As Iran continues edging closer to developing nuclear weapons—a major threat to the entire Mideast region, especially longstanding U.S. ally Israel—U.S. President Obama has come to the aid of the Islamic Republic, by citing an Islamic fatwa no less. In a video recording posted on the White House’s website, Obama said, “Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei has issued a fatwa against the development of nuclear weapons, and President Rouhani has said that Iran would never develop a nuclear weapon.”
This is the same Rouhani who, after recently showcasing Iran’s newly developed missiles, described his nation’s diplomatic talks with the U.S. as an active “jihad”: “Our negotiations with the world powers are a source of national pride. Yesterday [during the Iran-Iraq War], your brave generals stood against the enemy on the battlefield and defended their country. Today, your diplomatic generals are defending [our nation] in the field of diplomacy–this, too, is jihad.”
Other administration officials—such as Secretary of State John Kerry and Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes—have previously referred to the ayatollah’s reported fatwa in the context of the ongoing nuclear negotiations with Iran.
The Obama administration’s citation of this fatwa is utterly wrongheaded on many levels.
First, the Islamic doctrine of taqiyya permits Muslims to deceive non-Muslims. Islamic prophet Muhammad himself regularly lied to his infidel enemies, often resulting in their murder (such as the case of Ka‘b ibn Ashraf). He also proclaimed that lying was permissible in three contexts, one being war. Moreover, throughout the centuries and due to historic circumstances (discussed here), taqiyya became second nature to the Shia—the sect currently ruling Iran.
Then there is the fact that Islamic law takes circumstance into account. When Muhammad was weak and outnumbered in Mecca, he preached peace and tolerance (hence why Meccan Suras appear peaceful); when he became strong in Medina, he preached war and went on the offensive (hence why Medinan Suras are violent and intolerant). This dichotomy—preach peace when weak, wage war when strong—has been Islamic modus operandi for centuries.
Speaking of fatwas, Dr. Yusuf Burhami, a prominent Islamic cleric in Egypt, recently said that destroying churches in Egypt is permissible if not advisable—but not if doing so prompts Western infidels to intervene and occupy Egypt, which they could do “because the condition of Muslims in the current era is well known to the nations of the world—they are weak.” Burhami further added that circumstance is everything, “just as the prophet allowed the Jews to remain in Khaibar after he opened [conquered] it, once Muslims grew in strength and number, [second caliph] Omar al-Khattab drove them out according to the prophet’s command, ‘Drive out the Jews and Christians from the Peninsula.’”
And who can forget Yasser Arafat’s reference to Muhammad’s Hudaybiya pact? In 1994, soon after negotiating a peace treaty criticized as conceding too much to Israel, Arafat addressed an assembly of Muslims and said: “I see this agreement as being no more than the agreement signed between our Prophet Muhammad and the [infidel] Quraysh in Mecca.” In other words, like Muhammad, Arafat gave his word only to annul it once his ranks became strong enough to go on the offensive.
In short, it’s all very standard for Islamic leaders to say they are pursuing nuclear energy for peaceful purposes while they are weaker than their infidel foes—as Iran is today—but once they acquire nukes the jihad can resume in earnest.
Then there is the fact that Shia theology is rife with apocalyptic aspirations. An August 2007 report compiled by the Congressional Research Service said: “Ahmadinejad [previous president of Iran] believes his mission is to prepare for the return of the 12th ‘Hidden’ Imam, whose return from occultation [i.e., “hiding”] would, according to Twelver Shi’ite doctrine, be accompanied by the establishment of Islam as the global religion.”
Like other Iranians, Ahmadinejad cited the eschatological (and canonical) hadith wherein Muhammad said: “The Hour [Judgment Day] will not come until the Muslims fight the Jews and until the Jews hide behind the trees and rocks and the trees and rocks will say, ‘O Muslim, O Servant of God! Here are the Jews! Come and kill them!”
Indeed, during a recent speech, supreme leader Khamenei—whose fatwa Obama is now citing—boasted about Iran’s uranium enrichment, even as his military commanders shouted, “Allah Akbar. Khamenei is the leader. Death to the enemies of the leadership. Death to America. Death to England. Death to hypocrites. Death to Israel.”
Yet despite all this—despite the fact that Islamic doctrine mandates lying to infidels; despite the fact that the Shia—Iran’s leadership—have perfected taqiyya into an art; despite the fact that Islamic law holds that Muslims should preach peace when weak, war when strong; despite the fact that Iranian leadership openly boasts that its nuclear negotiations are a “jihad” against the infidel; despite the fact that Iran has previously been exposed developing uranium enrichments suitable for nuclear warheads—here is Obama and his administration relying on the “word” of the ayatollah of Iran.
Ranchman says
Thanks for the input, Raymond, it’s always spot on. We need to stop Obama from negotiating with the Iranians without Congressional oversight. We’re asking for nothing but future misery if we don’t stop this man.
RationalFearOfTerror says
Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molotov%E2%80%93Ribbentrop_Pact
“Hitler responded by saying he was proud of the German people. He announced that Germany had no more territorial claims against France (in other words no claim on Alsace and Lorraine) and he spoke of hope that the decision regarding the Saar was a decisive step on the road to gradual reconciliation with Germany’s former enemies.”
http://www.fsmitha.com/h2/ch19-3.htm
Islam is the only culture I am aware of which has actually recorded in its Islamic codex justification and authorisation of deception/lying as to the Islamic/Muslims cultures true intent regards Other though at least in this regard the Islamic/Muslims culture are being honest regards such a necessity for cultural survival at least with themselves – it would appear in codifying such duplicity the Islamic/Muslims culture did not recognise the fact Other are not so ‘deaf, dumb and blind’ they cannot realise intuitively from what has happened to Other elsewhere in time and space nor the fact Other can read about their fate and the duplicity in the Islamic/Muslims cultures codex. Lying (Taqiyya and Kitman)
http://www.thereligionofpeace.com/quran/011-taqiyya.htm
Islam’s doctrines of deception by Raymond Ibrahim Jane’s Islamic Affairs Analyst
October 2008
http://www.meforum.org/2095/islams-doctrines-of-deception
Ron Barak says
And said fatwa may not exist at all: http://tabletmag.com/jewish-news-and-politics/97762/irans-missing-nuclear-fatwa
clarion says
bit of a snake this president Hussein, huh?
guyjones says
“Naive” would be a fair word to describe Obama’s posture, but, I don’t think Obama is naive; he’s merely a sociopath with no moral scruples who doesn’t give a damn about anyone else existing outside of his narrow sphere of existence. His behavior is rooted in transparent egotism and self-aggrandizement, desperately seeking his “Nixon in China” moment with which to put luster on a breathtakingly disastrous foreign policy that is becoming more embarrassing by the day. Obama is really engaging in a pathetic attempt to put a feather in his legacy cap, and, his actions are thus made with (I believe) full knowledge of the Iranian leadership’s litany of past and current misdeeds, its utterly untrustworthy character and its unrepentant and defiant attitudes. He simply doesn’t care about the real-world consequences.
Eagleeye7 says
Obama truly is straddling on ‘dangerous ground.’
At the root of all this conflict is the political ideology of Islam. When we strike at Islam (it’s teachings, doctrine, laws, codex) we are striking at the heart of their existence. Therefore, it is important to emphasize that we (kafr’s) “Love the Muslim & Hate Islam” as the injunction is codified in the Quran and the Hadiths.
Hassan Mosab Yousef, author of the book Son of Hamas, is in fact a son of Hamas leader Sheikh Hassen Yousef, one of the founders of Hamas based in Palestine. He asserts that he is a proud Muslim, will always be one, will not reject his Muslim family, but hates ISLAM, the root of all evil.
Strike at the root and destroy the evil that is ISLAM. All of the attacks in Europe and America should not divert our attention from the cause. Put objectively, would Muslims tolerate and accommodate any religion whose avowed aim is global domination ? Taqiyyah is simply a strategy put in place to achieve this. And so should the rest of the world reject ISLAM wherever it presents, that the Muslim world clearly understands that it will never be tolerated or accommodated in its present form (as Pres Al Sisi pointed out), the effigy must be burnt and the philosophy denounced.
steamboat says
raymond, how does tawriya fit into this discussion?