Arab media is reporting that the President of the Muslim Association of Britain (MAB), a part of the U.K. Muslim Brotherhood, has condemned the Mumbai terror attacks. According to the report:
The Muslim Association of Britain (MAB) has been following with great concern the terrorist attacks in Mumbai (India) which have claimed over a hundred deaths and few hundreds of injuries. While news agencies announced that the perpetrator is an unknown group called ‘Deecan Mujahedeen’, MAB strongly condemns these horrific attacks and deems any assault on innocent people an unacceptable act of terror, resulting from deep ignorance of religious teachings. Dr Ahmed Al-Rawi, MAB president, has announced that ‘Islam stresses the sanctity of the human soul, and outlaws harming civilians and innocent people’. The Muslim Association of Britain calls upon Muslim Minorities around the world to positively engage with their host societies, and contribute towards people’s welfare according to Islam’s teachings based on understanding, cooperation and coexistence. The head of MAB also pleads to the Muslim Youth to take as their role model- the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him), who was sent as a peace and blessing to humankind, and who was opposed to enmity and killing. While MAB expresses unreservedly its condemnation of the attacks, it calls for the establishment of peaceful relationships between various countries; and encouragement of dialogue and understanding between peoples, cultures and faiths around the world based on mutual respect. Also it calls for just resolutions to conflicts in various parts of the world. Only such measures can guarantee the lessening of wars, killing and the spread of fear in the world.
As discussed in an earlier post, Before Dr. Al-Rawi was the MAB President, he was the head of the Federation of Islamic Organizations in Europe (FIOE), the umbrella group representing the Muslim Brotherhood in Europe. In 2004, Dr. Al-Rawi was one of the signatories to a document also signed by many Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas, and Hezbollah leaders which appeared to support terrorism in Iraq and Israel by calling for support for the “honorable resistance” in those countries:
Call upon our Islamic and Arab nations along with all the religious authorities and the liberation powers, wherever they maybe: to resist the occupation and its savage crimes in Iraq and Palestine. To offer our moral and material support to the honourable resistance, its prisoners and their families. To be patient, strong and steadfast until God is victorious and the land of Islam cleansed from the filth of occupation. And this is drawing near by the grace of Allah. 1
The Wall Street Journal has reported that in a 2005 interview, Dr. Al-Rawi endorsed suicide bombings in Iraq and Israel, saying Muslims “have the right to defend themselves.
(Note 1: al-Quds al-Arabi (London), 8/23/2004 – p. 4)