Harut Sassounian
I recently came across an extremely significant Islamic document that
severely criticizes Turks for using religion as a cover to killing
Armenian Christians.
This rarely seen document is a Fatwa or religious decree issued in
May 1909 by Grand Sheikh Salim al-Bishri of Egypt, condemning Turkish
Muslims for massacring 30,000 Armenians in Adana, a major city in the
Ottoman Empire.
Sheikh al-Bishri of Al-Azhar Mosque, leader of the Muslim world’s
preeminent center of Islamic studies in Cairo, issued this Fatwa in
order to counter the decree issued in April 1909 by a Turkish Mufti
(religious leader), urging Turks to kill Armenians because “they were
against Muslims and God.”
Upon seeing a passing reference to the Egyptian fatwa on the
internet, I contacted Prof. Mohammed Rifaat al-Emam, an expert on
Armenian history, whom I had met during a recent visit to Cairo. Dr.
al-Emam kindly sent me the original Arabic text of this important
religious document, excerpts of which are presented below in English
translation for the first time:
“We have seen in local newspapers agonizing news and vile reports
about Muslims of some Anatolian provinces of the Ottoman Empire
attacking Christians and killing them brutally. We could not believe
these reports and hoped that they were false, because Islam forbids
aggression, oppression, bloodshed, and harming human beings — Muslims,
Christians and Jews alike.
Oh Muslims living in that region and elsewhere beware of actions
prohibited by Allah in His Sharia [Islamic law] and spare the blood that
Allah prohibited to spill and do not transgress on anyone since Allah
does not like aggressors…
Your duty towards those who are allied with you, who entrusted their
safety to you and who reside among you and next to you from Ahlul Dhimma
[Jewish and Christian minorities protected under Islam], as imposed by
Allah, is to uplift them as you would uplift yourselves, prevent them
from what you prevent yourselves and your kinsfolk, make your strength
their strength, make pride and prosperity out of your strength, and
protect their monasteries and churches the way you protect your mosques
and temples.
Whoever abuses their women, draws the sword on them, and oppresses
them contradicts Muslims’ pledge to Allah, which is the obligation of
Muslims.
Be informed that if what the public is hearing is true, then you have
angered your Allah and did not satisfy your Prophet and the Sharia. You
kept your Muslim brothers away from their religion, whose rejection
became hideous by this heinous act, violating what is forbidden, and you
let loose tongues of people ignorant of your religion to pronounce
hideous words against all Muslims.
Then, hear some of what your Prophet said about conditions similar to
what you are in today. He said: ‘He who kills an allied person [person
joined with Islam by an agreement in order to give help and support]
will not smell the fragrance of Paradise and if he smells it, that would
be at a distance of 40 years.’ He also said: ‘A person who rejects a
dhimmi [a person from Jewish and Christian minorities] will be whipped
with flagella of fire on Judgment Day.’”
This document makes it amply clear that the Armenian massacres of
1909 and the subsequent Genocide of 1915 were not the result of
religious conflict between Muslim Turks and Christian Armenians. The
Grand Sheikh of Al-Azhar rightly condemned the Turks for the mass murder
of Armenians, which was committed for racist Pan-Turkic — not
Pan-Islamic — reasons, along with the intent of capturing Armenian lands
and properties. The various Fatwas issued by Turkish Muftis (clerics)
were intended to provoke fanatical Turkish mobs to attack and massacre
innocent Armenians.
Sheikh al-Bishri’s 1909 Fatwa was further reinforced by the decree
issued in 1917 by Al-Husayn Ibn Ali, the Sharif of Mecca, ordering all
Muslims to defend Armenians and “provide everything they might need …
because they are the Protected People of the Muslims about whom the
Prophet Muhammad said: ‘Whoever takes from them even a rope, I will be
his adversary on the day of Judgment.’”
In 2009, when Turkish Prime Minister Rejeb Erdogan stated that
“Muslims don’t commit genocide,” he was only partly right. He should
have said: “Good Muslims don’t commit genocide.” The leaders of the
Young Turk Party who masterminded the Armenian Genocide in 1915 were not
faithful Muslims, judging by the teachings of the Quran — the Holy Book
of Islam. They were simply criminals who used Islam as a convenient
cover to carry out mass murder. The compassionate Fatwa of the Grand
Sheikh of Al-Azhar still rings true today as the Muslim world celebrates
the end of Ramadan.
"Asbarez," August 15, 2012
"Asbarez," August 15, 2012
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