The Hamas victory parade on Thursday with the coffins of four people they had murdered — an elderly man, someone whom they claimed to be the mother of two young children, and those two children, one of whom was nine months old — has appalled and disgusted the world. Even the Grand Muftis of Saudi Arabia and Dubai have reportedly been moved to issue denunciations of Hamas’ behavior, and those denunciations have in turn jump-started the West’s never-ending quest for that most elusive of entities, which despite never actually having been seen is the hope of numerous Europeans and North Americans for a peaceful future: moderate Islam.
The news came in X posts that have not been substantiated, although no denials have been issued, either. The Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia, Sheikh Abdulaziz al-Sheikh, said: "What we saw today in Gaza is a disgrace to Islam, an act of blasphemy against Allah." The take of the Grand Mufti of Dubai, Ahmed al-Haddad, was similar. He declared: “Hamas has brought shame to Islam on a level never seen before.” These statements spread far and wide; al-Haddad’s got 1.3 million views, and al-Sheikh’s 208,800.
Many people took the statements as a hopeful sign. Uri Kurlianchik, who describes himself as “Jewish, Zionist, Soviet, Israeli, Geek, Author, Hiker, Eclectic, Nocturnal, Trilingual, Listener, Observer, Friendly” and has over 50,000 followers on X, posted the two statements and wrote: “Real Arabs are starting to speak up. Never thought I'd see the day!”
Maybe he still hasn’t. One reader responded: “Sorry. If yesterday ‘disturbed them’, but not the 504 days before, color me unimpressed.” Indeed. Hamas committed numerous astounding atrocities on Oct. 7, 2023, as it murdered 1,200 Israelis, and the Grand Muftis were notably silent about that.
Nevertheless, their words took in others as well. The renowned historian Simon Sebag Montefiore wrote that “these rulings are appreciated,” although he later deleted the post, and with good reason. Note that both Muftis did not speak about the evil done to Hamas’ Israeli victims, but to the “disgrace” and “shame” that Hamas’ actions brought to Islam. They were not worried about moral evil, but about Islam’s image. For the Muftis, taking them by the word of their reported statements, the only “disgrace to Islam” and “shame to Islam” in Hamas’ celebration was in the fact that many people saw it and thought ill of Islam as a result.
On that level, the statements of the Grand Muftis are absolutely true. However, many assume, without a trace of evidence, that they’re saying that Hamas’ acts were un-Islamic. This is in line with the now two-decade-long quest in the West for moderate Muslims, the supposedly mainstream Muslims, as opposed to the “extremists.” These moderates reject terrorism, will never wage jihad, and are perfectly happy to coexist as equals with non-Muslims in a secular state on an indefinite basis.
There is a great deal of confusion about this issue, for it is increasingly easy for Westerners to look around them and see Muslims who are not waging jihad and seem to be coexisting just fine. The problem such Muslims have is that they are not, as many in the West assume, following an understanding of Islam that differs from that of groups such as Hamas, ISIS and al-Qaeda. There is no moderate Islamic theology, or moderate Islamic school of Islamic law. These moderates choose to ignore the Qur’an’s teachings of conquest and subjugation of unbelievers, but that doesn’t mean those teachings don’t exist.
And the fact that they do exist casts the Muftis’ statements in a vastly different light from how many people have taken them. There was nothing un-Islamic about what Hamas did as it returned the coffins that were purportedly those of the four hostages, and indeed, the Muftis didn’t say that there was. The unbelievers are “the most vile of created beings” (Qur’an 98:6) and Muslims are directed to “strike terror” in them (Qur’an 8:60). How is what Hamas did not consonant with that?
Related: Former CAIR Official Says ‘I Demand Jihad,’ Calls for Killing of Jews
The problem with the West’s endless quest to find moderate Muslims who reject all such ugly and incendiary teachings is that it is doomed to founder on the fact that such teachings can be found in Islam’s core texts and central theological expositions. The moderates are therefore unlikely in the extreme ever to come riding in to save the day. We’d be better off looking at the situation realistically and coming up with a strategy that deals with the real problem, instead of continuing to rely upon the fantasy-based policymaking that has dominated the thinking on this issue since 9/11 and before.
Could the treatment of the Bibas family herald such a return to reality? Maybe. But what the Grand Muftis are actually doing, if the statements attributed to them are accurate, are trying to make sure that return to reality doesn’t happen.
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