Talking to the NYU Community
By Reed Mercado & Yalda Jamal

Muslim Scholar and assistant professor of Islamic Studies, Bernard Haykel shared his views as a panel member in a "Why September 11?" discussion forum sponsored by the Middle Eastern Studies Department.

According to Professor Haykel:

• The war America is engaged in after the attacks on the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and Pennsylvania is a war for the hearts and minds of average Muslims around the world.
  
  
• Bin Laden is falsely claiming to represent Muslims and their grievances by using the word "jihad" (holy war).
  
  
• Bin Laden has acted against the tenets of Islam and can be ostracized from the community of believing Muslims.
  
  
• Bin Laden's barbaric violence cannot be linked to jihad for six reasons.
  
  First, individuals and organizations cannot declare a jihad, only states can.
  
  Second, one cannot kill innocent women and children when conducting a jihad.
  
  Third, one cannot kill a Muslim in a jihad.
  
  Fourth, one cannot fight a jihad against a country in which Muslims can freely practice their religion.
  
  Fifth, Prominent Muslim jurists around the world have condemned these attacks and their condemnation forms a juristic consensus against Bin Laden's actions.
  
  Lastly, the welfare and interest of the Muslim community is being harmed by Bin Laden's actions and this makes them equally un-Islamic.
  
  
• Muslims love America. Seven million Muslims live in the US and like many others around the world clamor to obtain visas for the US. Yet what many Muslims resent about America are American foreign policies towards Iraq, Iran, Israel/Palestine and America's support of corrupt and authoritarian regimes all over the Muslim world.
  
  
• The most effective response to punishing Bin Laden is not bombing Afghanistan, the poorest country in the Islamic world, but rather attempting to ostracize Bin Laden from the Muslim community. Bombing Afghanistan would result in a public relations disaster and give Bin Laden exactly what he desires: to die a martyr and to have the American image tarnished in the minds of ordinary Muslims.
  

  

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