By Raymond Ibrahim -- RaymondIbrahim.com —— Bio and Archives May 3, 2017
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The man who kills himself [Islamic suicide bomber] today doesn't kill himself because of the words of Hassan al-Bana or Sayyid al-Qutb, or anyone else. He kills himself because of what the consensus of the ulema, and the four schools of jurisprudence, have all agreed to. Hassan al-Bana did not create these ideas [of jihad against infidels and apostates, destroying churches, etc.]; they've been around for many, many centuries.... I am talking about Islam [now], not how it is being taught in schools.By way of example, Behery said if anyone today walks into any Egyptian mosque or bookstore and asks for a book that contains the rulings of the four schools of Islamic jurisprudence, "everything that is happening today will be found in them; killing the people of the book [Christians and Jews] is obligatory. Let's not start kidding each other and blaming such thoughts on Hassan al-Bana!" Moreover, Behery said:
There is a short distance between what is written in all these old books and what happened yesterday [Coptic church bombings]--the real bomb is in the books, which repeatedly call the People of the Book "infidels," which teach that the whole world is infidel... Hassan al-Bana and Sayyid al-Qutb are not the source of the terror, rather they are followers of these books. Spare me with the term Qutbism which has caused the nation to suffer terrorism for 50 years.Behery does not blame Al Azhar for the existence of these books; rather he, like many reformers, wants the Islamic institution to break tradition, denounce the rulings of the four schools of law as the products of fallible mortals, and reform them in ways compatible to the modern world. He said that, whereas Egypt's former grand imam, Sheikh Muhammad Sayyid Tantawi (d. 2010), had "without even being asked removed all the old books and placed just one introductory book, when al-Tayeb"--who days ago embraced Pope Francis--came, he got rid of that book and brought back all the old books, which are full of slaughter and bloodshed." The bottom line, according to Behery, is that the Egyptian government--and here the Vatican would do especially well to listen--cannot rely on Al Azhar to make any reforms, since if anything it has taken Egypt backwards.
RAYMOND IBRAHIM (RaymondIbrahim.com) is a widely published author, public speaker, and Middle East and Islam expert. His books include Crucified Again: Exposing Islam’s New War on Christians (2013) and The Al Qaeda Reader (2007). His writings, translations, and observations have appeared in a variety of publications, including Fox News, Financial Times, Jerusalem Post, Los Angeles Times, New York Times Syndicate, United Press International, USA Today, Washington Post, Washington Times, and Weekly Standard; scholarly journals, including the Almanac of Islamism, Chronicle of Higher Education, Jane’s Islamic Affairs Analyst, Middle East Quarterly, and Middle East Review of International Affairs; and popular websites, such as American Thinker, the Blaze, Bloomberg, Christian Post, FrontPage Magazine, Gatestone Institute, the Inquisitr, Jihad Watch, NewsMax, National Review Online, PJ Media, VDH’s Private Papers, and World Magazine. He has contributed chapters to several anthologies and been translated into various languages.