Osama bin Laden pursued his own ideology, not a Jihad – Sheik Al-Ilory

Sheikh Habeebullah Adam Al-Ilory

Sheikh Habeebullah Adam Al-Ilory is the Director of Morkaz Arabic and Islamic Training Institute, Agege, Lagos. He tells ADEOLA BALOGUN that what the late founder of Al-Qaeda, Osama bin Laden, fought was different from the Islamic concept of jihad

Jihad is one Islamic term that has been interpreted to mean many things. How would you describe it?

Jihad simply means struggle, not necessarily arms struggle. It has a variety of meanings and part of it is to struggle with one’s own iniquity. When the Holy Prophet came back from an expedition, he admonished his followers to wage a war against the iniquities in them. So, waging a war against your own iniquity is what is called jihad and when we say war, it doesn’t mean you should wage a war against anybody on the basis of religion. All the wars waged and led by the Holy Prophet were all defensive wars. There was no one where he was the aggressor and anybody who goes through the history of Islam with an open mind will know this. Some people misunderstood what jihad really means and misapplied jihad to wage a war against anybody who is not a Muslim. The wars the Prophet waged against the infidels of Makar, he didn’t start any; rather, they were the ones who started them when they attempted to eliminate him and his followers several times.

Will you say that the one being fought by Al-Qaeda led by the late Osama bin Laden is a jihad?

No, that is not a jihad. There is a misconception and misinterpretation here. Al-Qaeda started when some Muslim brothers rose to help in Afghanistan when the Soviet Union invaded the territory in the early 80s. The Soviet idea then was to expand its own territory, nothing more nothing less, and the Muslim brothers came to help their fellow Muslims in defending Afghanistan. By that time, the cold war was on between the US and the Soviet Union which polarised the world in camps. America, with the ideology of capitalism, clashed with socialism propounded by the Soviet Union and each camp was preoccupied with the defence of its own ideology. America then saw the Al-Qaeda as enemy of its enemy (Soviet Union) and started arming and supporting them. And when the Soviet Union collapsed, America then became the sole superpower in the world. So, as soon as America used Al-Qaeda to fight its enemy, it turned against its own former ally and sought to crush it, having armed and trained the men. That was how the former allies suddenly became foes, especially after the first gulf war when America started establishing its military bases in places like Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain and other parts of the Middle East. Osama bin Laden saw it as an American invasion of Islamic countries and vowed that there won’t be peace unless they packed out. So, this war is not an Islamic war, so to say. That is why I said it is not a jihad. Rather, it is a war of ideology or if you like, a conflict of ideology.

How then do you feel as an Islamic leader when a lot of people see Islam as a war-mongering religion?

Islam is a grossly misunderstood religion. Even in schools, you discover that most of the writers of Islamic history were mostly Westerners and they portrayed Islam and even Prophet Mohammed as an aggressor. They would tell you that Muhammed would approach you with the Qur’an in the left hand and the sword in the right hand and compel you to choose one. That is not Islamic history and I am happy that people have come out to debunk those things. They have made efforts at rewriting the history of Islam as it happened. When I went to America, I found out that in most of the syllabuses of schools and institutions I visited, they referred to Muslims as Bedouins and all sorts of names. But thank God for the efforts of the Muslim community in America even up till 2003, they tried to correct all these misconceptions. The Western world owns the media and the media is playing a lot of roles in world affairs. It is either you listen to the BBC, VOA, watch CNN or read the Times, Reuters, AFP and most of them are controlled by Westerners and most of what they feature about Islam is usually biased. Before the incident of September 11, 2001, Americans called Osama bin Laden and his followers freedom fighters. The freedom fighters of yesterday and before September 11 suddenly turned to terrorists. It shows you that as far as America is concerned, there is nothing like permanent friend in its policy. What matters is interest and they put their interest first before anything. If Osama bin Laden and his Al-Qaeda group were seen as freedom fighters yesterday, what then made them terrorists today? So, as I said earlier, this thing doesn’t have anything to do with Islam. Now that Osama bin Laden has been killed, his ideology will still linger because there are some people and groups that are sympathetic to and buy his philosophy. Killing Osama bin Laden is not killing his ideology. One, his ideology will persist and linger if America does not change its foreign policy towards the Middle East. When the news of his death was broken, people in America started to jubilate, because they believe he was a terrorist. Whereas, while Osama Bin Laden was to America a terrorist and an enemy, the Iraqis see George Bush as their own enemy and a terrorist. An ordinary Iraqi man will look at George Bush as a terrorist just as an ordinary American will see Osama bin Laden as a terrorist. If America doesn’t change its double standard, Osama bin Laden’s ideology will continue to persist.

How?

People in the Middle East see America’s policy as nothing but imperialism and oppression. See what is happening in the Middle East when the Arabs are calling for a change, it is because America used all their leaders to oppress them and by that, they created a very wide gap between the governed and the leaders. Just see the stance of America in Libya, where they rushed to the United Nations to pass a no-fly-zone order. Why can’t America ask the UN to pass the same order in Yemen, in Syria or Bahrain? This is because the leaders in Yemen and Bahrain are working for the interest of America. We all saw how tanks were rolled in from Saudi Arabia to crush protesters in these countries and nothing happened, but you hear America calling rebels in Libya as armless and peaceful demonstrators. I am no fan of Ghadaffi at all, but there is no government anywhere in the world that will fold its hands and watch its citizens take up arms against it as we see in Bengazi in the name of demonstration. Even in Egypt, Hosni Mubarak was a great friend of America and he remained a ‘good man’ throughout until a reawakening which rose against him.

After the death of Osama bin Laden, it was reported in the media that the Inspector-General of Police said he was beefing up security to forestall any reprisal among his sympathisers in Nigeria. How do you feel about that?

That is an exaggeration; I call that mere bragging. Where was the IG when the post-election violence broke out in the North? Where were the security people who were supposed to nip such happenings in the bud even when they were well aware that violence could break out following the presidential election? A proactive security agent should not wait for destruction of such magnitude to happen, especially in view of the build-up to the election. Because Osama’s issue is worldwide, everybody wants to use it to appear relevant, nothing more. I don’t think the Inspector-General should wait till someone is killed outside our shores to beef up security. In view of what is happening in Nigeria today, we need 24/7 security beef-up and the IG should see to that.

What is the lesson for Muslim leaders from what has happened to Osama bin Laden?

I think all Muslims should be enlightened and be able to differentiate what Islam has laid down from mere ideologies of some individuals. Islam has its own method of doing things, starting from your own heart, then the home and then the community as a whole. We shouldn’t gang up to wage a war against anybody; we should not conspire to do evil in the name of religion. Allah tells us in the Qur’an that we should work together for goodness and piety. He enjoins us to be peaceful with our neighbours. Islam preaches peace and the Prophet said, “Spread peace and you will enter paradise.” Islam is a religion of peace which enjoins its adherents to be in peace with their neighbours and the society.

So, if you were asked to describe Osama bin Laden, how would you describe him?

He was a Muslim but he pursued an ideology that was not in tandem with the principles of Islam. The ideology of waging a war against anybody is very “unislamic.” Islam abhors killing of innocent souls because a soul is so sacred in the sight of Allah. Islam doesn’t encourage suicide which is common in some parts of the world. How can you teach people to commit suicide? Such an ideology is strange to Islam because the human soul, even an animal’s soul, is so sacred. Islam does not teach you to kill an animal for the fun of it. We are only permitted to kill the one that we want to eat.

Source : www.punchng.com