American Islamic scholar Dr. Abdul Hakim Jackson has issued a rare rebuke to global Muslim Brotherhood leader Youssef Qaradaw over Qaradawi’s support of suicide bombings in Israel. In his blog provided by the Muslims Speak Out Project, Dr. Jackson says that Qaradawi’s view that suicide bombing is theologically justified is not supported by “scriptural proof”:
Terrorism in Islamic law (under the name of hirabah) is publicly directed violence (not just public violence but publicly directed violence), i.e., violence that indiscriminately targets innocent, non-combatant civilians. As for suicide bombings, even leaving aside the question of suicide itself, inasmuch as they target innocent, non-combatant, civilian populations, they are crimes under Islamic law, whether they are carried out against non-Muslim, civilian populations, such as in Israel, or Muslim civilian populations, such as in Iraq. It is true that at least one prominent modern jurist, Shaykh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, has exempted Israel from this judgment, arguing in effect that such bombers are martyrs in a legitimate jihad. But this is not the view of the majority, who find it lacking in scriptural proof, as well as inconsistent with the judgment that even this jurist would apply to identical acts committed elsewhere. As for situations such as Iraq, they really reflect the extent to which the contemporary Muslim reality betrays Islamic ideals. For here the Qur’™Ã¢n explicitly addresses the Muslims with the following warning: ‘And whoever intentionally kills a believer, their recompense shall be hell, where they shall abide. God’™s anger and curse shall be upon them, and God shall prepare for them a severe punishment.’
Dr. Jackson is a Professor of Arabic and Islamic Law at the University of Michigan as well as a member and/or past member of many organizations associated with the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood network including including the North American Islamic Trust, the Fiqh Council of North America, and American Learning Institute for Muslims. Although this criticism of Dr. Qaradawi and his position is unusual, it comes very late in the game and after Qaradawi has moderated his view somewhat, stating in April that while in past Palestinians had no weapons making it necessary to carry out suicide bombings “Now, thank Allah, they do have some weapons and there is no much of that kind of operations,”