Page 88 - Islam Denounces Terrorism

86 Islam Denounces Terrorism

This is what the Qur'an commands. According to that command-
ment, someone is not to be killed for not believing in God. On the con-
trary, he must be protected, even at the cost of Muslims' lives. There-
fore, the justification for war has nothing to do with whether the other
side believes in God or not or belongs to another faith. The justification
for war is that the other side engages in assaults and torture, and takes
people's lives.

Another fact set out in the verse is that all people will be under the
protection of Muslims so long as they do not attack or engage in
extreme behaviour, irrespective of their religion, language, ethnicity or

beliefs. A Muslim has a responsibility to protect the People of the Book,
or an atheist or a communist, in the same way that he does other Mus-
lims; this is a requirement of being a Muslim; this is the description of
a Muslim in the Qur'an. If someone says, "I am a Muslim," he must be
protective of others.

Examination of Verse 13 of Surat at-Tawba:

Will you not fight a people who have broken their oaths and resolved
to expel the Messenger, and who initiated hostilities against you in
the first place? Is it them you fear? God has more right to your fear if
you are believers. (Qur'an, 9:13)

This verse is another of those that show the commandments
regarding fighting in the Qur'an. When a polytheistic community that
had come to a truce with Muslims - in other words, that lived in peace
with them as required under those agreements - broke that truce and
started attacking, when they tried to force our Prophet (pbuh) to leave
his own land and go into exile and when, as the verse explicitly states,

they initiated hostilities, Muslims had the right to fight back against
them.