloom Islamia, Binori Town, Karachi —one of the largest and most Shariah- centered Deobandi madrassas in the country and one that has long supported and funded well known terrorist groups. According to a study of Karachi madrassas by the International Crisis Group ( ICG), a human rights think tank based in Brussels, the Jamia Islamia is the " fountainhead of Deobandi militancy countrywide," has " carried the mantle of Jihadi leader- ship since the days of the anti -Soviet Jihad" and " boasts close ties with the Taliban." Moreover, the ICG report further claims, the madrassa " has played a major role in helping to establish and sustain," as well as provide many of the recruits, for some of the most violent Pakistani jihadi and terrorist organi- zations, such as Harkat ul- Mujahideen ( HuM), Jaish - e Muhammad(JeM) and Sipah - e- Sahaba Pakistan ( SSP).