Brazilian Newspaper on Hamas: ‘What Is Taqiyya: The Islamic Doctrine that Justifies Lies’

On October 17, when a rocket hit the vicinity of a hospital in Gaza, the first information released by Hamas was that the attack was promoted by Israel, destroyed the health unit and left around 500 people dead.

In the following days, it became clear that the explosion hit the hospital parking lot and not the building. Agence France Press, citing intelligence reports, put the death toll at 50 instead of 500. And clear evidence emerged that the explosion was caused by a terrorist rocket, not an Israeli attack.

By this time, however, the lie had already been used to mobilize protests, some of them violent, around the world.

War is fertile territory for the spread of untruths. But Islam, in particular, offers a moral justification for the strategic use of deception. The practice has its own name in Arabic: taqiya.

Historically, the term taqiya has been used in two senses. The first is the concealment of one’s Islamic faith when doing so poses a risk to one’s life. In other words: a believer living in a country with a non-Muslim majority can strategically hide his religious identity.

The second is the use of lies as a strategy in jihad, or holy war (any war that expands the area under Islam’s control).

One of the main scholars on the subject, writer Raymond Ibrahim explains that the idea of ​​dissimulation (with or without the label of taqiya) dates back to the origins of the Islamic religion, in the 7th century. “I would say that in Islam the idea that the ends justify the means is very prominent. As long as you have a good objective in accordance with Islam, such as conquering land for the religion or defeating the infidels, there is a lot of flexibility regarding the methods”, he said in an interview with Gazeta do Povo.

Ibrahim says the practice is consistently adopted by terrorist organizations such as Hamas. “For Hamas, the truth is just one tool in the arsenal against Israel. Anything that can be said that works is considered good enough,” he explains.

The power of modern communication has increased the usefulness of taqiya – as the case of the hospital in Gaza demonstrates.

The philosophical peculiarities of Islam

From a philosophical point of view, the Muslim view on war differs from that of Christianity — which developed a doctrine of “just war”.

And there are three main reasons for this.

Firstly, there is the message of Jesus Christ himself who taught to turn the other cheek and walk two miles if someone forces you to walk one. Christian tradition exalts martyrs who did not deny their faith even under threat of the sword. In Islam, “love your enemies” is not a commandment. And denying faith publicly is not a problem, as long as this is part of a game of deception to later surprise the enemy.

Secondly, because Christianity absorbed principles from Greek philosophy — to the point where Friedrich Nietzsche said, in an accusatory tone, that the Christian religion is “Platonism for the people”. The founding figure of Greek philosophy is that of the philosopher (Socrates) who preferred to be condemned to death rather than have to renounce the truth. Plato, in turn, wrote that it is preferable to suffer an injustice rather than commit it.

Third, because the Enlightenment, with its emphasis on reason and the natural rights of all men, was much more influential in the West than in Muslim countries.

Although it establishes strict ethical parameters, Islamic doctrine treats infidels (non-Muslims) as a separate category. For example: verse 3:28 of the Quran preaches the impossibility of alliances with non-Muslims. “Let believers not take unbelievers as friends, but give preference to believers – and whoever does so has no connection with Allah – unless you carefully guard yourselves against them.”

One of the leading commentators on the Qur’an, Ala-Maududi wrote about this passage that “This means that it is legitimate for a believer, helpless under the reins of the enemies of Islam and in imminent danger of suffering and severe persecution, to keep his faith hidden and to act accordingly. to give the impression that he is on the side of his enemies”

Sami Mukaram, who was a professor of Islamic Studies at the American University of Beirut, wrote that taqiya has “fundamental importance” for Islam, and that the practice recurs in modern Islamic politics.

But there’s no need to go that far: Abu Hurairah, one of the main sources on Muhammad’s departure, attributes the teaching that “war is dissimulation” to the founder of Islam himself.

Muhammad also taught his followers that lying is acceptable in three cases: first, when a husband wants to please his wife; the second, to bring about the reconciliation of two friends who are fighting. The third is war.

The intentional use of deception as a weapon of war goes beyond simply deceiving the enemy about combat tactics; it involves the intentional dissemination of false statements to generate situations favorable to the victory of Islam.

That is why it is dangerous to interpret as sincere the public statements of groups like Hamas — which, while ordering the murder of women and children, deny that it ordered the murder of women and children.

The lack of knowledge about taqiya also explains why so many progressives in the West are shocked by what appears to be an intransigent stance by Israel, which maintains a military presence in areas of Palestine. Some of these progressives believe that if the Israelis give in a little, there will be peace. But Raymond Ibrahim says that Israel acts this way because it has learned directly how taqiya works. “Israel, with its closeness and experience with Islam, understands this better,” he says.