Syria's Mufti: Islam commands us to protect Judaism
By Haaretz Service
Tags: Syria, Islam, Israel News
Syria's foremost Muslim leader declared on Tuesday that Islam commands its followers to protect Judaism, according to Army Radio.
"If the Prophet Mohammed had asked me to deem Christians or Jews heretics, I would have deemed Mohammed himself a heretic," Sheikh Ahmed Hassoun, the Mufti of Syria, was quoted as telling a delegation of American academics visiting Damascus.
Hassoun, the leader of Syria's majority Sunni Muslim community, also told the delegates that Islam was a religion of peace, adding: "If Mohammed had commanded us to kill people, I would have told him he was not a prophet."
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Religious wars were the result of politics infiltrating systems of faith, he said, asking:
"Was Moses of Middle Eastern or European descent? Was Jesus a Protestant or a Catholic? Was Mohammed Shi'ite or Sunni?"
According to the Mufti, the conflict between Israel and its Arabs neighbors has nothing to do with an Islamic war against Judaism.
"Before you got American citizenship, and I got Syrian citizenship, we were all brothers under the dome of God," he said.
Jews had once lived in Syria peacefully and with fair treatment, he added, explaining that his own grandfather had a Jewish partner.
"Jews lived in Syria for years and they still have a role in Syrian society," he said
On Tuesday 19 January at the Ministry of Awqaf in Damascus, Syria, the Mufti of Syria Ahmad Hassoun in his eagerness to please a non-Muslim delegation visiting Syria from the "George Mason University Center for World Religions, Diplomacy and Conflict Resolution" pronounced horrific words that fit the act described in the following Prophetic hadith:
"Truly the servant of Allah may utter a word without first ascertaining what he says, and because of it will stumble into the Fire a distance greater than what lies between East and West." Narrated by al-Bukhari and Muslim.
Hassoun reportedly said: "If our Prophet Muhammad had ordered me to disbelieve in Judaism and Christianity, I would have disbelieved in Muhammad" and "If Muhammad had ordered me to kill people, I would have told him: You are not a Prophet."
These words are proudly quoted in English in the following article (5th paragraph):
Then, in some followup "rectification" of his intent printed in the newspaper _al-Quds_, the Mufti changed his wording to ""If our Prophet Muhammad had ordered me to disbelieve in Musa and `Isa" instead of what he had said earlier, but then he said other things and sank deeper into his misguidance instead of retracting it. In the words of the popular expression cited by Sayyid Abu al-Huda, "He wanted to put kohl on her eyes and he blinded her instead," like the proverbial imbecile who bought honey and spat in it. Among his excuses: "I only used 'if'"! and "I only meant that a criminal cannot be a Prophet"!!
Our beloved teacher Sayyid Muhammad Abu al-Huda al-Ya`qubi has responded to these grave offenses against the person of the Holy Prophet(upon him and his family blessings and peace) here:
He indicated in the above talk that the Mufti has, in one fell swoop, (i) made the Divine wahy the subject of a hypothetical confrontation in which the Prophet supposedly acts as erroneous and he, Hassoun, acts as the voice of truth and authority; (ii) described a hypothetical situation where he, Hassoun, would supposedly tell off the Prophet; and (iii) asserted the hegemony of Judaism and Christianity over Islam in explicit contradiction of the Qur'an and in the style of those who, historically, have disparaged Prophets. "What have you left to the rank enemies of Islam and Muslims?" one internet commentator asked, while another scoffed, "Hail, Pope Hassoun I!"
This from a man tasked above all others to uphold the sacred law (although his academic qualification is in Arabic literature, not Shari`a), and now slights the honor of the Prophet Muhammad from inside the sacred land in order to ingratiate himself with Rabbi X and Senator Y.
Sayyid Abu al-Huda addresses the Mufti (at 7'35") thus:
"What is it that makes you a judge over the Messenger of Allah, upon him blessings and peace, so that you can say: 'If the Messenger of Allah ordered me this or that, I would etc.?' The Messenger of Allah is the Lawgiver! The Messenger of Allah is the Conveyor! Allah Most High said of him: {Nor does he speak of his own desire; It is but a revelation revealed} (Q 53:3-4). This means that we know the Religion only by way the Prophet, upon him blessings and peace. I ask: And do we know of the respective Prophethoods of Musa and `Isa from any other source than because the Prophet informed us? Such can only be learned by hearing it from a Prophetic source, not through rational process.
"I do not believe there is any remedy other than for him to resign. It is more becoming of him, out of embarrassment and shame before his Lord Allah Most High, and before his Prophet upon him blessings and peace, that he should go home and submit his resignation; and that he should safeguard this Religion for this Community, and this authority and honor for al-Shaam and the Ulema of al-Shaam, and for the country, both its leadership and its people..."
for the record, I believe the statements are very problematic and I fully support the recent statement that our shaykh Abu-l-huda has made - may Allah preserve him.
We fully support Abul Huda Shaykh Yaqubi hafizahullah and salut him in his stance against such imbecile socalled ''mufti''hassoun who dares to spew such filth from his dirty mouth against the best of creation (Salallahualahiwasallam.
