The Fabricated Fatwa Of the Saudi Cleric: Zionist And Islamophobic Connections

13 January 2013

Assalaamu Alaikum (Greetings of Peace):

About nine hours ago I responded to an unfortunate report that was being disseminated through one of the online groups that I'm connected with. The report contained the outrageous claim that a Saudi cleric had issued a "fatwa" that permitted the rape of Syrian women by the so-called liberators of Syria. (That alone should have raised a number of red flags for any thinking person!)

My response was as follows:

This so-called "fatwa" is so bizarre, and violative of Islam, that I was immediately interested in checking the source. It should be noted that on the website where this is found there is also an editor's note (not included in the forwarded release) which reads as follows:

Editor's Note: Muhammed al-Arifi, the Saudi cleric in question has denied he issued the fatwa below. AlterNet will provide a translation of his statement shortly.

Now whether he issued this abominable opinion or not, I think it's important that when we send out such damning information (which for some legitimizes built in prejudice), we send out all relevant information.

It now appears, as I suspected, the fatwa story was a complete fabrication. For those who are capable of rising above their own biases or prejudices - esp. where it applies to the areas of religion and politics - allow me to shed a little light on the intrinsic nature of a fatwa. In order for a fatwa (a legal ruling issued by a qualified religious authority) to be LEGAL, it cannot violate the two major sources of Islamic jurisprudence: The Noble Qur'an and the Prophet's Sunnah (peace be upon him).

It does not serve the interests of justice, nor truth, for mediums that are supposed to be "progressive" to disseminate such uncorroborated and salaciously tainted "news and information." And to my Muslim brethren who are justifiable critics of some of the shameful teachings and practices that emanate from "Saudi Arabia," let us remember the mandate given to us in the Qur'an (via the following rhetorical question): Do you call others to fair dealing and forget to practice it yourselves?

I am personally not a partisan for either side in the ongoing Syrian conflict. I am for the people of Syria, and for the territorial integrity of that predominantly Muslim nation - and I don't see either of these interests represented by either side in this regrettable conflict.

What's right is right, and what's wrong is wrong; and the dissemination of what now appears to have been a fabricated fatwa is clearly wrong.

(See Ali Abunimah's timely and excellent blog release on the controversy below.)

El-Hajj Mauri' Saalakhan

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Blogs » Ali Abunimah's blog

How progressive AlterNet and Salon fell for "gang rape" fatwa peddled by Islamophobes

Progressive news organization AlterNet has fallen for and disseminated a story, pushed by Zionist, Islamophobic and Iranian outlets, claiming that a prominent Saudi cleric issed a religious edict authorizing sex-deprived fighters in Syria to rape women there.

Earlier today, AlterNet claimed:

A prominent Saudi cleric has issued a fatwa (a religious ordinance) that calls for the gang rape of Syrian women. Expressing frustration that the "warriors of Islam" fighting in Syria may be getting weary for the lack of sexual pleasure, the religious leader issued a decree that promotes hours-long "intercourse marriages."

The story was later updated to include a statement that the cleric, Muhammad al-Arifi, had issued a denial. But the story has – as of this writing – not been retracted ( see update below ), and even worse, it was picked up by Salon.com whose story has not – as of now – been amended with the denial.

Al-Arifi is an ultra-conservative Wahhabi cleric with 3.5 million Twitter followers and more than 1.4 million Facebook fans. He has been prominent in calling Syrians to join the armed opposition to the government of President Bashar al-Assad and demanded that other countries intervene militarily and send weapons to overthrow it.

Al-Arifi has openly engaged in sectarian incitement against Shia Muslims, for example in this video from February 2012, which has more than 1.1 million views.

The claim about the "gang rape" fatwa should raise immediate red flags. It is reminiscent of other recent shocking claims about Muslims that turned out to be libels disseminated by Islamophobic organizations.

These include a false story – disseminated credulously by LGBT magazine The Advocate – that a Muslim cleric had issued a "fatwa" declaring that sodomy between men was permissible if it was for the purpose of widing their anuses for the insertion of explosives to carry out "jihad."

There was also the libel of a Muslim "rape epidemic" in Norway that The Electronic Intifada debunked a year ago.

Al-Arifi's denial

الشيخ محمد العريفي يكذّب فتوى زواج المناكحة

A video posted on YouTube on 1 January shows al-Arifi ridiculing the supposed fatwa, saying such a thing could never be said by any "sane person" and warning that he knows of at least nine social media pages that impersonate him and try to attribute words to him that he hasn't spoken. He also said that such falsehoods were disseminated by stations – which he did not name – whose goal is to harm the image of Sunni Muslims.

Al-Arifi also posted a denial on his Facebook page and on Twitter.

Embedded rich on Twitter

The Twitter denial includes an image of a fake tweet al-Arifi said was circulating online, which was an obvious hoax because it contained far more than 140 characters.

Genealogy of the lurid story

The claim about the "fatwa" was made on Lebanon's Al-Jadeed channel (New TV) at least as early as December 29. Al-Jadeed does not provide any evidence of the "fatwa" or say when, where or by what means it was supposedly issued. As of now, no one has produced any evidence that the "fatwa" exists, which means that no responsible news organization should behave as if it does.

News of the "fatwa" was then disseminated widely on social media in Arabic, particularly by personas eager to discredit opponents of the Syrian government.

What is also interesting is how it traveled through Zionist and American Islamophobic networks to AlterNet and Salon.

Iran's English-language Press TV carried a report on the alleged fatwa on its website. However it is not the Iranian report that appears to have been the most influential.

Effort to discredit Syrian opposition

On 29 December a Twitter user called @Eretz_Zen tweeted the New TV video except now with English subtitles and a logo with the words "Eretz Zen" obscuring the New TV logo.

Embedded rich on Twitter

Zionist and Islamophobic connections

On 1 January the English-subtitled "Eretz Zen" video was embedded in a report on the website RadicalIslam.org with the headline "Cleric Issues Fatwa Allowing Gang Rape of Syrian Women."

RadicalIslam.org states that it is supported by the Clarion Fund, which several years ago distributed tens of millions of copies of a virulently anti-Muslim film titled Obsession: Radical Islam's War Against the West.

As Ali Gharib and Eli Clifton reported, Clarion Fund is closely tied to the Israeli organization Aish HaTorah, and the group is at the center of a web of ultra far-right Islamophobic, Zionist and anti-Palestinian organizations. One of its "advisors" has been notorious anti-Islamic and anti-Palestinian agitator Daniel Pipes.

Another key figure in this anti-Palestinian and Islamophobic network is Frank Gaffney, another Clarion Fund advisor. Gaffney's Center for Security Policy sponsors Latma TV, an Israeli "satirical" show responsible for producing virulently anti-African propaganda and disseminating the Norway "rape epidemic" hoax.

What's notable is that the RadicalIslam.org report uses the term "gang rape" which also appeared later on AlterNet and Salon.com. The term "gang rape" does not appear in the New TV report.

This is a clue that perhaps the story traveled from ultra-right-wing RadicalIslam.org to "progressive" AlterNet without anyone raising any red flags.

Indian website jumps on the bandwagon

Notably the AlterNet report links directly to an Indian website called Daily Bhaskar that also carries the "Eretz Zen" video.

Daily Bhaskar appears to be a website that habitually reports lurid and dubiously sourced stories of non-Muslim women being raped and victimized by Muslims.

Going viral

It's a telling sign of how deep and common liberal Islamophobia is that even progressives at AlterNet will believe anything they hear and not stop to ask a question.

What these repeated episodes show is that it is easy for many people to believe negative and shocking information about unpopular and disreputable figures. When the claims are lurid – especially involving sex and violence – they spread more rapidly. And when they fit multiple agendas – as in this case – there's apparently no limit to how far they can go. From Consul To Terrorist: The Only Faction Active oOn The Scene Because Everybody Else Has Left The Arena :: EsinIslam The Muslim World Portal For Islamic News And Opinions

From Consul To Terrorist: The Only Faction Active oOn The Scene Because Everybody Else Has Left The Arena

14 January 2013

By Abdul Rahman Al-Rashed

As soon as I heard the name Iyad Ag Ghaly in relation to the events in Mali I began to wonder if this could be the same man from the same country? Could it really be him? Iyad Ag Ghaly heads up the military operations of armed terrorist groups in northern Mali; whilst there was a man with the same name who served as Mali's consul in Jeddah. I called some friends and confirmed that Iyad Ag Ghaly is indeed the same man that I met at Jeddah's Hilton hotel less than three years ago.

We are facing a truly strange world where those who are legitimate today could be fugitives tomorrow.

At the time, I knew-from those who had dealt with Ghaly as a Tuareg tribal chief and diplomatic consul-that he was the best source to find intermediaries to negotiate the release of hostages taken in the Azawad region. Now, he is said to be commander of the Ansar Dine movement fighting the Malian army, as well as international French and African forces.

When I read a profile about him in yesterday's Asharq al-Awsat newspaper, I was even more confused, for this stated that he was close to Libyan dictator Muammar Qadhafi who reportedly sent him to fight in Lebanon. Yet, Ghaly only recently displayed extremist tendencies.

This kind of confusion and uncertainty has become quite common as shown by the emergence of extremists like Tarek al-Zomor and Mohamed al-Zawahiri on Egypt's political scene. So how did a man like Iyad Ag Ghaly turn from being a moderate Sunni Muslim to an extremist armed fighter? Is it rational to suppose that a man in his fifties, like Ghaly, should suddenly become radicalized? This is truly hard to believe. I sense that this may be some kind of political maneuver where politicians have pretended to adopt extremist ideologies in order to recruit impulsive youths. These politicians provide these youth with funding under the pretext of ?religious duty?, convincing them to sacrifice their lives for a false cause in return for a place in heaven! Since there is a general international lack of will to fight anywhere in the world, the French-alongside a few African states-will fight this war on their own before realizing that desert wars never end and withdraw. What makes matters more complicated is that conflicts that involve religious slogans and tribal powers can last for decades without any side being defeated.

Our problem with those who are keen on fighting these extremists, like the French today and the Americans yesterday in Afghanistan and perhaps tomorrow in Syria, is their inability to understand the fundamental nature of the problem. These extremist groups represent the smallest part of the equation; rather the greatest and most important challenge is to confront extremist ideologies. Had the West, as well as the Arab countries involved and other relevant parties invested their money and effort in fighting extremist ideologies, this crisis might have come to an end. Instead they spent billions of dollars on tens of thousands of soldiers, advanced weaponry, and combat drones managing to eliminate a number of Al Qaeda's leaders; however Al Qaeda's ideology remains the same and in fact continues to spread like a disease. Most people find it easier to jump to easy conclusions by laying the blame on one group or another like Sunnis, Shi'ites, clerics, or even religion as a whole; however all these groups were present prior to this and were never a source of trouble.

We are living in a different world in which political powers are establishing and nourishing extremist ideologies and generations. These politicians have the project, the expertise, and the will to propagate such extremist ideology and they are practically immune to punishment because the wrong parties are always held accountable. Who could have imagined that Mali would become an international battlefield after Afghanistan? The West is repeating the same mistake in Syria by allowing it to fall prey to extremists who are emotionally manipulate the general public under the pretext that they are their only source of salvation from the tyranny of the Assad regime. In reality, they are the only faction active on the scene because everybody else has left the arena.

Al Rashed is the general manager of Al -Arabiya television. He is also the former editor-in-chief of Asharq Al- Awsat, and the leading Arabic weekly magazine, Al Majalla. He is also a senior Columnist in the daily newspapers of Al Madina and Al Bilad. He is a US post-graduate degree in mass communications. He has been a guest on many TV current affairs programs. He is currently based in Dubai.

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