Bulletin: Genocidal Massacres in Kyrgyztan - Two Muslim Nationalities

News Report and GPN Editorial Blog

Kyrgyz are slaughtering Uzbeks -- Two Muslim Turkic-speaking peoples in Central Asia -- in Kyrgyztan, a Central European Country bordering on China, Tajikstan, and Uzbekistan; Tens of thousands of Uzbeks are fleeing to Uzbekistan.

As Issue 3 of GPN moves toward publication word reaches the western world of a new eruption of mass killing of civilians, driven along ethnic-national lines.

Reporters describe an eruption of “sudden, brutal violence” in which the KRYGZ MAJORITY are killing and wounding people from the UZBEK MINORITY. An International Red Cross spokeman said more than 700 people were killed in the one city of Osh and more than 3000 were in need of medical attention for wounds. In one report, over 70,000 people were reported to be fleeing the country as of June 14, 2010. Another report said 150,000 people. Uzbekistan announced it was closing its border to further refugees.

Western media began advancing possible interpretations of the facts of the genocidal killing including a mix of inter-ethnic persecution -- despite the fact that the two people are tied by no less than culture, language and religion; a classic divide between herders and farmers; a classic dynamic of commerce –including trading in opium - being predominantly in the hands of the one people (the victim Uzbeks); and including a political struggle of an ousted former president who is battling to return to power and is said to be hiring killers to execute the genocidal pogroms against the Uzbek who have supported the new president.

Excerpts from Press Reports

Krgyz mobs burned Uzbek villages and slaughtered their residents in the worst ethnic rioting this Central Asian nation has seen in 20 years, sending Uzbeks fleeing across the border into Uzbekistan. Most of the Uzbek refugees were elderly people, women and children, and many had gunshot wounds.

Fires set by rioters have destroyed most of Osh, the second-largest city in Kyrgyzstan. Triumphant crowds of Kyrgz men took control of Osh as the few Uzbeks still left in the city of 250,000 barricaded themselves in their neighborhoods. Fires continued to rage across Osh and shots were heard but police were nowhere to be seen.

The rioting has significant political overtones. Former President Kurmanbek Bakiyev was ousted in a bloody uprising in April and fled the country. Uzbeks have backed Kyrgyzstan's interim government, while many in Kyrgyz in the south support the toppled president.

In New York, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon said he was "alarmed by the scale of the clashes" and the mounting death toll and was discussing what aid the U.N. could send to help the fleeing refugees.

Who
Perpetrators:
Gangs of ethnic Kyrgyz young men from southern Kyrgyzstan, armed at first with metal rods and stones, and later with automatic rifles and shotguns.

Victims:
Men, women and children of Uzbek ethnic group, in the living in southern Kyrgyzstan - killed, wounded. Homes, businesses and property were plundered or burnt. There were many reports of violent groups reportedly committing gang rape. Thousands of refugees tried to escape to Uzbekistan - some were attacked on the way, and some died in stampede at border crossing.

Political figures:

• "Interim President Roza Otunbayeva - a political rival of former President Kurmanbek Bakiyev. Leads government after uprising in April 2010.
• "Former President Kurmanbek Bakiyev - was ousted in an uprising in April 2010, and has fled the country. Negotiated potential closure of US airbase in Manas, Kyrgyzstan with Russian and US governments. Was accused of corruption, but was reelected in July 2009. Now residing in Belarus.
• "Former President Askar Akayev (1991-2005). Was elected (sole candidate) after independence of Kyrgyzstan in 1991, reelected (arguably) in 2000, and removed in 2005 by revolution. Was replaced by President Bakiyev. Currently lives in Moscow.

What, Where
The violence broke out just before midnight on Thursday 10 June, across Kyrgyzstan's southern market city of Osh. Gangs of Kyrgyz young men, armed with metal rods and stones attacked Uzbek homes and businesses, looting, burning and killing. Later, the rioters stole weapons from police stations and continued with the attacks with automatic rifles and shotguns. Throughout Saturday and Sunday, the violence spread from Osh to JalalAbad (70 kilometers from Osh) and the villages surrounding it.

As a response to the rioting, ethnic Uzbeks ambushed about 100 Kyrgz men on a road near Jlal-Abad and took them hostage. In the nearby village of Bazar-Kurgan, a mob of 400 Uzbeks overturned cars and killed a police captain. Armed Kyrgyz men assembled in the village to retaliate.

In the Osh and Jalal-Abad areas, people were trapped inside houses and basements, afraid to go out to get supplies, and afraid to collect bodies of people who had been killed, to identify and bury them. Some people were buried without being identified. Thousands of people fled from their homes. Most of these people are now in need of humanitarian aid, mostly water, food, clothes for their children, and shelter.

Several days after the violence began, Interim President Roza Otunbayeva sent an urgent request to Russia, asking that troops be deployed to stop the riots, but Russia refused. A Kyrgyz volunteer troop was organized and sent to the south, with an order to "shoot to kill" to stop the violence.

Context
Ethnic Uzbeks are the largest minority group (13-14.2 percent) in Kyrgyzstan, a multiethnic state of 5.1 million people, of whom ethnic Kyrgyz comprise 67.4 percent. Ethnic Uzbeks are concentrated in the southern regions of Osh and Jalal-Abad, in the fertile Fergana Valley region. Both groups are Muslim Sunnis, although there is slight difference between them, the Kyrgyz still relating to some traditional beliefs.

The current rioting has significant political context. A political uprising this April, a few weeks ago - in which demonstrators were shot with over 80 killed - removed former president Kurmanbek Bakiyev from power. He fled the country to Belarus. An interim government was set up, led by former prominent opposition figure and Foreign Minister Roza Otunbayeva.

Uzbeks have backed Kyrgyzstan's interim government, while many Kyrgyz in the south support the removed president. The new government, though unelected and made up of an uneasy alliance of political forces, quickly established control over the capital and the north of the country, but not in the south.

A wider, international, context revolves around the US airbase in Manas, near the capital Bishkek, a base used to support the NATO mission in Afghanistan. Kyrgyzstan hosts a Russian military base too. Formerly, the Russian government has pressured Bakiyev's government to shut the US base. In 2009, it offered a $2.1 Billion aid loan to Kyrgyzstan as incentive to shut the airbase. This was even accepted in a government vote. But in last-minute negotiations, former president Bakiyev reversed this decision and allowed the base to stay, more than tripling the rent collected from the US government from $17 Million to $ 60 Million a year. This move lost him Russian support. Russia was the first country to recognize Otunbayeva's government in April.

When the ethnic riots broke out, interim leader Roza Otunbayeva turned to the Russian President, requesting that Russia send troops to stop the fighting in Kyrgyzstan. The Russian government refused to send troops immediately, but a spokeswoman for President Dmitri Medvedev said that no decision would be made until Russia consulted with other members of the Collective Security Treaty Organization, a regional security alliance of former Soviet republics. Russia did send 300 troops, to protect its own military base, in the north, away from the riots.

Pakistan and Germany sent aid to the troubled regions, and China was expected to send food and medical supplies.

Sources:
Kramer, Andrew E. Ellen (June 15, 2010). Improbable enemies in a spasm of violence: Uzbeks and Kyrgyz share close ties but fighting has flared in the past. International Herald Tribune.

Schwirtz Michael, and Barry, Ellen (June 15, 2010). Political undertones infect violence in Kyrgyzstan. International Herald Tribune.

EurasiaNet.org (June 15, 2010). Uzbekistan closing border; estimated 150,000 refugees in Uzbekistan; violence continues. http://www.eurasianet.org/node/61302

Associated Press (June 13, 2010). Mobs slaughter Uzbeks and burn towns in Kyrgyzstan.
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2010/06/13/world/asia/AP-AS-Kyrgyzstan-Unrest.html?emc=eta1

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GPN Editorial Blog:

Who knows?

Who cares?

We westerners can barely read or pronounce the names. Most of us have no idea where these countries lie except as we finally get the notion that these countries are on the western side of a country that does concern us more and more, China, but we still have little to no sense of who these peoples and nations are. And given that they are also Muslims, our more natural ‘white man Judeo-Christian’ sensitivities are not immediately mobilized.

Actually the West does care somewhat because the US has a base supporting NATO operations and the Russians have military facilities in the country.

But in principle no one of US gives a --- real enough concern that, even following the Holocaust, and Cambodia, and Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia, and more, there is no international machinery in place to respond IMMEDIATELY and AUTOMATICALLY to reports of mass killings—genocide—of civilians.

The idea of a standing international machinery that would respond the way we want neighborhood police forces to respond to reports of murder and attempted murder is so removed from the realm of human civilization’s political possibility that it feels juvenile and sophomoric to raise such a conception.

So genocide in our world is an event of mass killing of civilians about which, in the best scenario, months will pass of gathering alleged information, and months more for arriving at a consensual definition by major governments and for other parts of the weak international system that genocide is taking place, and months more before powerful enough players may decide, if they will, and if there are still more victims waiting to be killed, to intervene.

Why wasn’t Auschwitz bombed by the US or the British?

How many years did the UN Human Rights Commission (then in its better days of not yet being coopted to represent Muslim countries’ agenda for bashing Israel and the US) take to study the genocide in Cambodia and reluctantly come to the conclusion that an “autogenocide” was taking place?

How unknowing, impotent and sabotaging was our world, and some of our otherwise great leaders (like US President Bill Clinton and UN Secretary-General Kofi Anan) when it came to expanding U.N. resources for stopping the genocidal rampage in Rwanda?

This is also an appropriate context in which to remember that Cambodia and Rwanda, among others, prove that genocidal killing does not need obvious existing dividing lines between religions or nations, but that our primitive human thinking can easily come up with definition of US-THEM; dehumanize THEM and attribute to them bestial destructive potential and intentions towards US and our way of life; and then power-mad leaders light the matches, and another genocide is under way. And it can move to killing millions of people rapidly!

Is it really naïve and juvenile to raise the question of developing an “International Peace Army” or a “World Rapid Response Force”?

After all, that is obviously what will happen after the next great disaster of Genocide by a Weapon of Mass Destruction – especially if the victim people(s) belong to the then ‘white folk’ elites of our human civilization.

What should be done?
Right now, Kyrgyzstan is at a critical tipping point.

Genocide results from human choice and bystander inaction. We are now at a tipping point. The conflict could erupt into a genocidal civil war with spillover into neighboring countries, as happened in Darfur and Rwanda. Right now, we recommend implementation of Security Council Resolution 1674, the Responsibility to Protect, which specifies that there is an international responsibility to protect vulnerable populations from genocidal threats, when sovereign states are no longer able or willing to do so. To implement this recommendation, we recommend that the Russian Federation and the US, both of which have sizeable military bases in Kyrgyzstan, join immediately form a Rapid Deployment Force to restore quiet, order and safety and protect vulnerable populations from massacre, rape, expulsion, and plundering. Whatever their political differences, both, as Great Powers, have not only an opportunity, but a responsibility.

The ultimate responsibility for the genocidal massacres rests with the perpetrators. But should the violence continue, Russia and the US will stand accountable as passive bystanders who stood by and did nothing-as happened with the UN Forces in Rwanda, who were ordered to not interfere when the mass killing started there. The choice rests with the leaders of both Great Powers to move, and to do so rapidly.

Israel W. Charny with research on timelines and policy recommendations for preventive intervention based on Responsibility to Protect by Yael Stein and Elihu D. Richter of the GPN Genocide Situation Room.

Please click here to view the Timeline for Krygyztan

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Two Mosques in Pakistan of Minority Muslim Religion are Assaulted by Gunmen and Suicide Bombers in Coordinated Attacks

News Report with a GPN Editorial Blog

Two Mosques in Pakistan are Assaulted by Gunmen and Suicide Bombers
Gunmen and suicide bombers stormed two mosques belonging to a minority sect of Ahmadi believers during Friday prayer in Lahore, seizing hostages. The attack killed at least 70 worshipers and wounded 78, the city coordinating officer said. Ahmadi believers, a Muslim religion, is severely discriminated against under Pakistani law. Pakistan does not recognize the Ahmadi sect as part of Islam. At one mosque, dozens of men survived by hiding in the basement. The attacks, which took place within minutes of each other at the mosques are located a few kilometers apart.

Source: Perlez, Jane and Gillani, Waqar (May 28, 2010). Dozens die as 2 mosques in Pakistan are attacked. Global NYTimes.com
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/29/world/asia/29pstan.html?ref=islam

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GPN Editorial Blog

On Contemporary Genocidal Terrorism against Two Muslim Mosques and on Man's Instincts for both Genocidal Killing and Goodness
The above story of suicide bombings in a way is nothing more than another of the endless reports coming out of Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Iraq; not long ago from Sri Lanka and Israel; periodically from the U.S. although many Americans do not realize that there were reports that 9/11 was a part of a grand series of coordinated multiple suicide bombing attacks; the UK, Moscow; Indonesia, and many other places. It was such endless suicide bombings on which I reported in my 2007 book, Fighting Suicide Bombing: A Worldwide Campaign for Life.

So why bother to report the present story if nothing is really new? We think for several reasons:

1. Periodically we need to stop to look at suicide bombing as the new methodology of transnational genocidal terrorism - one which has the greatest threat potential to the future of our puny civilization if and when the devouts will use Weapons of Mass Destruction – as many security agencies and many novelists very much and terrifyingly predict.

2. This is a story of the evolving methodology and skill of genocidal terrorists in coordinated attacks that combine gunmen and suicide bombers.

3. This story illustrates a point made so clearly by German scholar, Gunnar Heinsohn elsewhere in this issue: the overwhelming majority of Muslims are killed by Muslims.

4. For a long time now, attacks take place "anywhere" - one favorite site is places of worship like mosques, others are even hospitals and medical clinics, and of course schools, and there are always markets, public places, transportation vehicles on land, in the air and on the seas. Geneva Conventions regarding warfare against civilians? Our modern world has regressed and there are no conventions.

5. The Muslims who were attacked belong to a minority sect, the Ahmadi, who ‘only’ number some two million people. They are bitterly hated, disparaged and persecuted by establishment Muslims. The point is that if we go around the globe we can list hundreds of religions, sects, ethnicities, tribes, nationalities, language groups and more who are earmarked for being dehumanized in their surroundings as worthless, inferior, disgusting and diseased, even as they are also identified as a supreme danger to the continued existence of the community and people among whom they live.

In my work with Chanan Rappaport on the development of a Genocide Early Warning System, we identified this couplet of dehumanization and attribution of power to destroy and exterminate as the single most frequent and virulent synergy of dynamics which bring about and enable genocide to occur. I call this "universal antisemitism," in the larger sense that what is notoriously regarded as antisemitism against the Jews - today often disguised as or concealed within otherwise possibly legitimate critiques of Israel -- is in fact a special manifestation of a worldwide disease that, in my judgment, is built into human biology and nature: a need to hold another and others responsible for, or to make them the victims of, our wrongness, errors, limitations, moral failures, weaknesses and the oncoming death of our lives.

My sense is that this is the instinctual substrate of genocide and a major reason why so many beautiful human efforts to improve our human condition and society nonetheless fail so grandly. Predictably with weapons of mass destruction and a large population, the number of human beings who will die of genocide in the 21st century will be greater than the awful number Rummel gives for the 20th century.

Nonetheless, I add that the fact that projecting our weaknesses and inevitable deaths is instinctually built in to us does not mean human beings cannot overcome this loop quite creatively and successfully – owing also to other wonderful instinctual resources that are also built into our human nature of savoring life, fighting to stay alive, joy in nurturing other lives, and qualities of empathy, compassion, caring, love and justice.

So the above recent case history of contemporary genocidal murder needs for us not only to say 'tsk, tsk' but to fight back for life.

-- Israel W. Charny


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Kuwaiti Sheikh Criticizes Scholars and Preachers Who Entice Youth to Terrorism

On February 22 and March 1, 2010, the Kuwaiti daily Al-Watan published a two-part article by Kuwaiti Sheikh Salem bin Sa'd Al-Tawil, which also appeared on the sheikh's website (www.saltaweel.com), discussing the phenomenon of young Muslims who are recruited for jihadi activities during road trips and summer camps. Al-Tawil cautioned that extremist religious scholars target naive young Muslims who wish to strengthen their faith, and entice them to join social and religious activities at which militant jihad is preached. Some of these youth are eventually persuaded to carry out jihad operations, at the cost of their lives.

To view the MEMRI page on Indoctrination of Children, visit http://www.memri.org/subject/en/814.htm.

Following are excerpts from the articles, as they appeared on Al-Tawil's website:

Youth are recruited at mosques, schools, and colleges

In the first part of the article, Al-Tawil wrote: "...Many fathers and mothers are pleased that their children strengthen their faith, cling to their religion, and go to mosque... They hope [that getting close to] Allah will improve their children, and that their children will demonstrate good religious conduct. However, at mosques, schools, and colleges, there are people who 'kidnap' their children and corrupt their beliefs and their character in the name of religion and strengthening the faith! These people might start by [teaching] our sons to read and memorize the Koran, [but later] they take them on long summer trips or winter camps, during which they strongly influence them with the aim of convincing them of what they call a 'jihad program.' Later, parents are surprised [to find] that their child has gone to some unknown place, and subsequently they receive the painful news that he has been arrested. [Sometimes] the worst tragedy of all befalls them: [they find out that] their child was killed in a suicide operation, or was somehow used as a human shield, or that he sacrificed himself by stepping on a buried mine, or [suffered] some other similar tragedy like those we hear about every so often.

"[Here is] a painful and heart-wrenching story: I received a letter from a young woman not yet 20. She said that a young man, two years her elder, had proposed to her when he was still just beginning to strengthen his faith. After he married her, but before the marriage was consummated, he met some young men at the mosque and went with them to see a professor at a shari'a college in Kuwait. [The professor] persuaded him to join them on a summer trip to Al-Medina, during which he would memorize the Koran, in part or in its entirety. [The young man] agreed, and it appears that at this time they all rallied to the task of convincing him [to join] the jihad program. Ultimately, the young woman was amazed [to discover] that her husband had gone to Afghanistan or Iraq. He was never heard from again, and she does not know whether [to hope] he is alive and await his return, or [to consider him] dead and weep for him. She said his mother is elderly and has a heart condition, and that her own father has been pressuring her to divorce [the man] in light of his behavior. The young woman is confused and helpless, and only Allah can give her strength.

"Another tragic story: I received a call from a father who asked to meet with me. When he came to see me at the mosque, I noticed he showed signs of sorrow. And when he began to speak and I heard the story of his son, I understood the reason for the pain on his face. He said his 19-year-old son... had met several young men at the mosque, and was influenced by what they said. He would come home and speak at length about jihad, expressing his desire [to join it]. He said some sheikhs had ruled that he must [go forth and wage] jihad. [His parents] were later bewildered when he disappeared. And several days after that, they received a phone call from Iraq informing them that their son had been martyred..."

The methods of recruitment

"Dear fathers and mothers, do you know how they persuade your children, how they play with their minds and lead them to rebel against you? Many perhaps do not know. Therefore, I will tell you their methods, so that you may be vigilant and may [protect] your children before you lose them...:

1. "Some lecturer, or theoretician, puts on a pleasant air and a permanent smile, and earns several academic degrees in order to draw students to him.

2. "He invites students and [other] young men to visit him at the mosque, outside of official office hours.

3. "He focuses on a [limited] number of students in order to handpick those he believes are suited to the jihad program.

4. "He refers to them by names that prepare them for [self-]sacrifice, such as 'God's beloved,' 'the chosen ones,' 'memorizers of the Koran,' 'jihad fighters,' and so on.

5. "He explains to them the merits of jihad, its power and importance, quoting relevant [Koranic] verses and hadiths...

6. "He frequently explains the ummah's situation, how neglect of jihad or its relinquishment have led to its weaknesses and loss of honor.

7. "He frequently discusses the deeds of ummah's enemies... how they have acted in violence, caused bloodshed, conquered, desecrated, degraded the Muslims, and plundered the riches of their lands.

8. "[These lecturers and theoretician] use powerfully persuasive pictures and videos showing severed limbs and the defilement of things holy to Muslims.

9. "They show compile[d] video clips of jihad operations – rocket launchings, or [attacks with] small arms and heavy weapons, accompanied by fervent jihadi hymns and cries of 'Allah is great!' and 'There is no God but Allah!'

10. "They target a specific age group, between 15 and 20, with a preference for single young men who have no obligations to wives or children.

11. "They set conditions that enable them to reject anyone they suspect has come to investigate them or spy on them, or to leak information. For example, they require a personal interview before [a candidate] can travel with them or join a military [training] camp or a summer camp, and require [candidates] to memorize five portions of the Koran, and [set] other similar conditions. [These conditions] serve them as pretexts to reject unsuitable candidates: they explain that [the person] did not pass the personal interview or memorize five portions of the Koran.

12. "They cause [these students] to look down upon scholars and preachers who disagree with their path or ideology.

13. "They convince them that the religious scholars are out of touch with reality, that they [choose to] keep silent or are silenced [by others], or that [because] it is not in their interest to talk about jihad they insinuate to others to speak in their name.

14. "They persuade them that the leaders and governments have given up on jihad and withdrawn from it, or that they do not believe in it in the first place and do not recognize it or its merits, but rather denounce it and regard it as worthless, and fight against it and its people, being satisfied with jihad against their own people and with the exploitation of [their own people].

15. "[They tell their disciples that although] they are [officially] obligated to request their parents' or guardians' approval, it is not a condition for carrying out jihad – for anyone who wages jihad, his jihad is irreproachable. Failure to [get parents' or guardians' approval] may at the very worst be considered a sin. But it is well known that a shahid is pardoned from [the moment he sheds] the first drop of his blood – [so] if he has not asked his parents' permission, or if they have forbidden him [to wage jihad], it does him no harm.

16. "They collect donations in amazing and various ways, competing to the point where some of them say, implicitly or explicitly, that the crises facing the ummah are of great avail, since people donate more in times of crisis than they do before or after a crisis.

17. "They post their notices and posters in the mosques without asking permission. And no one supervises [this], despite the fact that their activity is not connected with the Ministry of Religious Endowments, which, if it wanted to, could file a complaint against their charity work.

18. "They hold sports and horseback-riding activities in their camps, as well as military drills and guard duty, in order to prepare the young men for the fateful hour.

19. "They spread out in various locations, splitting up into cells and squads, so as to be harder to track.

20. "They invite famous people to the opening [ceremonies] of their camps, in order to attract as many young people as possible.

21. "They incorporate religious activities, shari'a studies, and memorization of the Koran and the Prophetic hadiths into their activity, in order to draw as many young people as possible.

"Dear reader, my brother, I have told you their methods so you will know to be wary of them, before they steal your son or brother or [some other] family member – for then you will no longer be able to get him back..."

Recruiters posing as saints are the greatest danger

In the second part of the article, Al-Tawil wrote: "...[Previously, I expressed] my sense of obligation to elucidate to Muslims the danger posed by those [who recruit for jihad], even if they [do this] in the guise of strengthening the faith. Moreover, there may be some among them who [genuinely] consider themselves to be doing nothing but good. And this is where the danger lies and what makes the tragedy worse. For these people are not undisciplined heathens; rather, they pray and fast and read the Koran. But theirs are deviant methods and crooked ways. There are fanatics among them who would not follow the truth even if they saw it with their own eyes... [On the other hand,] some of them may [simply] be eccentrics or opportunists, while others join in order to collect donations."

Jihad – A supreme commandment that has been distorted

"No Muslim with even the slightest knowledge of shari'a doubts the fact that jihad is one of the greatest virtues and the pinnacle of Islam, and that its merits and ideals are better known than those of many other Islamic customs... However, our argument with the proponents of false jihad is over the meaning of the term 'jihad'...:

"Against whom should jihad be waged?... Who is obligated to carry out jihad?... Is jihad a means or an end?... What is the law regarding jihad against a Muslim country that has attacked another Muslim country?... Is a jihad fighter allowed to commit suicide?... Are Muslims obligated to wage jihad against infidels who are significantly superior to [them] in strength, numbers, and equipment?...

"Dear reader, my brother, after these questions have been raised, you [surely] understand that war is no joke, but a grave and serious matter. It [can] involve loss of life, the squandering of money, the collapse of countries, the loss of honor, the dispersing of nations, and the spread of corruption – especially today, when weapons are made to destroy mountains and oceans, to wipe out everything. Unlike some people think, jihad is not [just] horseback riding, martial arts, morning sports, jihadi plays, a Palestinian headdress and a pair of Afghani pants. [Nor is it] disobeying one's parents, [practicing] takfir against leaders, blowing up Muslims, considering scholars fools, [joining] clandestine organizations and the secret Emirate, or collecting donations."

The preachers of jihad are the first to shirk it

"How dreadful is the jihad they preach! [As a matter of fact,] the preachers and ideologues of jihad are the first to shirk it. They sacrifice others, while distancing themselves and their children from it! [How dreadful is] their jihad, which is nothing but fantasies of the [morally] bankrupt. They have ruined the image of [our] religion and those who follow it, and never stop slandering others... They fear God the least and curse and slander the most. And what is more, there are those among them who beat and kill [people], and others who, if they could, would not hesitate for an instant to deal out death to anyone who disagrees with them over the jihad program...

"I know, dear reader, my brother, that many of the mosque [imams] and the lecturers in the colleges and universities do not adhere to these bad ideologies and deviant ways, and that we must not indiscriminately lay blame on all preachers. On the contrary, there are respectable people – preachers, lecturers, and teachers – who urge the youth to cling to the true faith and the Sunna, [and preach values of] respect for one's parents, the quest for knowledge, moral behavior and good manners, respect for religious scholars, and obedience to one's guardians. There is still good to be found in this ummah, and thank Allah that by his grace good deeds are done."

Jihad must not be left to the ignorant or to fervent youth

At the end of the article, Al-Tawil answers some questions that may arise regarding his criticism of the jihad preachers and their followers:

"Regarding the question: Why do you condemn [these preachers] for [urging] jihad for Allah's sake? [My answer is that] I am not, Heaven forbid, condemning jihad as it is commanded by [our] faith. But jihad is a program subject to shari'a laws that cannot be definitively and comprehensively understood unless a consensus has been reached by all the leaders, religious scholars, and men of influence. [It must not be] left to the management of ignorant people or fervent youths, lest we be made to suffer for the tragedies caused by their poor policies and administration...

"Regarding the question: Do you have no compassion in your heart for them? My answer is: Of course, there is compassion in the heart of every Muslim for all [other] Muslims. And it is because of this compassion that we do not wish for their souls to be lost in vain. There is also compassion in our heart for the fathers and mothers who may lose their children at any moment in the name of the jihad program. Moreover, it is only fitting that we ask [the jihadist preachers] the same question: Do you have no compassion in your hearts for these young people and for their fathers and mothers?

"Regarding the question: Why do you ignore the contemptible things going on in all the other [summer] camps, focusing on [those belonging to] the brotherhood for the sake of Allah? Why do you not condemn those who go to commit adultery and drink wine? Why do you not condemn the camps [where there is] wine, drugs, and prostitution? Why do you not condemn the reckless young men who show off their cars and kill themselves and others? My answer is: 1) Who says we do not condemn immorality and licentiousness? Do you think we support [these sinners] and encourage them to sin, or that we are pleased with their deeds?... 3) Is disobeying one's parents not one of the most egregious sins of all? Certainly [it is], and therefore we are justified in cautioning against [the jihadists], as they call the youth to Iraq, and so on, without their parents' permission – with the excuse that parents' permission is an obligation but not a condition, and that [even jihad] waged without the parents' permission is irreproachable. But this, without question, constitutes disobeying [one's parents]. 4) Sins such as adultery, drinking wine, and frequenting prostitutes – everyone knows they are forbidden, even the sinners themselves. [But] this is not the case with those who preach false jihad, [who do not necessarily realize their deeds are forbidden]. 5) Many proselytizers, preachers, and fathers counsel sinners and rebuke them, while it is almost impossible to find anyone who reproaches those who support false jihad.

"Regarding the question: What is our children's alternative, so that we will have no need for those you have warned us against? My answer is: An alternative exists and is well known, thank God, as there are many young people who strengthen their faith, and [attend] activities, lessons, and lectures which leave them with no need to turn [to jihadi propaganda]..."

Source: MEMRI, Middle East Research Institute (May 5, 2010). Kuwaiti Sheikh: Scholars and preachers entice naive youth to join illegitimate jihad. Special Dispatch 2937.
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