World Famous Imam, Yale PhD Scholar: Beheading & Rampaging more Con than Pro

France in the last several days, prior to Nov 4, 2020, was struck with two jihadist attacks. First the French teacher Samuel Paty was beheaded for showing cartoons in a discussion about free speech, second three people in a church were killed, including an elderly woman who was decapitated.

Imam & Yale PhD scholar, Yasir Qadhi gave a lecture; The Islamic Ruling on Blasphemy (And Its Application In the Modern World). This lecture was uploaded on Nov 4, 2020. In this lecture he explains that wanton killing or rampaging is detrimental to the overall well-being of the Muslim community, even though it can be justified in Islamic doctrine. Imam Qadhi further explains that a minority Muslim community must not react as though it were in a majority.

The key point here he did not stand up and kill these people. He did not stand up and spit in their face. He did not take the sword out and do anything even though they are saying things about the Prophet PBUH…. There are another number of instances he becomes murtard [apostate] in Abyssinia. Nobody does anything to him. Obviously he says things that are un-Islamic. Nobody did anything to him because they’re in a minority situation. So from a technical perspective it is very clear. From an overall maslih and mafasid, you weigh the pros and the cons, the cost benefit analysis. It is self-evident, dear Muslims. If a Muslim goes and does this thing – goes on a rampage – what do you expect if this continues over and over and over again? There are millions, tens of millions, of Muslims living in these Western lands. What do you expect the governments are going to do? What is going to be the reaction?  Would you blame them if they kept on making our lives more difficult?… Have you ever thought to – rather than kill someone, to teach somebody about the Prophet PBUH? Rather than enact something that might be found in the books of fique [Jurisprudence]. I’m not denying that they are there… Who are you to do something that will bring about a greater harm to the ummah?  Is your love for the Prophet PBUH only manifest in your hating everybody else? Yes, sometimes punishment needs to be shownThis type of wanton bloodshed, this type of perverted vigilante justice, it does far more damage to the honor of Prophet PBUH then those cartoons could possibly do. Video

Shaykh Yasir Qadhi is a Pakistani-American Islamic scholar, theologian and preacher. Since 2001, he has served as Dean of Academic Affairs at the Al-Maghrib Institute, an international Islamic educational institution with a center in Houston, Texas. He also taught in the Religious Studies department at Rhodes College in Memphis, Tennessee. He is currently the resident scholar of the East Plano Islamic Center in Plano, Texas.

Qadhi has written numerous books and lectured widely on Islam and contemporary Muslim issues. A 2011 New York Times Magazine essay by Andea Elliott described Qadhi as “one of the most influential conservative clerics in American Islam”. Qadhi was previously affiliated with the Salafi movement but has since left this movement and now identifies as a Sunni.

Islam Q&A is an academic, educational, da‘wah website which aims to offer advice and academic answers based on evidence from religious texts in an adequate and easy-to-understand manner. These answers are supervised by Shaykh Muhammad Saalih al-Munajjid (may Allah preserve him)

Quraan: The Quraan says (interpretation of the meaning): The recompense of those who wage war against Allaah and His Messenger and do mischief in the land is only that they shall be killed or crucified or their hands and feet be cut off on the opposite sides.

This punishment is part of the Islamic shareeah which Allaah has prescribed for every time and place, not just for one particular country or period. Further reading

Capital punishment applies in the case of a person who meets any of the following conditions: 

1 – The apostate. The apostate is one who disbelieves after being a Muslim, because the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: “Whoever changes his religion, execute him.” Narrated by al-Bukhaari, 6524. 

2 – The married adulterer. The punishment in this case is to be stoned to death. 

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