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By Raymond Ibrahim
(NOVEMBER 1, 2023 / THE STREAM) The more than 1,400 Israelis who were brutally slaughtered by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023, got what they deserve— according to the most prestigious university of the Muslim world, Al Azhar, located in Cairo.
A fatwa, or authoritative decree, issued on Oct. 19, 2023 by Al Azhar’s Fatwa department, asserts:
The term “civilians” does not apply to the Zionist settlers of the occupied land. Rather, they are occupiers of the land, usurpers of rights, deviators from the straight path embodied by the prophets, and blatant disregarders for the sanctity of the historic city of Jerusalem, which encompasses the city of Jerusalem’s respectable Islamic and Christian heritage.
Needless to say, that last bit about “respectable … Christian heritage” was included for PR points. On Al Azhar’s very own native turf, Egypt, the indigenous and ancient Coptic Christian heritage is far from respected — and often thanks to Al Azhar’s own teachings.
No “Settlers” Are Innocent
But the main point of the fatwa seems clear enough: because the entire nation of Israel is seen as an illegal occupier of “Palestinian” — or more to the point, Muslim — land, not a single Israeli can, according to the Islamic law experts of Al Azhar, be seen as a “civilian.” They must all — including the 1,400 Israelis slaughtered on Oct. 7—be seen as enemy combatants, and dealt with accordingly.
To be sure, the fatwa is careful to mention only “settlers,” but this appears to be a bit of tawriya to fool the infidel, since virtually every Muslim will understand this ruling as applying to every single Israeli citizen, as the entire state of Israel is widely seen as occupying Muslim land.
Dhimmi Blather from Our President for Life
On the one hand, this may appear to be a startling development. Al Azhar, after all, is regularly hailed — including in the West — as the world’s most prestigious Muslim university. In 2009, Barack Obama chose it as the site from which to deliver a speech to the Muslim world. Of the Islamic university, he said:
For over a thousand years, Al-Azhar has stood as a beacon of Islamic learning… . As a student of history, I also know civilization’s debt to Islam. It was Islam – at places like Al-Azhar University – that carried the light of learning through so many centuries, paving the way for Europe’s Renaissance and Enlightenment.
So, the Muslim university that has just legitimized the killing of every Israeli as enemy combatants, is also, according to this “student of history,” the same university to “pave the way for Europe’s Renaissance and Enlightenment.”
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