Abdul Rawoof Ateeq's video: Who was Osama bin Laden Al-Qaeda is based on Misprint Mardin Fatwa of Ibn Taymiyya S Hamza Yusuf

The problem is not extremism. Extremism is a human problem, but it's always been there and it will always be there. The problem is violence in a civil society and this is what we need to address the problem of violence. And at essence Islam is an ideal religion, it is a peaceful tradition. Our Prophet was not a war-monger. He did not like war, he disdained war. He said never hope to meet your enemy, but if you are forced to meet them, be brave in battle. He prohibited, the killing of civilians, the killing of women and children. The only time you can is when she's a competent fighter on the other side, the Maliki jurists were so troubled by the hadith they said, "If you see a woman on the battlefield run away from her." Because they did not want you to fall under that hadith. Because its a mutawatir hadith, a factual hadith that has the same strength as a verse in the Quran. Now I want to close and end this by saying one of the greatest problems we have are what I call 'shaykh googles'- weekend bookies. We have now a loss of authority in our tradition. Some people called me up and asked me, "What do you think about Sheikh Usama bin Laden?" And I just said, "First of all, what do you want from the question? If I say, 'Oh he's a great guy' I'll be in Guantanomo Bay tomorrow? Is that the idea? Or do you want me to say he's terrible." But who made him a sheikh? Who made him a sheikh? Usama bin Laden is an accountant. And Ayman al-Zawahiri was a paediatric surgeon and these people are giving fatwa from caves in Afghanistan to kill innocent people. Now their fatwa is based on a famous fatwa from Mardin. The fatwa that killed Anwar Sadat was the same fatwa. My shaykh and teacher Abdullah bin Bayyah recently had a conference in Turkey in the city of Mardin where the fatwa was addressing the issue in that city. The fact the ruler had citizens who were Muslim but was not applying Islamic law and was under the influence of the Mongols who were not Muslim at that time. He was asked is this an abode of war or an abode of peace? He said, "It's neither one or the other, its a hybrid because it doesn't have the qualities of an abode of war and it doesn't have the qualities of an abode of peace." Then he said something very interesting, he said, "Therefore, the believer should be treated in accordance with the fact he's a believer, and the disbeliever should be fought. Yuqatillu khariji min shay ? The disbeliever should be fought because he's left the Shariah as he deserves to be." Now, shaykh Abdullah bin Bayyah said, when that fatwa was read in Mardin he said, "That can't be right." The ulema that were in the audience, some of whom were the leading ulema in the Muslim world said, "Sheikh don't change the fatwa. It's Shaykhul Islam's fatwa, we can address the problems of the fatwa, but don't change the fatwa." Shaykh Abdullah bin Bayyah said, "No, something is wrong with that text, it doesn't work in the Arabic language like that." When he got back to Jeddah, he went to another text, and found that it did not say, 'the one who left the shariah should be fought,' it actually said, instead of yuqatillu it said, yu'amalu- he should be treated in accordance with him being a disbeliever. In other words, there are many rules related to a disbeliever. Then he asked for the oldest copy of ? Maktaba in Damascus and it came back saying, in fact, he should be treated, not killed or fought. That fatwa was published a hundred years ago and its been replicated in countless editions of these fatwas saying that he should be fought. That is the basis of Abdul Salam Farraj's fatwa to kill Anwar Sadat--it was the basis of bin Laden's fatwa to kill the Americans, and also to overthrow the House of Saud in Saudi Arabia. It's a misprint. They based an entire philosophy on a misprint in a text that occurred a hundred years ago. This is the crises of our community, the crises of authority, who can read these texts and who can determine what they mean.