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December 21, 2005
A Religious Right To Murder People Without Punishment?
Topics: Understanding IslamJohn Hawkins at RWN writes that you almost have to admire the chutzpah (Well, not really) of Osman Karahan, a Turkish lawyer, who argued that his terrorist clients, who were responsible for the deaths of 58 innocent people, should be allowed to skate because it was their religious duty as Muslims to commit murder.
"A lawyer defending al Qaida-linked suspects standing trial for the 2003 suicide bombings in Istanbul told a court that jihad, or holy war, was an obligation for Muslims and his clients should not be prosecuted.Be sure and catch John's commentary on the story..."If you punish them for this, tomorrow, will you punish them for fasting or for praying?" Osman Karahan -- a lawyer representing 14 of the 72 suspects -- asked during a nearly four-hour speech in which he read religious texts from an encyclopedia of Islam.
The November 2003 blasts targeted two synagogues, the British Consulate and the local headquarters of the London-based HSBC bank, killing 58 people.
The Arabic word jihad can mean holy war among extremists in addition to its definition as the Islamic concept of the struggle to do good.
Karahan spoke for three hours at the court in Istanbul.
"If non-Muslims go into Muslim lands, it is every Muslim's obligation to fight them," Karahan said."
If you think that Osman Karahan's statements are out of the ballpark of reality, guess again. Many Muslims agree with him, yet try to soften non-Muslim's "take" on the rhetoric of hate, violence, and murder taken from the Koran by spinning it so as to make it sound like "that's what it means, but not really" - in order to help non-Muslims swallow the poison pill of anti -"infidel" Koranic edicts. And we're talking about really great koranic spinmeisters...
Related: Tolerance in Islam
Posted by Richard at December 21, 2005 5:19 PM
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