Saudi Salafi Cleric: We Oppose Suicide Operations, Unlike Muslim Brotherhood Leadership

The following are excerpts from an interview with Sheik Mussa Al-'Abd Al-'Aziz, editor of the Saudi periodical Al-Salafiya:

Sheik Abd Al-Aziz: We must unequivocally condemn terrorism that targets any society, whether Muslim, Arab or any other human society. This is the first thing.

Interviewer: Then how do you characterize the operations carried out in Palestine? Are they martyrdom or suicide operations?

Mussa Al-'Abd Al-'Aziz I am a member of the Salafi school of thought, whose clerics have already given their Islamic legal ruling regarding these operations. These positions are well known. They have been written in Al-Salifiya and in their books, and are well known to everyone, for instance Imam Ibn Baz, Imam Al-Albani, and Imam Ibn 'Othaymin. They did not permit the intentional taking of one's own life, even if the purpose is to cause the enemy great losses. The taking of one's own life - there's no text in Islam that permits this or calls it martyrdom.

We ruled this way, but the Muslim Brotherhood's clerics and some of their leaders, such as Dr. Qaradhawi, disagreed with Imam ibn Baz and with Imam Al-Albani on this fatwah, and today we see the results of these operations. Have they led to the results we hope for? How can we permit the taking of one's life in order to kill one Jewish soldier, when then a huge army comes and destroys 100 houses and expels 100 families and so on?