16 July 2010 By Mshari Al-Zaydi It wasn't long before Egypt's Grand Sheikh of Al-Azhar,
Dr. Ahmed al-Tayeb, found himself involved in the
problem of political fatwas in our Arab world. He
recently issued a fatwa saying that "inter-Palestinian
reconciliation is a religious obligation and sacred
duty" and that "whoever obstructs or impedes this is
committing a sin." I am not against the idea of reconciliation or deny
the importance of mending Palestinian fences…every
concerned individual hopes for reconciliation between
the Fatah and Hamas movements, not for the sake of
Abbas or Mishal, but in order to spare the residents
of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank from being used in
the bazaar of politics and regional bargaining. This is a noble cause with a lofty goal; however
the rift between Fatah and Hamas is more than just an
ethical issue, but rather is something that is
political at heart. The inter-Palestinian
reconciliation card is being used in a game played by
the axes of power in the Middle East. The fever of
regional exploitation has caught the Palestinian
Cause, in the same manner as this caught the Lebanese
scene. A lot has been said about this issue, and
readers and observers are aware of the presence of
these opposing regional powers, and the tools of this
conflict that can be seen from Iraq to Lebanon to
Palestine, and so there is no need to repeat this [at
this time]. Very well, which of the Palestinian factions has
the correct religious argument and position with
regards to this conflict and division? The Hamas movement and the religious groups in Gaza
and elsewhere that support it would say: we possess
the correct religious position and juristic argument,
while eloquent speaker Sheikh Ismail Haniyeh, who is
also Prime Minister of the Gaza government, would have
no trouble responding to the Grand Sheikh of al-Azhar,
quoting dozens of Hadith and Quranic verses, and
supported by impassioned rhetoric, audio effects, and
collective exclamations of victory by the audience.
Maybe the Fatah movement would be able to find
somebody – if they haven't already – who is able to
counter Haniyeh and his supporters, argument for
argument, and hadith for hadith, and verse for verse.
In short, there is no benefit from invoking
religious arguments and attempting to exploit
particular moral values in the arena of political
conflict; the only loser would be moral values
themselves, while there are no political benefits to
this whatsoever. Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh previously
accused his rivals in the southern movement of
apostasy, which is something that I previously
commented on. This tendency towards involving religion
in political conflict is something that is rampant
across the Arab political arena, and is utilized by
most political parties. However this approach is wrong, because religion,
with all of its moral and ethical values, should be an
important component in uniting elements, especially as
it represents one of the major components of cultural
identity for inhabitants of this part of world.
Therefore religion should not be used as a tool in
political conflicts. We complain about political Islamist groups
utilizing religion to achieve their political
aspirations. Therefore how could the Grand Sheikh of
al-Azhar, who is known to be a rational and wise
scholar, fall into the same trap? I wish that our wise Sheikh Dr. Ahmad al-Tayeb
would devote his time and efforts to explaining an
all-encompassing Islam, tolerance and the new school
of jurisprudence, and avoid involving religion in
political conflict. In the end, I sincerely hope, from the bottom of my
heart, that inter-Palestinian reconciliation is
achieved as soon as possible, but that is a different
story. A Saudi journalist and expert on Islamic movements and Islamic fundamentalism as well as Saudi affairs. Mshari is Asharq Al-Awsat’s opinion page Editor, where he also contributes a weekly column. Has worked for the local Saudi press occupying several posts at Al -Madina newspaper amongst others. He has been a guest on numerous news and current affairs programs as an expert on Islamic extremism.
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