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Recently I came across your lengthy diatribe against Mufti Taqi Usmani
in your so-called March 26, 2009 “letter” addressed to him. He was not
supposed to answer you personally because he is humble and polite
and because he is pretty far from cheap altercations. But I, as one of his
admirers, took it upon myself to take you on.
No wonder! As John Monbiot says, - “one adult in five believes the sun
revolves round the earth; only 26% accept that evolution takes place by
means of natural selection; two-thirds of young adults are unable to
find Iraq on a map; two-thirds of US voters cannot name the three
branches of government; the maths skills of 1 5-year-olds in the US are
ranked 24th out of the 29 countries of the OECD.” (Guardian: October
29, 2008)
You seem totally ignorant of the maxim that one’s language reflects
one’s stock, breeding and schooling, -the way one is born and taught.
Please judge your language against this altruism. You did not take away
a whit from Mr. Usmani or Mr. Ranzini; you only gave yourselves away.
You say, “You, Mufti Usmani, have issued a fatwa for violent jihad
against the West to be conducted by Muslims living in the West.”
Although Mufti Usmani has never issued such a fatwa and you cannot
prove it through any of his writings, you don’t even know what a
“fatwa” is. You may profit by consulting the Columbia World Dictionary
of Islam, which states that, “It is a vulgar error to suppose that a Fatwa
is a ‘sentence of death,’ or some such thing, as Western journalists
sometimes imply.” Rather, “A ‘Fatwa’ (Arabic plural ‘Fatawa’) is nothing
more or less than the answer to a question on a matter of religion put
to a person qualified to deliver answers to such questions, who is
known as a mufti.”
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The panic, that has overtaken the Shylocks due to shariah banking
having secured a foothold on what has been their exclusive turf, is
understandable. Hence, your vitriolic language, as if you would chew
Mr. Ranzini (and Mr. Usmani, too?) if you could lay your hands on them,
as the Crusaders chewed the flesh of Muslims and even Christians of
the Eastern Church who did not join them.
So pathetic is your ignorance that you don’t even know what your own
Old Testament says on charging interest. “If you lend money to my
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people, the poor with you, you shall not be as a money lender to him,
you shall not put interest on him,” is not an Islamic injunction; it is right
there in Exodus 22:25!
Your claim that Mr. Usmani is a “leader of the war against the West,” -
in other words, Christendom, is blatant calumny. It is true that he in
some of his writings supported armed jihad when the freedom and
honor of an Islamic state is in danger. But, as a “mufti,” he only offered
his considered opinion on a theological issue. How does that make him
a “leader?” But taking liberty with language only exposes your crass
ignorance.
Your fulmination against Dow Jones, too, is risible. The company only
demonstrated its vision and commonsense. It hired Mr. Usmani’s
services as an authority on Islamic theology which has no relation to his
views on jihad.
And, finally, jihad! With the level of knowledge you seem to have and
with your brains washed with a powerful anti-Islam detergent, you had
better leave the subject alone. It is far too profound a subject for you to
comprehend. However, the question “Is he who goes groping on his
face more rightly guided or he who walks on a straight path?” (Al
Quran; 67:22), illustrates the difference between Islam’s jihad and
Christian crusade.
For example, your Scriptures do not offer any guidance on how war is
to be waged, when and with whom. So you have Dresden, Hiroshima,
Nagasaki, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq and so forth. You have Abu
Gharaib, Guantanamo, Bagram, My Lai, Deir Yasin, Sabra Shatila, Qana,
Mirwahim and, more recently, Gaza. And you have not only devastation
of property but also merciless destruction of foliage as in Vietnam with
Agent Orange.
No mujahid ever ate the flesh of his victim. Crusading Christians did.
They ate the flesh not only of their Muslim adversaries but even of the
Christians of the Eastern Church who did not join them. No Muslim
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Even today, you may contrast what Pfc. Steven Dale Green and his
companions did to 14-year-old Abeer Qassim al-Janabi, in Iraq, with
how Taliban behaved with the female Christian (Western) journalists,
whom they kidnapped. By your standards Green and his pals were
“civilized” guys and Taliban are “backward.” But the civilized ones gang-
raped a Muslim girl and then shot her along with her parents, while the
backward Taliban did not ever touch their Christian captives.
One such was Sunday Express reporter Yvonne Ridley. No wonder she
was so enchanted by the conduct of her captors that she took to
reading the Quran, converted to Islam and gave up drinking. You may
turn to the BBC news for the full story.
By the way your threat that David Yerushelmi has Mr. Usmani in his
“litigation sights” is no news. Shylocks will always drag innocent
Antonios to the court.
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As to your challenge, “Bring it on,” it befits you. But Mr. Usmani desires
me to convey to you that in answer to your challenge, he humbly prays
to God that He may guide you to the Eternal Truth and the Straight
path, -that is Islam. Amen!
Peace!