Egypt's top Islamic cleric delivered a fierce sermon against terrorism Friday at the main mosque of Sharm el-Sheik, the Red Sea resort struck in deadly bombings last weekend. Even the Lebanese guerrilla group Hezbollah, branded as terrorist by Washington, says Muslim clerics have to act to curb extremism.
After the bloodshed in Iraq and this month's London bombings, the Sharm attack has deepened what has been in a growing debate in the Arab and Islamic world -- how Islam should deal with terrorists who act in its name and whether intolerance passed on by some clerics encourages radicalism.
Mohammed Sayyed Tantawi, grand imam of Al-Azhar -- one of the Sunni world's most prestigous institutions -- delivered a weekly Friday prayer sermon at the Sharm's "Peace Mosque," which was packed by hundreds of worshippers from the resort, still reeling from last Saturday's bombings.
Tantawi told the worshippers that "even polytheists who come to Egypt to see its civilization, who didn't come to harm you, you have to protect them and treat them in a good way."
The cleric used the Arabic word "mushrikin" -- or "polytheists" -- a word heavy with negative connotations in Islam. The Koran, Islam's holy book, repeatedly denounces "mushrikin," while accepting Jews and Christians as fellow monotheists. Islamic radicals often rail against "shirk" -- polytheism -- and its followers. Those who killed dozens of innocents, "have no justification," and if they claim they are obeying orders of Islam, "then they are liars, liars and charlatans and Islam disavows them," he added.
"The aggressors who blow up themselves, their cars and bombs against innocent men, women, and children will not be given any mercy by God ... they will be cursed by God and his angels," Tantawi said, urging residents of the Sinai to help find the Sharm bombers.
Tantawi has emerged as a strong voice against terrorism in recent months. Early this month, he harshly condemned Islamic insurgents in Iraq -- who even some moderate Muslims feel are fighting for a just cause against the US occupation -- saying all Iraqis and Arabs should unite to purge Iraq of "their filth and viciousness."
Egyptian investigators have been focusing on the likelihood that homegrown Islamic militant cells in Sinai -- possibly with international links -- carried out the Sharm bombings, in which two car bombs and a knapsack bomb ripped through a luxury hotel, a neighborhood full of Egyptians and the entrance to a beach promenade. The official death toll stands at 64, but could rise to 88.
In Lebanon, the militant Shiite Muslim Hezbollah group said immediately after the Sharm attack that "mass murder attacks against innocent people ... require a decisive stance by [Muslim] clerics" against violence. Hezbollah is considered a terrorist organization by the US, which accuses it of supporting Palestinian militants against Israel. But in Lebanon, it's seen as a nationalist force after its long fight against Israeli troops that occupied southern Lebanon until 2000.
The guerrilla group sharply opposes the US troop presence in Iraq -- but with its Iraqi Shiite brethren frequently falling victim in bombings, it has grown more vocal in comdemning the insurgency in Iraq.
Lebanon's most senior Shiite Muslim cleric, Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah said after the Sharm attacks that all Muslims must condemn them, which he blamed on "backward minds that do not understand Islamic texts." But, he said, the "evil phenomenon" of terrorism "stems from the policy of arrogance [by the US and Israel]."
He appealed to his congregation, trying to explain the proper meaning of "jihad" -- a word often translated as "holy war" but more broadly meant as a "struggle" for Islam against oppression.
Jihad, he said, is by word, not by action. "With good words, we can influence and impress the rest of world, not by horrific actions."
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