Egypt’s top cleric has said Palestinian suicide bombers are martyrs even if attacks on targets like Jewish settlements inadvertently kill women and children, Egypt's official news agency, Middle East News Agency (MENA), reported on Thursday.
Sheikh Mohamed Sayyed Tantawi, grand sheikh of Cairo's al-Azhar mosque and university, stated the bombers were defending their people's dignity but should not intentionally target "the weak."
"Whoever blows himself up among aggressors who wreck houses and kill men, women and innocents and who violate the dignity of our brothers in Palestine...is a martyr because he blows himself up in the midst of an enemy who is raping his land, violating his dignity and killing people," Tantawi asserted.
In the latest suicide bombing, a Palestinian killed three Israeli civilians on Thursday afternoon when he blew himself up in Jerusalem.
The Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades claimed responsibility for Thursday's attack, which the Palestinian leader, Yasser Arafat condemned.
"Suppose he (a bomber) is in a settlement, a Jewish settlement, and it is proven that there are aggressors there, and he blows himself up in this settlement and kills men, women and children. He is also a martyr," Tantawi said.
"What does he do?... He is not able to differentiate between them," he added.
But Tantawi said suicide bombers should not intentionally blow themselves up "among the weak" because this was incompatible with manhood and against Islamic law. (Albawaba.com)
© 2002 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
