DUBAI (AlArabiya.net)
Scholars and experts of an online peaceful Islamic movement have declared their readiness to debate with al-Qaeda’s second-in-command Ayman al-Zawahri, conditioning their call on his willingness to engage in a debate based on the true tenets of Islam.
Asskeenah (Serenity) is a group of imams and scholars, supervised by the Saudi Ministry of Religious Endowments and Islamic Affairs. The group has managed through digital debates to talk many extremists into abandoning their violent ways, both inside and outside the kingdom.
The proposed debate has to be based on the laws ordained by the Quran and the Sunnah (Prophet's teachings) and their interpretations by leading scholars of the early centuries of Islam, the group’s spokesman and director Sheikh Khaled Al-Mushawwah told London-based Al-Hayat daily on Tuesday.
Al-Qaeda announced earlier that Zawahri is willing to engage in debates with people or media outlets through the organization's website.
However, Mushawwah expressed his skepticism about Zawahri's statement: "Based on our experience with al-Qaeda, I doubt he is serious about establishing a dialogue with religious and political think tanks."
Mushawwah told the paper that the group welcomes any other means of dialogue if al-Qaeda members do not trust online communication.
"The security risk involved might not encourage Zawahri to take this step, but if he agrees we have an expert team of unbiased scholars and thinkers who will establish a dialogue based on Islamic law," said Sheikh Majid Al-Mersal, member of Asskeenah and the Interior Ministry's Advisory Committee for the rehabilitation of terrorists and the re-education of extremists.
Mersal added that the Committee held online and face-to-face debates with people intellectually much stronger than Zawahri and more zealous to fight under the banner of Jihad: "These dialogues yielded very good results, and that's why it is also important to talk to Zawahri."
Asskeenah has recently launched a huge digital library that includes the revisions of many of al-Qaeda's members who renounced violence in addition to 100 ideas that were confusing to extremists but were clarified by the group.
(Translated from Arabic by Sonia Farid). |
