Burning of Jordanian pilot by ISIS is a crime in Islam

By Firdaus Yahya, The Straits Times, 7 Feb 2015

NEWS of the Jordanian pilot who was burned alive shocked the world.

The Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) justified the act as being part of the Islamic law Qisas, or retribution.

They claimed that Lieutenant Muath al-Kasaesbeh had dropped a bomb from his fighter jet, killing ISIS soldiers/jihadists. He was burned alive in retaliation for that particular act.

Is this Qisas?

First of all, there is a need to define Qisas. It is the Islamic law that allows for the proportionate punishment of crime.

In the case that A has slapped B's right cheek, B is then allowed to slap A's right cheek just as hard. This is Qisas.

In the Quran some verses on these are:

- Verse 194 from Surah Al-Baqarah: "So whoever has assaulted you, then assault him in the same way that he has assaulted you."

- Verse 45 from Surah Al-Maidah: "And We ordained for them therein a life for a life, an eye for an eye, a nose for a nose, an ear for an ear, a tooth for a tooth, and for wounds is legal retribution.

"But whoever gives (up his right as) charity, it is an expiation for him. And whoever does not judge by what Allah has revealed - then it is those who are the wrongdoers."

There are three things we need to consider from the verses above.

First: Qisas needs to be equivalent to the act. It cannot exceed the crime that has been done.

For example, someone who was purposely blinded in the right eye by another has the right to blind the right eye of his attacker. Not both his eyes, nor his left eye.

However, there are offences that are difficult to measure accurately. Take, for example, the act of punching. The force of the punch itself cannot be measured accurately. Thus, it is difficult to punch back with an equitable amount of force.

For that Allah has taught one lesson from the verse above.

In other words, the Quran gives permission to victims and family members affected to let go of their Qisas claim.

This is more important because Allah will repay back with His forgiveness. This is one of the many examples of goodwill in Islam.

Allah reminds us how noble it is to repay crime with goodness. In Surah Fussilat Verses 34 and 35, it is said:

"The good deed and the evil deed cannot be equal. Repel (the evil) with one which is better; then verily he between whom and you there was enmity (will become) as though he was a close friend."

Next: Anyone who transgressed Qisas belongs among the wrongdoers.

Thus those who burn people alive on the basis of Qisas can be included in the category of extremism and tyranny.

Islamic scholars ban the act of burning humans alive. This is based on several hadiths, among them:

- Hadith by Imam Abu Daud and Imam Ahmad: Do not punish anybody with Allah's punishment (fire). Only Allah can punish anybody with (fire).

- Hadith by Imam Muslim: An ant had bitten a prophet (one among the earlier prophets) and he ordered that the colony of ants be burnt.

And Allah revealed to him: "Because of an ant's bite, you have burnt a community from amongst the communities which sing My glory."

Renowned scholar Imam Abu Hanifah declared that Qisas punishment can only be done using the sword - not with any other tool, not to even mention fire.

This is based on a hadith by Imam Ibn Majar that says it is forbidden to do Qisas except with the sword.

Given the explanations above, the act done by the ISIS militants was wrong and a crime in Islam, no matter what excuses were being given.

The writer is the founder of Darul Huffaz education centre in Singapore that promotes reading and understanding of the Quran. This is a translation of an article that appeared in the Malay-language newspaper Berita Harian on Feb 5.

Fires of extremism must be fought from within by Muslims
Muslim societies have to come up with more imaginative and effective ways to check the sickness in their midst
By Aijaz Zaka Syed, Published The Straits Times, 6 Feb 2015

EVEN from its own stellar standards of savagery that the so-called Islamic State has established in a very short time, the cold-blooded killing of Jordanian pilot Muath al-Kasaesbeh is truly chilling and unprecedented. It has shocked and outraged a region that has seen more than its fair share of shock and awe - in the words of former United States Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld - and blood-curdling barbarity in the past few years.

And that is clearly what the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) wanted - to shock and awe countries in the region and their Western allies on the one hand, and win more recruits and converts to its nihilistic, cynical cause on the other.

Predictably, the immolation of the Jordanian pilot in a cage and filming it for posterity has drawn the strongest denunciations from across the Arab and Islamic world.

The Cairo-based Al-Azhar, the 1,000-year old centre of Islamic learning, called for matching punishment for the killers, describing the ISIS as a "Satanic" cult.

An angry Al-Azhar Rector Sheikh Tayib argued that the killing "required the punishment mentioned in the Quran for these corrupt oppressors who fight against God and his Prophet: Killing, crucifixion or chopping of the limbs".

In Qatar, the International Association of Muslim Scholars headed by cleric Youssef al-Qaradawi, spiritual guide to the Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt's Islamists, condemned it as "a criminal act": "The Association asserts that this extremist organisation does not represent Islam in any way and its actions always harm Islam."

Saudi cleric Salman al-Odah wrote on his Twitter account: "Burning is an abominable crime rejected by Islamic law regardless of its causes. Only God tortures by fire."

Even ordinary Muslims, usually mute, helpless spectators to the antics of groups like ISIS and Al-Qaeda, seem to have concluded that enough is enough.

"This is a barbaric act which has no place in Islam or humanity. Islam bears no responsibility for them and their claim to be an Islamic State is ridiculous," Palestinian engineer Nawaf al-Dweik, in Ramallah told Reuters. "There should be a joint Arab force to go in and destroy these killers and be rid of them once and for all."

Understandably, Arab governments and leaders in the region have severely attacked the killing, signalling a further toughening of stand against ISIS. Jordan responded by swiftly executing two ISIS/Al-Qaeda-linked death row convicts.

The graphic murder of the 26-year old Jordanian pilot, who was captured in December when his fighter jet, part of the US-led bombing campaign against the militants, went down, comes close on the heels of the coldblooded beheading of the two Japanese hostages, one after another, by ISIS.

The Japanese journalists were killed on tape again apparently in response to Japan's offer of US$200 million (S$269 million) in aid to the Middle East nations fighting against militancy. The Daesh, as ISIS is known in Arabic, demanded the same exact amount in ransom for the Japanese hostages.

Of course, under pressure from Western governments, Japan refused to "negotiate with the terrorists" with chilling consequences.

Last year, the ISIS shocked the world when it beheaded American journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff in their regulation orange jumpsuits. Indeed, since it burst on the scene last year, the group has been on a relentless killing spree.

And every massacre and killing - from the butchering of Yazidi tribesmen to gunning down of blindfolded Shi'ite militia men and Iraqi soldiers - is calculated and aimed at delivering maximum impact in an age and time when news and images travel at the speed of light. And death by fire delivered the ultimate shock value for a people for whom fire represents the ultimate punishment from God.

Even in its earlier avatar, as Al-Qaeda in Iraq led by the dreaded Jordanian Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the group was known for its exceptionally brutal ways. But faith is not what killed the Jordanian pilot, the American journalists and the Japanese. Islam has nothing to do with this death cult, no matter what these cynical killers say or claim to justify their actions. Indeed, Arabs and Muslims have all the more reasons to despise these groups because they have suffered the most at the hands of terrorists. Besides, they claim to speak and perpetrate these shameful acts in their name and in the name of their faith.

As Iraqi academic Ibrahim al-Marashi argues, "what killed Kasaesbeh was not Islam. What killed him are the new dynamics of globalisation and transnational violence that have consumed the Middle East and the Islamic world, unleashed by the 2003 Iraq war and the 2011 Syrian civil war".

Unless the world acknowledges and confronts these "dynamics", it cannot effectively deal with groups like the ISIS. You cannot ignore the fact that the group was born in response to a brutal, cooked-up war and occupation that killed more than a million people in Iraq.

Groups like ISIS and Al-Qaeda and their competitive shenanigans to attract the world's attention are mere symptoms, not the disease itself. Unless you do something about the germs that cause the sickness, you cannot conjure up a cure.

That said, the Arab and Islamic world can no longer content itself by blaming the West or by issuing condemnations every time an atrocity such as this is committed. Muslim societies have to come up with more imaginative and effective ways to check this sickness in their midst.

We can no longer deny the fact that extremism has emerged as the greatest challenge to the Islamic world. And this scourge within can be confronted and eliminated by the community itself.

External and spurious solutions can only aggravate the malaise.

Aijaz Zaka Syed is a Dubai-based journalist who was opinion editor and associate editor of Khaleej Times, the Gulf's oldest English daily.