A two-day conference convening in Mardin over the weekend tackled the problem of violent extremism perpetrated by Muslims through the re-evaluation of a centuries-old Islamic legal verdict by contemporary Muslim scholars.
Influential names such as Bosnian Grand Mufti Dr. Mustafa Ceric and renowned sheikhs Abdallah Ibn Bayyah and Habib Ali al-Jifri were among the speakers at the academically minded “Mardin: The Abode of Peace� summit held at Artuklu University. The subject at hand was a well-known legal verdict, or fatwa, issued by famous Islamic scholar Sheikh Ahmad Ibn Taymiyyah in the 14th century concerning Mardin, and it was expected that upon the end of the summit, after Today's Zaman went to press, the “Joint Mardin Declaration� would be signed by the participating scholars to denounce the misinterpretation and abuse of such fatwas.
The fatwa has been used by some extremist groups to justify acts of violence, rebellion and discord. Ibn Taymiyyah’s “Mardin fatwa� addresses the question of whether the city -- in his time ruled by the Mongols, who were nominally Muslims but committed atrocities that some claimed cast doubt over their status as such -- fell into the classical categorization of either dar al-harb (abode of war) or dar al-Islam (abode of Islam). The answer to this question was of critical importance when it came to the issue of jihad as warfare, including the determination of legitimate vs. prohibited targets.
During the conference’s plenary session on Saturday, Mardin Mufti Mehmet Kızılkaya emphasized that no matter how great, no Islamic scholars were higher in standing than the Prophet Muhammad. “The Prophet brought peace,� he said, noting the good relations maintained amongst Muslims, Christians and Jews during that era. The works of Ibn Taymiyyah are in part a product of his experience, Kızılkaya said, which included the witnessing of Mongol atrocities, sieges and long periods of imprisonment. “Ibn Taymiyyah was exceedingly clever, a genius, but he lived in tempestuous times,� he said. “We now live in a globalized world.�
In sessions later Saturday and on Sunday, however, scholars moved the discussion away from the chaotic context in which the Mardin fatwa and others like it were produced, instead focusing on the misuse of such texts not due to contextual incongruence but rather interpretations and readings that are just plain wrong. Experts on Ibn Taymiyyah’s work stressed that they must be read both properly and together with legal opinions issued by his contemporaries. They also stressed that the fatwa did not designate Mardin as an abode of war legitimizing armed conflict, rather asserting that non-Muslims needed to be taken care of as opposed to attacked.
Speaking to Today’s Zaman in an interview, conference speaker Dr. Ahmet Özel of the İstanbul-based Islamic Research Center (İSAM) said that the conference and declaration would probably speak more to the Western public than the Muslim world.
Commenting on the choice of Mardin and Turkey as the venue for the conference, he said that outside of the obvious connection between the fatwa of Ibn Taymiyyah and the city of Mardin, “since the advent of Islam here, Mardin has been a place where members of different religions, cultures, ethnic groups have lived together. In Mardin today, Turks, Arabs and Kurds live together; there are Muslims, Syriacs and Yezidis here. Mardin is a symbolic city of peace.� He added that Turkey was in the spotlight both throughout the Arab world and in the West due to its recent roles in regional politics, making it a prime venue to release such a message.
The conference was sponsored by the Global Center for Renewal and Guidance (GCRG) and Canopus Consulting, independent Muslim NGOs that focus on education and research.
ROBERTA DAVENPORT - MARDIN
-- with input from todayszaman.com