Thoughts on the Woolwich killing

[ideologue08]

Wasn't that their reason for killing him in the first place? Because he (at the very least) supported the murder of innocent people in Iraq and Afghanistan? Surely then, they committed no crime in your eyes?

No, because the two are completely different situations. Let's analyse them purely from an Islamic perspective for one moment because I think this is the issue here:

The man who butchered a British soldier in Woolwich is guilty of three major sins in Islam, all of them are listed in the Qur'an and all of them carry the death penalty usually in any Islamic state: Killing a human being without justification, waging war against one's own people (treachery), incitement to wage war against one's own people (treason). The acts of treachery and treason are actually defined as being worse than killing itself in the Qur'an.

After the invasion of Afghanistan by the Soviet forces, there was a fatwa (scholarly opinion) given by the Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia, Shaykh Bin Baz who died in 1998. He was asked by a foreigner whether or not it was permissible for a Muslim to fight the Russians because they are fighting the Muslims in Afghanistan. His fatwa basically concluded with two points:

1) It is not permissible for any Russian Muslim to take up arms against his own country, there are no exceptions to this rule because of the verse in the Qur'an: 8:72...but if they seek your help in religion, it is your duty to help them except against a people with whom you have a treaty of mutual alliance...

2) If however, the person isn't Russian and has no mutual understanding with the Soviets, then it is incumbent to to fight them as long as the Soviets are fighting the Afghans on account of their religion, because of the verse which says: (22:39) Permission to fight is given to those who have been fought because they have been wronged...

Now, as for the killing of a murderer, then the Qur'an is again pretty clear about this, it places the blame squarely on the one who transgressed the limits in the first instance, but as for the one who executes the actual murderer within an Islamic state: (22:33) ...he is within the law...