Crows Home to Roost V: Deoband Scholars Condemn Terror

At a summit of Islamic Scholars 20,000 strong in India even the Deoband scholars signed the declaration condemning terror.

There’s more to this than just a show, as terror now haunts the Islamic world. It is threatening their madrassa structure, and they are having harder times recruiting students due to the massive Muslim vs. Muslim terror violence we’ve seen the past two years.

The crows came home to roost, as demonstrated by Lal Masjid in Pakistan, the mosque bombings and shootings across the Islamic world, and the threats to stability and governance in many Islamic nations. It was bound to happen.

The question remains as to whether there will be after the fact winking and nudging to indicate that they only meant this for Islamic countries, or Dar al Islam.

From the Times Online:

Terrorism has been declared un-Islamic by scholars at a Wahabi madrassa, which some believe inspired the Taleban, according to a senior cleric.

In a declaration, as many as 20,000 leaders representing different sects of Islam also called on the Indian Government to ensure that Muslims were not harassed in the name of terrorism, Maulana Shaukat said. He was speaking from the 150-year-old Darul Uloom Deoband madrassa at Saharanpur in Uttar Pradesh, northern India.

The declaration said: “Islam is a religion of mercy for all humanity. Islam sternly condemns all kinds of oppression, violence and terrorism.”

Adil Siddiqui, another Deobandi representative, noted that “whenever there is any incident of terrorism, every possible attempt is made to link it to Muslims, particularly who have studied in madrassas. This is totally wrong.”

Reading between the lines in several papers and Islamic forums there has been a sea change of sorts post-Bhutto assasination, it will be interesting to see how that develops.